She pulled out their clothes, opening the door of the vehicle to lay them across the seat instead of on the wet, chilled ground. Once she’d covered all the good parts and was guiding the other bear around to the back of the vehicle, he shifted and dressed.
When Mallory next stepped into view, fully dressed, a scrawny young woman stood next to her, the borrowed clothes obviously too big for her form. She hovered next to Mallory while tossing Remy defiant looks.
She had curly dark hair, her skin was topaz, and her eyes were paler than Mallory’s, more gray than blue. She was going to be a knockout when she grew into her gangly arms and legs and filled out a little. At the moment, though, she was practically a child with only hints of the woman she’d eventually become.
“Alaina, this is Remy,” Mallory said, waving at him.
Alaina nodded but made no attempt to shake hands or move any closer to him. In fact, she looked as though she was ready to flee at any provocation.
“What happened?” he asked. “Who has you running scared?”
She glanced at Mallory. The two women had managed to bond in a very short period of time.
Yeah, Remy was jealous. He’d been waiting four long years to bond with Mallory.
“It’s okay,” Mallory soothed. “We’re on your side.”
Did she even know what happened?
Alaina’s gaze kept darting around, like she was afraid someone was about to jump out from behind a tree. “Can we get out of here first? I—this place makes me uncomfortable.”
“Yes, of course,” Mallory said without pause. “Get in.”
Before Remy could offer her the front seat, Alaina dove into the back. Remy wasn’t exactly keen to have his back to the girl, although since she’d been in bear form when they came across her and Mallory had loaned her clothes, he was more than reasonably confident she did not have a weapon she could use against him.
With a little maneuvering, Mallory turned the vehicle around, heading away from pack land. No one spoke for long minutes that felt like a damn hour, until Mallory came to a stop at the main road that would take them back to Duluth if they headed south, or even deeper into the middle of nowhere if they went north.
She turned south.
“Okay, start talking. What happened back there? Why were you running like your ass was on fire?” Remy asked.
Alaina wrapped her arms around her middle and stared out the side window. Several heartbeats passed. Finally, she spoke.
“I killed the pack master’s brother.”
Well, hell. That was supposed to be Remy’s job.
ChapterFour
Mallory clenched the steering wheel, staring straight ahead as she drove over the bridge that intersected a narrow part of the lake. They were heading back to Duluth, mostly because it was the closest human-populated area where they could feel reasonably safe until they figured out what the hell to do.
Alaina killed the pack leader’s brother.
Deke. His name was Deke. Even in her head, Mallory hadn’t liked to refer to him by name. It humanized him, and he didn’t deserve anything but her deep-seated hatred.
Remy was half turned around in his seat. “Why?” he demanded, but Mallory knew. And honestly, so did Remy, but unlike her, he probably needed to hear it out loud.
The justification.
Did that make them bad people, that they were seeking justification for murder?
Through the rearview mirror, Mallory watched as Alaina swallowed thickly and licked her lips, her gaze landing anywhere but on the other two individuals in the vehicle with her.
“He…did things,” she forced out. “Tried. With my best friend.”
Oh God. How many years had it been since he did the same thing to Mallory?
“She was afraid to tell the pack leader, since it’s his brother and all. Plus, the pack leader is kind of a dick.” She thrust her chin, like she was challenging them to say otherwise.
