Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,59
through the trees. “Who’s with you?”
“No one. I came alone.”
She slipped, and he grabbed her hand. She was galvanized by his touch. “I saw a wolf.”
“Then you were seeing things, darlin’, because we’re the only wolves here.”
They stood at the edge of the road. The garage door hung open, and Justin headed toward it.
“No,” she said quickly. “I found some things of my dad’s, and it just freaked me out. But I’m not supposed to go in there. My grandfather asked me not to, but I did anyway.”
“See what comes from not listening to your elders,” he chided her gently. “Your father is partly why I came. I didn’t know your pa was murdered. I didn’t know much about you at all, except that you were new in town and Cordelia liked you. I did a little digging, and then I got to thinking about you being changed and all, without a hell of a lot of guidance.”
He straightened the hat on her head. It was miles too big, and she could barely see beneath the brim. She clenched her fists, sure that she was about to burst apart — which was his point, she supposed.
“Digging,” she said. “Digging where?”
“Girl, you’re all over the internet,” he drawled. “Your daddy’s murder. Your mother’s death. Didn’t they teach you how to be careful about your information back in L.A.?”
“I can’t talk about this now,” she said tensely. “I’m supposed to be in my room. If my grandfather finds me out here, he’ll ground me. And then I won’t be able to come over for my ‘guidance.’”
He was silent for a beat. Then he said, “Being a female werewolf’s different from what I know. You were smart to stay away for a few days. That’s our rule, too. I think my uncle’s forgotten that we’ve got an extra complication here.”
If she could have spared any more emotions, she would have felt embarrassed. But she was already overloaded; she wanted him to go away. She wanted to go back into the garage and make sure she hadn’t been seeing things.
And . . . she didn’t want him to go away. She wanted help. She didn’t want to be so alone right now.
I can go to Trick, she thought. But she could tell him even less than she could tell Justin.
Cordelia. The right answer. Her friend. She pressed her knuckles together beneath her chin and exhaled, as if to get rid of how much she missed her.
“If we brought someone in to guide you — a female — she’d have to be high-ranking,” he continued. “Which would mean someone like Arial or Regan . . . or Lucy.”
She shook her head. “No way.”
“But—”
“Don’t be an ass,” she said hotly. She let her hands fall. “I have to go. Stop stalking me.”
“I told you to get used to being watched,” he said. “And don’t talk to me like that. Ever. Not even when we’re alone.”
“Or what?” She raised her chin. “You’ll hurt me?”
He pressed his lips together, and she wanted to slap that scowl off his face. Who put him in charge? Who could decide he was high-ranking?
“Go in the house,” he snapped. He handed her the flashlight.
“I have to straighten things out in the garage. By myself,” she added pointedly, taking it. She couldn’t leave the bullets out. Her grandfather would know she’d found them.
So what? she thought hotly. He doesn’t know.
Does he?
She quaked. “All right, then,” he said. “But this isn’t over. We need to talk.” He took his hat, and the rain blasted at the crown of her head.
Katelyn used that as her excuse to duck into the garage. And shut the door in his face.
The bullets.
Most of them were tarnished, but some were still shiny. She stared at them queasily, trying to convince herself she was in some kind of waking nightmare, then she picked one up, turning it over in her palm, studying it. Finally she dropped it back into the box, reached out and closed the lid.
Suddenly cold, she wrapped her arms around herself and thought about the scratch marks on her grandfather’s back, her fears that they had been made by a werewolf.
She thought about someone shooting at her in the forest.
“No way,” she said aloud.
After she stowed the bullets and tried to replace the tape, she hovered on the threshold of the garage and tried to pick out Justin from the shadows. It weirded her out that he was there.