Page 46 of Teeth To Rip & Tear

I didn’t answer. Until that moment, I’d forgotten why I’d even gone to my store in the first place.

Melly’s face changed for just a moment. So quickly, it could have been a shadow.

“You know, your grandmother didn’t always know best.” She piped up. “She was tricksy, I’ll tell you that much.”

“My grandmother loved me.” I looked down at my hand. “She wanted what was best for me.”

“She sure hated Joel.” Melly hooted. “So maybe you’re right.”

“Joel’s dead,” I told her, describing the scene Wyatt and I had found earlier.

Melly blinked, unsurprised. “Of course, he’s dead. He tried to kill the Alpha’s mate. Ex-husband or not, he wasn’t long for this world.”

“The Alpha’s mate?” My nose wrinkled.

“Don’t think I didn’t see that bite on your shoulder.” Melly raised a white brow. “I saw how you and Dean were cozying up. He was the one that organized your protection.”

I wasn’t Dean Hart’s mate.

He would have told me.

Wouldn’t he?

“Oh.” I paused. “You think Dean killed Joel?” I shook my head, repeating the word no a dozen times. “Dean wouldn’t do something like that.”

“It’s Samhain,” Melly said ominously. “Besides, the wolves don’t belong to themselves. If they ever did.”

“You think Dean is my mate?” I perched on the other twin bed and fiddled with the threads at the edge of my sweater. “I’m a Weaver. I don’t think wolves and Weavers mix like that.”

Melly let out another hooting laugh, the sound so distinctly her that I’d recognize it anywhere. “You know better than that.” She waved a hand. “And I know what you and your grandmother tried so desperately to hide.”

“I’m not hiding.”

“You have so many secrets; your secrets have secrets.” Melly slanted a look my way; the old woman was shrewder than I’d given her credit for. Melly slapped her knees as she made to stand up, gesturing to the bathroom. “You should get some rest. I’m going to take a long bubble bath and watch a movie. No durrach or Fae Lord can enter this room without my say.”

I wasn’t sure how long I slept before the sound of claws against the glass window woke me. The sound was grating and painful. I sat up, startled, the room dark save for the moonlight filtering through the open drapes and the shadow of a wolf in the window.

I would recognize Kaleb’s silver coat anywhere. He favored his wolf form more than his human one, and he’d been a wolf when I’d first met him.

Kaleb’s orange eyes blinked at me from the shadows, his paws on the ledge as he stared into the room. I glanced over toMelly’s twin bed, but the older woman was nowhere to be found. Her travesty of a weekend bag was discarded at the end of the bed, but the bathroom door was open, and I was alone.

I’d been warned about Samhain when the veil between worlds was at its thinnest. For years, my grandmother had taken us down to the basement and bolted the iron door. She’d given me tablets and strange smoothies to drink, and I’d often slept right through the night like a dog given sedatives to deal with fireworks. My grandmother had always warned me that Samhain was a dangerous time for the Fae, but I’d never questioned her. Why would I? Grandmother Eva had raised me since I was a baby; she had been my teacher, doctor, and parents.

Kaleb watched me for the longest time as sleep made my thoughts sluggish.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed and padded to the window, still dressed in the clothes I’d worn all day—too tired to remove them. With a yawn, I pushed open the window, and Kaleb leaped inside more gracefully than I’d ever be able to achieve.

The wolf was eerily silent, watching me, as he spun on his heel before glancing at the door.

“You want me to come with you?” I asked, sleep clinging to every inch of my body.

In response, he padded to the door and lifted a paw, scratching the wood.

In a daze, I drifted toward the door, gripping the handle before I realized no symbols were painted on the wood. No incense or runes. The evidence was long gone if Melly had set a witch ward at any time.

Her absence was most damning, though.

I stepped back from the door. “I can’t,” I whispered, looking down at Kaleb. I was awake for the first time since seeinghim at the window, looking into his eyes and finding none of his signature far-away gaze. The dreamy ancient expression that lived one foot in the past and another in thought.

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