at my fingertips.
“No need for that,” the new male says. “I can feel you building magic in the air, Whitlock.”
“How do you know my name?” I don’t ask with a growl or even like an accusation.
He taps the side of his head then says in my mind, “I can read minds just as you can.”
“Caiden?” Cam asks beside me. Wait. Caiden?
“Camden, you need to stop looking for me.”
“I wasn’t. I was just—”
“Yes, I know what you were doing. Believe me. I know everything you do, but I don’t want you coming for me.”
Cam growls as if he suddenly remembers what his brother and those he was with did to the Quivakond Pack. “How long do you expect me to let you live?”
“You don’t get to kill me. I’m immortal, but you already knew that. I’m sure Solomon Verascue told you everything he knew about me. That’s simply a fraction of it, though. And you don’t deserve to know the rest.”
“Why are you doing this?” I ask. Cam won’t. Not when he’s so angry and I can’t blame him for that. It has to be a shock to see his brother after a century has passed.
“Because all shifters need to die, maybe even my brother.”
5
Camden
“What the hell are you talking about?” I ask. I couldn’t have heard that right. Then again, this is my brother. The male who had been a child when he left our parents’ bodies behind. It’s been a century since then. I don’t know him anymore.
“You’re still alive because I haven’t let anyone else touch you. Yet.”
“You’re insane.” What gets me is that he looks so much like he used to. He’s grown up, of course. He’s matured. But I still see my brother in there. I still recognize the similarities between us.
He has my eyes—our dad’s eyes. Our dark blond hair came from our mom. But I’m bigger than Caiden. More muscular. Not that he’s a small male. He’s lean like a runner, where my muscles easily show in my arms, chest, abdomen, and legs.
“No, I’m the only one of us thinking clearly. You could join me, you know? Though I have a strong feeling there’s no way you will. You don’t see what’s wrong about being a shifter. You don’t understand how they’re the bottom of the paranormal chain.”
“You’re one of us, Caid, even if you don’t want to admit it.” I can’t believe, after all the time since I’ve seen my baby brother, this is the conversation I’m having with him. No long-lost reunion hug. No reminiscing or catching up on what we’ve been up to. There is nothing happy about this meeting.
“I was one of you but I am no longer. Somewhere in my body is my wolf. I don’t ever let him out. I haven’t in a very long time. I don’t need him. I’m more powerful without him.”
I shake my head. “You need help. Me. The pack. We can be there for you.”
“I don’t want anything to do with you or any pack,” he hisses.
“Caiden,” Whit says beside me and takes a step forward. I immediately reach out and grab his arm. His long-sleeved shirt covers his skin. But I might as well have burned him for the way he jumps. He focuses back on my brother. “I know what it’s like to lose your family. Losing both parents is not an easy thing to go through, especially when they are killed.”
Caiden cocks his head to the side. “You don’t know me. You may think you do, but you see what I allow you to and you’re much too polite to go digging around in my head. You have to learn to be tougher or this world will eat you alive. And you’re fae, Whitlock. You’re stronger than most paranormals out there. Some see the fae as only beings with mischief and magic, but I’ve seen the amazing things they can do. Someday someone is going to come along and take advantage of you and you’ll never see it coming. Kind of like my brother here.”
“What?” I shout. “I would never do that.” I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. Not to Whit. Never him.
“Not even if it were his magic that would help you find me? If his magic would help unlock the mystery of our parents’ deaths? I know how they died, Camden. I’m very familiar with their killers.”
My eyes widen. “Tell me.”
“No,” he says simply. “I have somewhere to be. This is the last time I’m going to tell you. Stop