Page 2 of Wolves in Love

“And you want to keep it that way.”

“Well, yes.”

If he wouldn’t shut up and let her sleep, she’d at least talk about what she wanted to. “How did the battle end?”

“David Youngless… you know him? Second in command to Kastner? Well, he set a fire around the perimeter of the battle.”

Misti sniffed. Yes, she could smell smoke and burnt wood. Strange that she hadn’t smelled it earlier. Her senses were not as sharp as they should be. The constant battles her body had fought recently were taking their toll on her. She might not survive the next one.

For a moment, she wondered what the point of it all was. Why bother to keep on fighting? So many lives wasted.

From here, she couldn’t see any of the other werewolves, but she knew they were nearby, gathering the dead, tending to the wounded. She should be helping, but she was injured herself.

It made her feel weak and helpless, and she despised feeling like that.

Anders shifted beside her, and she just knew he was going to bring it up again.

“Don’t.”

“You need to know.”

“No, I really don’t.” Actually… “Fine, I do, but not now. Just go.” Her head was starting ache almost as much as her back. Sitting wasn’t helping her any. With a groan, she struggled to lie down on her stomach. She crossed her arms beneath her head and used them as a pillow.

Anders lay prone beside her, his lips close enough to her ear that she could feel his warm breath. Her traitorous body shivered at his proximity. “I killed him to protect you.”

“Protect me?” she nearly shouted.

“Yes.” Anders stared at her. His eyes were the same as ever—full of expression and emotion and lacking any sign of deceit. His lips twisted into a nasty scowl, and he turned his head to the side and spat. “He sold us out. All of us. His own pack!”

Now Misti didn’t know Talon all that well. She hardly knew him. But his father, the alpha of the Wild Shades, insisted on the match before he would have his people fight against her Red Nightwalkers and Anders’s Shadowed Stars. Without their aid, she and Anders would have been hunted and killed. The ten werewolves sent to kill them Misti and Anders had been able to fight off by themselves, but if they hadn’t formed an alliance with a pack, the next set of werewolves would have been more than they could have handled.

That he had been willing to marry her when it meant his people would be going to war told her a great deal about him. The Wild Shades had been forced from the mountain that the Red Nightwalkers and Shadowed Stars still fought over. He had hoped to reclaim the mountain for his people, that they would be able to shift to their werewolf form without fear of humans discovering them.

“He sold us all out,” Anders repeated in a hushed tone that hid none of his contempt.

“How convenient,” she snapped. “No proof and no way for him to defend himself.”

She closed her eyes and pretended to sleep. Finally, after a few long minutes, Anders stirred and left.

A few tears leaked from her eyes. Why exactly she was crying, she didn’t know, but eventually, she cried herself to sleep.

2

Walking away was the hardest thing Anders ever did, even harder than killing Talon. He had known Misti was watching. He had known she would blame him. He had known she would hate him. Anything she might have felt for him would be gone.

Still, he had killed Talon. He had to. His hand—claw—had been forced.

He walked through the camp. The signs of battles had been mostly cleared away, but the blood-stained soil, the tufts of fur, and the smell of death lingered. Werewolves huddled in small groups, scattered here and there.

“We should return home,” one whispered.

“We never should have left,” another agreed.

“The mountain was lost to us for years. Why try and reclaim it now?”

We gave them an excuse. Kastner was waiting for one, and he got it. Did he realize his people didn’t care about the mountain like he does?

He didn’t trust the father. Hadn’t from the beginning. Kastner had been far too eager to help them, but only if Misti married his son. Would no one else marry him? Is that why?

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