I froze and he spun to face me, a fierceness in his gaze that frightened me. “I can smell it on you now. Why wasn’t it there before? You smell like Run, and alpha, and home.” There was desire in his voice but not of a sexual nature. It was… something else. Something that was hard to explain. Like with Astra, like pack, like family.
“I was still figuring it all out for myself,” I told him honestly. “And you held a gun to the back of my head.”
His cheeks reddened and I wondered if he didn’t smell the Paladin on me because when I met him I was wearing the cuffs. When I met Astra, who could smell it on me, I wasn’t.
“My mom—”
He nodded. “The white girl Run loved. We all know the story. She got him killed.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he was right. If my mom hadn’t been with Run that day in the barn… he would still be alive, but that didn’t mean it was her fault.
“Why are you here? In myhome.”
He tapped the blade at his waist. “Sometimes I run errands for the vampires, do what I have to in order to keep our people fed.” Guilt layered thickly over me at that, especially when he saidourpeople. “They gave me a bounty. For you.”
The breath caught in my throat as my wolf surged to the surface, going semitransparent, and leapt in front of me immediately, before solidifying and giving Arrow a low, warning growl.
He watched in interest, but not shock at what my wolf could do, which meant he’d seen it before. On that girl my mom spoke about? The one who survived the fire?
“Relax,” he said calmly. “If you think I’m murdering my people’s last chance to claim an alpha, you’re crazy.”
My wolf relaxed and Arrow dropped to one knee, putting out his hand to her. She tentatively crept forward, sniffing his palm, and he pet her between the ears like you would a dog. She started to wag her tail for full effect.
‘Traitor.’
‘He’s nice. Smells like us.’
I sighed. “You weren’t surprised by her. Have you seen a split shifter before? My mom says Run told her about one.’
He nodded. “We had one for a bit… we call them wolf angels.”
Wolf angel. That was… beautiful and so much better thandemon.
He said theyhadone… for a bit.
All hope that I had that she was still alive, evaporated. “Did they… kill her?” I asked. Maybe the vampires got her too.
Sadness pulled at his features as he frowned. “She… killed herself. Being hunted your entire life can wear on you, ya know?”
I didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.
She killed herself.She would rather die than continue to be hunted. It was… a sobering reality I had never thought of. How many years could I live like this? Being kidnapped and then breaking free? Going to war over it…?
‘Don’t think about that,’my wolf snapped.
“Is it true you saved Astra? You met her?” Arrow asked, breaking my depressing inner monologue.
“Yes, but she saved my friend first.”
“Then what thesnakebiteare you doing here?” he asked with a hiss, and I tried not to grin at his choice of cussword. “Come home. Each day we bleed magic. We need a leader to anchor our people to the land lest we become human. Don’t you care?”
What?Human?
“I… don’t know what you are talking about.”
Arrow sighed. “Paladin alpha raised with city wolves. Perfect.” He rubbed his temples.
“Paladin alpha raised with humansactually,” I corrected. “I grew up a banished wolf in Spokane, Washington.”
