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“It’s alright.” Shaw’s voice sounded anguished, but I couldn’t figure out why. His hand clasped my shoulder, and for a second claws seized me from the darkness like a monster, and then I realized it was my brother trying to comfort me. “Come out of it. It’s all right. We’ll find another way to help Amelia.”
Someone was coming down the stairs.
The light illuminated them briefly. An attractive older woman with auburn hair pulled back into a ponytail carefully navigated the steep, high steps, carrying a tray of food. Her nose wrinkled as she came down the final few steps. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather be in the house?”
“No one should see me like this.” Nathan’s voice was a rasp, but I still shuddered hearing it, no matter that he was now weak. “It would be bad for the pack.”
“I understand.” She set the tray down for him. And hesitated. “What else can I bring you?”
“Besides Amelia?”
Her nose crinkled slightly at Amelia’s name. “I tried texting Rose, but she’s not texting me back. I can’t find it withfind my phoneor use the tracking software. Judging from the key logging software, it’s not in use at all.”
How could she betray Amelia like this?
Then very question that I had came out in Nathan’s voice. “Why do you hate your own daughter so much?”
“I don’t hate her.” She hesitated. “She’s not mine with my husband. My husband’s been dead a long time now, but he was the one I loved…”
“If you loved him so much, how come you had another man’s child?” Nathan did math on his fingers. “Wouldn’t you have been married before Amelia was born?”
“Yes.” Her voice came out as a whisper. “I didn’t choose to have her.”
“Tell me,” he pressed.
She shook her head.
“I’m still your alpha.”
She turned her back on him and headed for the stairs. The next second, he sprang from the bed and pressed her against the wall, his hands wrapped around the nape of her neck, slamming her forehead into the wall. She let out a cry.
“If you think about betraying me,” he said quietly into her ear, “I’ll gut you. But if you will work with me, your place in this pack will be assured. You’ll have a good life.”
“I understand,” she whispered. “I’ll find a way to help you. To bring her back.”
The rage that washed over me made the world red for a second, and when I opened my eyes, I was back in the peace of the woods. Birds sang overhead. My brother’s worried gaze met mine.
“Do you think Amelia would mind if we killed her mother?” I asked, then shook my head, shaking the darkness away. Shaw grinned, as if he appreciated the rare moment of bloodthirst, and I rushed to explain why. “No. I don’t mean that. But Nathan is alive, and Amelia’s mother is helping him.”
“Well,” Shaw said, his jaw tight. “We can fix that.”
I’d been a pacifist a long time, and I didn’t want to hurt anyone.
But I would kill for Amelia.
CHAPTER7
Wolf
The alpha’sclaws had cut deep.
I’d like to think that I’d hurt the other bastard just as much as he’d hurt me. Most importantly, I’d scared him away from the girl, and now she was free. Out in the big world somewhere.
She’d better run far and she’d better run fast.
I built the campfire up. Going to the wreckage of the house behind me, I grabbed another plank of half scorched wood and dropped it into the fire. Then I set the brand into the hot embers, where it hissed for a split-second before it began to heat.
Dread twisted in my gut at the thought of what I would have to do, but the wounds were bleeding freely and I couldn’t go back to the base like that. It was too dangerous for me and for the vamps.
