swept through her. Fear for him. It sobered her, had her voice dropping and losing its bite as she focused on him. “I came to see Saint.”
“Come to finish him off?” Knox moved into the path of her gaze and she did growl at him now.
“No,” she bit out, anger blazing through her, quickening her blood as she faced him, as the need to fight that she had felt yesterday when Saint had been battling the cougars rose again, making her want to lash out at Knox and Lowe. “I just need to know if he’s all right.”
Lowe scowled at her and stepped aside, coming to stand beside his twin as he folded his arms across his chest, forming a wall with Knox. She growled again as she took a step forwards, aiming to go around him, and both males countered her, making it clear they weren’t going to let her past.
She ignored Knox and looked at Lowe, sure he would be more reasonable than his twin. It took all of her will, but she wrestled the urge to fight into submission, calmed her instincts and gentled her tone, keeping the bite from it.
“Please. I just want to know he’s okay.”
Lowe’s blue eyes softened slightly, a flicker of worry shining in them as his brow furrowed and he opened his mouth to speak.
Knox beat him to it. “The state of our alpha is none of your concern, cougar.”
She looked between Lowe and Knox, and her heart grew heavier as she realised that convincing them to tell her how Saint was doing wasn’t just going to be difficult—it was going to be impossible.
Knox had convinced Lowe not to help her the night Saint had taken her, and he was going to do all in his power to stop his brother from helping her now. She couldn’t blame him. He was only doing his job as a member of the pride, protecting his alpha and keeping him safe.
“I know you’re just trying to protect him,” she whispered as fear and the need to see Saint got the better of her, merged within her to make her ache as it birthed despair that drowned out her anger, pushed her rage to the back of her mind and had hope leaching from her. “I just need to see him. If you won’t let me see him, then at least tell me he’s all right. I heard you. You said there’s something wrong with him.”
And her mind was running wild, conjuring images of him dying.
She couldn’t take it.
Lowe’s handsome face softened further. Knox’s remained hard and unyielding.
Holly sighed.
Convincing them was going to take more than she really wanted to admit, but if it meant she got to see Saint and see that he was going to be all right, then she would put it out there.
“I swear, I don’t want to hurt him.” She looked them both in the eye, let her guard drop and let them see that she was telling the truth, and how miserable she was—how afraid she was for Saint. She thought about him, thought about her time with him and what he had said to her, and tried those words on for size, and they felt right. “I don’t think I could hurt him.”
She really didn’t.
The thought of hurting Saint turned her stomach. The thought of him being hurt utterly destroyed her. She frowned as she realised something. She already had hurt him. When she had talked of his strength, when she had called him weak, she had only said those things to make the brothers leave him alone. She had done it to save Saint.
But it had hurt him.
She had seen it in his eyes.
“Bullshit,” Knox snarled.
Lowe grabbed his arm when he went to step towards her, fire blazing in his blue eyes.
“Give her a chance.” Lowe looked at his brother. “We’re not getting through to Saint, but she might.”
Worry twisted her stomach into knots again. “What’s wrong with him?”
Knox gruffly shoved his hands into the pockets of his heavy black winter coat. “His wounds are healing but he refuses to wake.”
“Maybe it’s just the winter—”
Knox cut her off. “This isn’t that. This is something else. Lowe thinks he’s given up.”
“Given up?” She looked at Lowe, those knots pulling tighter, making her queasy.
Because she had the feeling she was responsible for his condition.
Lowe nodded, his shoulders relaxing as he looked behind him at the cabin and then back at her. “I found him in the snow. I think he