He narrowed his dark eyes on Liam, brows drawn in tight. “Did someonepushyou?”
“No.” His scrutiny persisted.
“I swear it was an accident.”
He scrubbed a hand down his face, his palm scraping across his grizzly beard, and let out a bone-deep sigh. “Let’s get the cross-examination over with, Kolane.”
Liam nodded. “Living room. Now.”
Reluctance slowed my brother’s retreat but didn’t halt it.
When Liam pivoted toward the bed, I dug my heels in. “No.”
“What, no?”
“I’m not going back to bed. I’m going to the living room.”
“You need to lay down.”
“What Ineedis to be with my brother.”
A gruff breath escaped him.
“Allowing me to be there for him is the least you can do before you kick us out of the pack.”
“I’m not kicking anyone out of the pack.” His growl smacked against me, rough and hot, a tongue of fire against my icy forehead.
I raised my chin and fixed my eyes on his. “I meant, before you suggest weleavethe pack.”
His jaw clenched and unclenched in time with every muscle in the arm cinched around me. “Fine.” He scooped me up.
“I could’ve walked,” I muttered.
And I could’ve strapped you to the bed. Probably should’ve done it last night. Would’ve saved me a shit ton of trouble and a giant fucking headache.
My mouth parted around a shallow gasp as he maneuvered us down a very narrow hallway. “You’re such an alphahole.”
Never pretended to be anything else, darling.
“Don’t call me darling.”
He smirked as he stepped into a room filled with mismatched furniture ranging from a bottle-green corduroy couch to wicker chairs, to a foldable metal table and a ratty wooden chest covered in stacks of worn books.
A soft keening stole my attention away from the decor that could’ve qualified as anArchitectural DigestBEFORE-shot. Chained to the wall by a thick collar was Bea. Or rather, an animal that wore Bea’s heavy mahogany hair, defined cheeks, and honeyed eyes. The rest of her features were all wrong, elongated, furred, wrinkled. Her ears were peaked like a wolf’s but located where human ears sat.
Sure you don’t want to go back to bed?Liam whispered into my mind.
I nodded.
He set me down on the couch with such gentleness that it almost felt like he was handling Storm instead of me. And then, as though to make up for calling me trouble and a headache, he propped pillows behind my lower back and shoulder blades.
Bea had always been curvy. Now her ribs poked through the clumps of mahogany fur dappling her abdomen and her hip bones tented her sallow flesh. Had she consumed anything besides blood in the past weeks? My stomach revolted at the contemplation, but still I held her glassy, golden gaze.
My brother perched on the lip of the couch and buried his face inside his palms. I touched his knee to remind him that I was there. Right there.
He inhaled a long breath, then dropped his hands, bringing one atop mine and squeezing my fingers. “How did you all find out?”
Liam sat on the arm of another corduroy monstrosity, a shade of puke-brown that should’ve been outlawed. “Your sister led us here.”
