But those were small issues and I wasn’t concerned about the cost. I could afford whatever the price tag ended up being. After all, I had plenty of money saved up—one of the perks of having a virtually nonexistent social life.
I was going to find Reed.
And then I was going to make him explain to me in small words why he had known I was his soulmate for months and hadn’t done a single fucking thing about it.
CHAPTER THREE || REED
“Reed, wake up. We found him.”
My eyes snapped open and I lurched upright, bleary-eyed, to find Lee standing beside my bed. His green eyes were steady and he stood perfectly still, waiting for my reaction. The vein jumping in his temple was the only indication he felt any tension at all. His twin brother, Hunter, identical to Lee in every way, stood behind him, arms crossed over his chest.
“What are you talking about?” I demanded, groggy and trying to make my brain work. Judging by the darkness outside my window, it wasn’t even dawn yet. I had been asleep for only a few hours, most likely.
“The hiker,” Hunter said. “We found him. And it’s bad.”
“And is he—”
Lee’s mouth twisted into a grim line. “He’s dead.”
* * *
“Fuck,” I muttered, taking in the scene before me. My stomach plummeted. In the back of my mind, I had been holding out hope that maybe the hiker had been killed by bears, mountain lions, or wolves—the non-supernatural kind. But whatever hadkilled the hiker hadn’t been anything natural. “We’re going to need to call Dr. Langley.”
Dr. Langley—who everyone called Hattie, much to her annoyance—was the town’s doctor and medical examiner. Though she was human, she knew about pack affairs. She was instrumental in keeping our secrets.
“We ought to just bury him,” Lee said flatly.
“And have a cadaver dog find him?” Lacey demanded, stepping off the trail with a disapproving expression. I’d called her to join us. Unlike me, she seemed wide awake. “That turns this into a murder investigation.”
Her shoulder-length blonde hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, her icy Nordic features set in disapproval. And, though it was late May, it was still the early morning hours before sunrise and there was a chill in the air that only ever went away in the height of summer. Despite that, she wore only a pair of jean cutoffs, a neon pink bedazzled crop top, and sneakers. Wolves didn’t like too many clothes if we could help it.
She added, “Think about it, Lee. We need tostopwhatever this is from eating the townsfolk. If we’ve got tons of investigators crawling through the woods, we make it way more likely that one of them is going to get munched on too!”
“He knows that,” Hunter said, glaring at her. “But the more we involve humans in our business, the more likely we are to be exposed for what we are. Not human.”
He grimaced as he said that last part.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Lacey said, shaking her head at him. “We’re stronger, faster, and better than humans.”
“We might be stronger and faster, but we’re not better,” Lee and Hunter both said at the exact same time.
I should’ve been used to it by now—the twins had been with the pack for nearly two years—but it still startled me.
Lacey snorted. “The creepy twins strike again. Do you two share one brain cell or something?”
Hunter and Lee traded a pointed look at that.
“Or something,” Hunter muttered.
Lee didn’t say anything, but a dark expression crossed his face.
Then, when an awkward silence fell, the twins turned to me. Hunter raised his eyebrows meaningfully, an expectant look on his face. Lee, usually the more reserved of the two, studied me, his expression neutral, and fell silent.
Lacey followed their gazes and smirked at me, a steely glint in her eyes.
I realized they were all waiting for me. Deferring to their alpha.
Great. Just fucking great.
