WhenKatlin'sparentsarrive,I quietly depart from the hospital. The sound of their sobbing follows me from the room as the three of them cling to each other. I shift when I hit the tree line. I need the run to clear my head, and it will only take me fifteen minutes to get home.
Still, I’m looking forward to a quick shower to wash the hospital smell off me. Walking into the kitchen, I open the fridge as my phone starts ringing. I swipe my thumb over the screen and put it to my ear.
“Hey, Felix. What’s going on?”
“Salena, where are you?”
“Home, why?”
“Don’t move. We will be there soon.” The line goes dead, and I frown at it.
What the hell?
Pulling the milk carton from the fridge, I open it and take a sniff. My face contorts as I gag from the putrid smell.
“Well, I can't use that,” I grumble. Looks like it’s a black coffee today.
I just finish putting my shoes on when there’s a knock at the door. I stroll over, flinging the door open, and steel myself to give Felix a stern talking-to.
I freeze in shock at the sight in front of me. My heart races as I look up at the towering figure with blonde hair and a thick, wild, untamed beard.
“Hey, sis.”
I peer down at the gun he has pointed at me, and my stomach plummets to my feet. “What are you doing?”
“You know how hard it’s been to get you alone?”
I ball my hand into a tight fist, my teeth gritted in anger. “What the hell, Samuel?”
He chuckles, a low and unpleasant sound. “I want what I’ve always wanted. What my brothers weren’t man enough to take.”
“You can’t take the pack from me. They won’t follow you.”
He cocks his head, the corners of his mouth curling into a cruel sneer. “They will if you’re a corpse.”
Is he serious?
What happened to him? Yes, he was always a little distant from the rest of us, but he was never a bad guy. We all used to be happy until Mom and Dad died, then everything fell apart. A sickening sensation fills me as I see the person my once loving brother has become. Now, as I look back, I realize that we never made any memorable moments together. My memories are of Kai and Felix. I recall how Samuel would always be off to the side, observing. I never thought too much of it growing up, but . . . was he always planning this?
“Kai and Felix won’t let that happen.”
Samuel shrugs, a wild look entering his eyes. “Then I’ll kill them, too. Dad should have left this pack to me. Not you. I didn’t go through all the trouble of poisoning them and planning that car accident just to have them hand everything over to you.”
I jerk forward, shock and hurt warring in my head and heart.
“What did you do?” I whisper in disbelief, my hands covering my mouth as tears build in my eyes.
I shake my head. I can’t believe it.
That my brother could be so cruel.
"Let's go!" Samuel barks, his fingers tightly gripping my arm as he pulls me out the door.
I pull back, ripping from his grasp. “You killed our parents?!” I think I’m in shock, because I can’t seem to get a grasp on anything, only his words reverberating over in my head. When he doesn’t answer and just shrugs, I ask the next question.
“Lola?”
Fuck . . .
