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Clawson looked me over and nodded in satisfaction.
Kyle, on the other hand, was demanding answers. “What the fuck does she mean by that? What the fuck was going on? Does she need to go and see a doctor?”
Clawson growled at my brother. “Surely, you hunters have put together by now that shifters go feral when they aren’t in a pack or are forced to go off as lone wolves? Something Tori clearly had to do.”
Baffled, Kyle said, “The wolves I’ve seen are always feral.”
Clawson snapped, “That’s because the hunters have probably driven them to that point by the time you see them. Shifters weren’t meant to be loners. We’re not geared for it. But with all you hunters on our asses, shifters have been forced to go on the run, leaving their support systems behind, or their pack members are taken from them. You’re creating your own vicious cycle of ferals, then holding them up as being the norm when they are the outliers.”
That shut Kyle up, and the sheriff returned to giving me his full attention. “You should go take a seat outside before she accidentally attacks your brother. I don’t want you living with that guilt on your shoulders.”
Softening at the sheriff’s concern for me, I nodded. He was right.
“It’s useless to try getting information out of him, anyway.” The sheriff glared at my brother as he continued, “He’s a blindly obedient hunter who would riddle you with silver bullets the moment he could if he escaped.”
Fuming, Kyle bolted upright, snapped the silver chains apart, and let them fall to the floor.
I gaped at him, and Clawson readied himself to shift. Neither of us could believe his strength. He was stronger than most shifters, and that worried me. If he was like that, did that mean all hunters were that strong? What would the weaker shifters like Diana and the elderly do against a hunter with this kind of super-powered strength?
“I could have gotten out of this pathetic, outdated jail and returned to my faction immediately after being brought in, but I haven’t bothered because I wanted to talk with my sister. I’ve been trying to track her down for four years, so you can butt out and get lost. Now that I know Tori’s okay, I’d like to continue speaking with her alone.”
The surprises kept coming. I was stunned by my brother’s revelation. He’d been looking for me?
I couldn’t let hope rise. If he had been looking for me, it probably wasn’t for a warm family reunion.
“What were you going to do when you found me? Was it only to get me to the hunters, or for something else?” I hated how small my voice sounded, and Clawson must have heard it because he moved protectively in front of me.
“I would’ve brought you back with me to the compound, but only because it’d give you a chance not to be a monster anymore,” Kyle said. “I would’ve set you free.”
I physically jolted as my wolf started howling in my mind. Clawson stiffened before me, his muscles tensing. His wolf was probably reacting the same as mine. What Kyle was saying was wrong on so many levels.
“I don’t know what you mean by that,” Clawson hissed. “Explain.”
Kyle’s stubborn streak returned, and he clamped his mouth shut. He watched me as closely as I watched him.
Frustration and exhaustion from the emotional rollercoaster that only family could invoke had won out, and I was throwing in the towel for this round. I needed to regroup and recharge to have the mental capacity to have another conversation with my brother.
“I’m tired and need to rest,” I said. “I’ll come back later when you decide to stop beating around the bush and can hold a reasonable conversation with me. And stop hinting at things that don’t make any sense.”
“Tori?” Kyle said, pleading.
“No. I’ll be back later.”
As I marched out the door, I heard Clawson ask Kyle if putting him in the cell would even be worth it. I didn’t hear Kyle’s reply. A part of me was hopeful that my brother did still care for me as his little sister. In his mind, if he was trying to fix me, even though I didn’t need fixing, did that mean he still loved me?
But what were the hunters doing? Kyle wouldn’t have wanted to take me back to the compound unless he was sure he could “fix me.” I doubted he would’ve put me in harm’s way if he hadn’t had a good reason.
Of course, I wouldn’t have believed any of that before this conversation. There was more to it, I was certain of that, and my brother keeping his mouth shut or only feeding me morsels of information would not answer my questions.
Frustration was controlling me at the moment, and I needed to get my mind off it for a while so I didn’t go mad.
Chapter45
Ridge
Needing to catch up on work, I decided to work from the manor. What was the point of being the boss if you couldn’t make the rules for yourself? More importantly, I couldn’t afford for people to keep coming and going as they pleased and distracting me while I tried to get things accomplished. In the end, however, I should’ve gone into my office because I was preoccupied.
Tori confronting her brother without me by her side had my insides roiling with anxiety.
