“Cheslem. What’s left of them, anyway.” I glance back at the bodies scattered across the clearing. “I’ve been hunting them for years. Looks like they’ve been hunting me right back.”
“Hunting you? Why would they be hunting you?”
“Because I killed their leader’s brother six months ago. His name was Lance. He was organizing the survivors, trying to rebuild their power base. My unit tracked him down and put him in the ground before he could finish.”
“Your unit.”
“Black Ops. Shifter division. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past ten years, Skylar. Hunting down Cheslem wolves and making sure they can’t hurt anyone else.”
She stares at me like I’ve sprouted wings and started speaking in tongues. “You’ve been... All this time, you were...”
“Killing.” I don’t soften the word. She deserves the truth, even when it’s ugly. Especially when it’s ugly.
Movement in the trees makes me spin around, and my body tenses for another attack before I can think about it. But it’s just wind stirring branches, nothing more. No reinforcements coming to avenge their fallen packmates.
Yet.
“We need to move.” I grab her duffel bag from the ground and sling it over my shoulder. “The two that ran will report back to whoever sent them. More could be on the way.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Yes, you are.” I turn back to face her, and whatever she sees in my expression makes her mouth snap shut. She doesn’t argue when I take her arm and start pulling her away from the carnage.
We walk in silence for several minutes, putting distance between ourselves and the bodies. My mind keeps circling back to what that wolf told me before he died. Rafe has been watching me for months. Waiting for me to come home. Waiting for me to have something worth losing.
The girl was a bonus, he said.Rafe couldn’t believe his luck when the lottery matched you.
Skylar jerks her arm, pulling me from my thoughts, and demands, “Let go of me.”
I release her arm and stop walking. We’re deep enough in the forest now that the boundary marker is well out of sight, but still too far from Silvercreek proper for my comfort.
“This isn’t just about me,” I tell her. “They didn’t come for me tonight. They came for you. The first wolf went straight for your throat while the others tried to keep me occupied. If Rafe wanted me dead, he would have had them focus their attack on me. Instead, they prioritized taking you out.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. I’m nobody to them.”
“You’re my mate. The lottery was public. The whole pack watched our names get drawn together. Rafe has spies in Silvercreek, and they reported back. He doesn’t just want to kill me. He wants to make me suffer first. And that means targeting you.”
“I don’t mean anything to you. You made that abundantly clear ten years ago.”
“Skylar—”
“No.” She holds up a hand, palm out like she’s physically blocking my words. “You don’t get to do this. You don’t get to vanish for a decade and then show up acting like you have some kind of claim on me. I’m not your mate. I’m not your anything.”
“The magic disagrees.”
“Then the magic can go straight to hell. And so can you.”
I deserve that. I deserve every ounce of her fury and more. But there’s no time to wade through ten years of accumulated hurt, not with Rafe’s wolves potentially regrouping for another assault.
“Listen to me carefully.” I stomp closer, and she holds her ground with her chin lifted in defiance despite the fear I can smell rolling off her skin. “Rafe will keep sending wolves after you because you’re a pressure point he can use to hurt me, control me, and draw me into traps.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“You’re the best healer Silvercreek has. Everyone says so. But healing and fighting are different skills, and Rafe won’t stop until he’s destroyed everything I care about.”
Something moves behind her eyes. The first crack in her armor of fury.
“What exactly are you proposing?”
