Robyn brushed her hands down the front of the black wool coat she’d borrowed from me. “I think you’re going to have to burn this. And not just to get rid of evidence.”
“Fortunately, Justus has a fireplace.”
For a while, I dug in silence, except for the thunk of the shovel into the soil and the chorus of crickets. Robyn stared at the blanket-wrapped bundle, and she was quiet for so long that I started to worry.
“You okay?” I finally asked, wiping a thin sheen of sweat from my forehead, in spite of the cold.
“Is this what would have happened to me, if I hadn’t survived scratch fever?” Her voice sounded strained. “Would Jace and Abby have buried me in an unmarked grave in the woods where I died?”
“You didn’t die.”
“But if I had?”
She was going to make me say it. “If you’d died, then yes. They would have done the best they could by you, which probably would have meant digging two feet deeper than the six-foot hole I’m digging for Ivy.” I’d never had to dig an entire grave on my own. In the past, I’d had enforcers with shovels of their own to help. The work wasn’t difficult, with a shifter’s strength. But it was tedious.
“What about her family?” Robyn asked. But what she really wanted to know about was her own family, in the event of that hypothetical death. “They’ll never know what happened to her, will they? She’ll just be…gone.”
“With any luck, yes.” I pushed the shovel into another clump of packed earth and wrenched more dirt loose. “At least this way, they can hope she’s still alive somewhere. Isn’t that better than knowing how she died?”
“No.” Robyn didn’t hesitate. “False hope is never better.” She stood and brushed dirt from her pants and the back of my coat. “Here, let me dig for a while.”
“No need. I’m nearly done.”
“I’m bored.” She took the shovel from me, and after five minutes of watching, I was ready to pull clods of dirt from the earth by hand, just to have something to do.
“Why don’t you see if there’s anything to drink in the cabin?” she said when she noticed me fidgeting.
“Thirst-quenching or recreational?”
“Thirst-quenching.” She pushed hair from her face and left a smear of dirt across her forehead. “You know. Because of all the shoveling.”
“I’m on it.” I circled to the front of the cabin and was pleased, when I stepped inside, to find that the smell of decay had faded significantly with the removal of Ivy’s body.
The refrigerator held nothing but an out-of-date box of baking soda, and the cabinets were empty, so I grabbed the empty water bottle from my backpack and refilled it from the sink. I was halfway to the door again when I heard a scream and a thud from outside.
Alarm raised every hair on my body. Pulse pounding, I raced down the front steps and around the small cabin, then past the shed, where a growl clawed its way up my throat from my gut.
Robyn lay pinned to the ground by a large shifter with his front paws on her shoulders, his muzzle inches from her neck.
His head snapped up when he heard me, and his gaze met mine. A low growl rumbled from his throat.
I skidded to a stop in the dirt, my hands up to show him I meant no harm, still holding the water bottle. I knew with one look at him that this cat wasn’t Justus. There was no recognition in his gaze.
Shoving down the fury raging inside me at the sight of Robyn in danger, I spoke in a low, even voice to keep him calm. “Hey. It’s okay. We’re not here to hurt you, and we don’t want anything.”
He continued to growl, but softer than before.
“My name is Titus Alexander. The lady you have pinned down is Robyn Sheffield. We’re shifters. Like you.”
The cat’s head cocked in an oddly human look of confusion, and I took that as confirmation that he was listening and that he could understand me. Though something in my statement had clearly puzzled him.
“Smell her,” I said, but the cat only blinked at me. “Seriously, smell her.”
Robyn gasped when he lowered his muzzle to her neck, and for a moment I wondered if I’d made a huge mistake. If he bit her throat instead of smelling it, she was as good as dead.
If that happened, nothing would keep me from ripping him apart with my bare hands.
But the cat only sniffed her skin, then turned to me.
