Or something had silenced her.
I hazarded a glance back. Kelsey was nowhere to be seen.
Had this been a ruse? If they’d wanted to steal Kelsey, they could have done that without calling me here. It was possible that the brothers wanted to both kidnap her and try to poison me again, yet something seemed off. This plan didn’t make as much sense as their last attack.
The wind of the gathering storm overhead carried a scent to me from a direction that I didn’t expect. I didn’t look up. Instead, I fixed my gaze on the brothers. They’d stalked closer to me while I’d been looking in the other direction. When I growled, they stopped prowling.
I didn’t want to kill them. These hands were bloody enough. All Marcus and Jackson wanted was the freedom to be assholes under Alvin’s reign. I didn’t think they were killers. If they were, they would have seriously hurt someone by now.
That meant I could run them out of town and not worry that they might take someone’s life. I wouldn’t have that kind of weight on my shoulders.
Right?
It wasn’t that simple, but I didn’t have time to work through the tangled moral web gathering in my mind. One wolf leapt at me, his jaws wide. I glimpsed the small pouch of poison pressed against the roof of his mouth and tensed.
A blur of light fur darted out and slammed into the second wolf. While I caught the one leaping at me, Kelsey dropped the other to the ground. She didn’t try to pin him. Her form, even as a shifter, was smaller than the other wolf. Instead, Kelsey went for the wolf’s leg.
The sound of bone snapping made me cringe, but I knew what needed to be done. I tossed one attacking wolf into the other and sent them tumbling. While they were distracted with each other, I scooped Kelsey up from the ground and pulled my scales back into my body.
Before the brothers could untangle their limbs, I yanked my car door open and pushed Kelsey inside. She bounced onto the passenger seat, so I could take my place at the wheel. My claws slowly folded inward, but my scales remained as if my beast were still worried about the poison.
“Call several members of the pack when you want to get your car. Don’t come back here alone.”
Kelsey tilted her wolf head curiously, almost asking why I wouldn’t come back with her. I couldn’t tell her that Ness had been alone this whole time. This attack had been a distraction, and I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that Ness was in trouble.
Ness
The apartment was empty.I prowled up and down the hall, opening every door as I called out to Ryder. He still hadn’t returned, apparently. In the empty silence, I lacked direction. Aimless, I rocked on the balls of my feet.
Emotion swelled in my chest. It battered the inside of the ice wall. I pressed my palm to my sternum once again in an effort to quell it. If left unchecked, the repressed emotions might shatter the ice protecting me.
Well, if it wasn’t one thing, then there was always another. I couldn’t allow myself to get close to Ryder or else the ice wall might melt and leave me defenseless. Yet, if I kept myself shut down, the building emotions might explode from within.
I didn’t know how much longer I could keep my chin up. I’d been working tirelessly to find Alvin, all while trying to figure out what I really was. Sleep had eluded me, since I knew that Alvin could creep into my dreams and take over my body. Tense and on high alert, I hadn’t gotten more than a wink of sleep in the past days.
Unable to sit still in the empty space, I rushed outside and let my feet carry me in a random direction. Though I knew that I had friends I could rely on, who would welcome me into their homes with open arms, it wasn’t safe for me to spend time with them. I could feel the ritual arcana inside me like a ticking time-bomb.
If I hurt one of my friends, I would never forgive myself. I could go to Connor.
There was a safety in knowing that Alvin would never ask me to kill Connor, but I wouldn’t find the comfort I needed there.
There was one person I needed, and I didn’t know where to find him. More than once, I checked my phone to see if Ryder had sent me any updates. I’d thought about calling Kelsey to see if Ryder was done helping with her car. Maybe I should give her a call…
I could also call Candi to see how she was faring. Something about our interaction earlier left me on edge. It wasn’t just that she’d stabbed me, though that didn’t help.
What if Kelsey’s call had been a trap? If Marcus and Jackson had kidnapped her, they could have forced her to make the call and lure Ryder away from me. By himself, Ryder was stronger than either shifter. However, the brothers used dirty tricks. They’d poisoned Ryder once and nearly killed him.
My heart ached just thinking about that night, how I’d listened to Ryder’s heartbeat slowly fade while I pressed my ear to his chest. If they’d surprised him and poisoned him while I’d been aimlessly wandering around the apartment, I wouldn’t be able to go on. Guilt was one thing. If I failed Ryder, I knew I would fall apart.
But as I walked, a familiar car pulled up alongside me. Ryder honked the horn, startling me. My immediate anger washed away into relief once I saw his face. He rolled down his window and leaned out.
There were shadows under his eyes. Immediately, I knew something had happened. The hand hanging out the car window was speckled with small scales. As I watched, they folded back into his skin and vanished. I gave Ryder a questioning look because I couldn’t verbalize everything I wanted to know all at once.
He jerked his head, a universal gesture forget in the car. When I did as he asked, my lip curled. Jealousy hit me in the gut. My hound growled threateningly as another shifter’s scent reached my nose.
Ryder let out a breath. “Don’t worry. It only smells like Kelsey because I just finished dropping her off at Haylee’s place.”
That didn’t make me feel any better. I still had a million questions and no answers. But I couldn’t bring myself to ask any of them. Ryder didn’t belong to me. My hound’s sudden intense emotions were uncalled for. Though I should have apologized, I bit my lip to keep myself from saying anything stupid instead.