“But they will now,” I replied, just as sweetly.
She smiled that disdainful smile of hers. “The only person who can get a read on our whereabouts is in Boulder.Waytoo far to locate us.”
My mouth went dry because she was right. We were out of Liam’s range. But then I remembered my appointment at the spa with Adalyn. The second I didn’t show, she’d know something was wrong. And then my brothers would know, and they’d come looking, and they’d find my car parked in town, and they’d track my smell to Seoul Sister. Renewed confidence extinguished my flare of panic.
As though she’d caught on to my train of thought, the raised corners of Camilla’s lips flattened.
I turned my attention back to Miles. “Bea isn’t a prisoner, Miles, and Camilla would know this if she hadn’t fled with her tail between her legs after she gunned down the woman who saved your sister’s life. Did Camilla happen to mention she’s a murderer when she roped you into whatever little scheme you two came up with?”
Miles stiffened. Even the bags underneath his eyes seemed to firm up. He swung his head around to look at the blonde, green-eyed traitor. “What is she talking about?”
Camilla’s answer was slow to come, the same way her gaze was slow to lift from me and settle on Miles. “You want your sister back or not?”
He gave an almost imperceptible nod.
“Then just stick to the plan. Nikki’s your ticket to getting Bea released from her cage.”
“She’s not in a cage! She’s not a prisoner!” Losing my temper was probably not the wisest plan of action considering my prostrate posture, but I was a bargaining chip, and bargaining chips were useless dead. The conviction that neither of my captors was going to kill me gave my tongue wings. “Do you know the full story? Has Camilla told you everything?”
“She told me your kind imprisons and kills their human exes so your existence isn’t revealed.”
“That’s a lie.”
“No, it isn’t.” Camilla stepped farther inside the house. “I can list a whole bunch of humans who died unexpectedly around these parts over the years.”
She was bluffing. She had to be bluffing. But that was besides the current point.
“Bea’s neither Nate’s ex nor his prisoner. But yeah, she’s not supposed to leave the compound because, what she alsoisn’t, is human. Your sister, Miles, wanted to become one of us, so she asked a shifter named Lori to bite her.”
Miles’s eyebrows writhed, knitted, lowered.
“Except wolves can’t be made; they can only be born. I can prove it.” Camilla plucked one of Miles’s arms from their knot and raised it to her mouth, then sank her already elongated fangs into his skin.
Startled, he didn’t push her away. And then his eyes glazed over. Of course, she’d injected him with her venom to make him pliant. Camilla was a lot of things but unfortunately not stupid. When she unhooked her teeth from his body, he’d gone so limp I worried he’d collapse. But he didn’t. Just blinked at Camilla as though she were the most fascinating being he’d ever laid eyes on, while his blood dripped onto the floor beside my head.
When he finally snapped out of his daze, he snatched his arm up, cocooning it in front of his heaving chest. “What have you done?”
“I bit you.”
His eyes rounded in terror, and he backed up, hitting the couch and falling onto it.
Camilla smirked. “Chill, Miles. You’re not a wolf.”
“How—how do I know that?”
“Can you do this?” She rammed her hoodie sleeve up. Her fingers retracted until her hand morphed into a paw and yellow fur sprouted from her skin.
He blinked at her, no longer so enchanted, then squinted at his hand.
“See. Human. Just like your sister.”
“Miles, call my brother. Call him and put him on speakerphone, and he’ll confirm everything I told you.”
“Of course he will.” Camilla dropped into a crouch and patted my cheek with her bloodied fingers. “He’ll say anything to keep you on the line while he tracks his beloved sister.”
“Miles—”
Camilla slapped me, the violence and shock cutting off my breath. “If you want to save Bea, stick to the plan.”
