Page 39 of Season of the Wolf

My thoughts immediately went back to Liam, to the strange mood I returned to find him in today. It honestly put me in a funk, too, bringing out a depth of sadness I wasn’t sure most people were able to feel for another.

But I felt it for him.

His emotions, like always, were mine.

“Crazy stuff they’re talking about, right?” Nick aimed a thumb over his shoulder, gesturing toward the building where we’d just been informed Seaton Falls would soon be a town strictly composed of shifters. At least temporarily.

“It’s insane,” I concurred. At first, he smiled, but then it faded.

Quickly.

What was left behind was a tense brow and closed lids that hid Nick’s eyes from me.

I was just about to ask if something was wrong, but he spoke again, forcing the words from his throat.

“I’m sure it’s mostly a precaution, but still. It makes it all feel real, like it’s actually happening.”

He flinched a bit when he finished speaking, and I no longer had to guess if he was in pain.

My concern for him grew.

“Nick …” I stepped closer.

Maybe it was a headache, one of the ones that came on suddenly. This one seemed to have stolen whatever words he would have said next as he gripped his temples.

I stepped a little closer, and this time, I instinctively placed a hand on his shoulder, opening my mouth to ask if he was okay.

I didn’t get the chance. At my touch, he shrugged away like I had the plague. Like I had been the cause of all this.

I didn’t understand.

“Are you … okay?” It seemed like a dumb question as he began to recoil, inching away from me.

“You don’t … you don’t hear that?”

The question made me glance around, thinking I’d missed something. I paused, listened harder, and then looked him over again—the redness in his face, tension in his jaw.

“No,” I breathed, suddenly aware of a chill in the air. “I don’t hear anything.”

He stepped back even further, and instinctively, so did I. It wasn’t that I was afraid of him, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit my concern.

Considering our history, mine with his grandfather.

“It’s like … buzzing or … electricity,” he tried to explain. “And it’s louder than your heartbeat.”

That was something we’dbothgotten used to—his ability to hear my pulse racing like it was now. This new sound, the one that seemed to overshadow all others, driving him mad … I was as clueless as Nick was as to what caused it.

The hairs on my arms stood on end and I shuddered. This time it had nothing to do with the trace of cold air winter had left behind.

It was fear. I knew that feeling well.

My eyes shifted left and then right, taking note of who was still around, who might be able to help if things suddenly turned ugly. I accepted the fact that the event we both dreaded may finally be upon us.

Maybe this was it—the moment he could no longer fight his nature.

“I have to go,” he huffed, forcing the words out through clenched teeth.

He took several more steps back and I stared at his feet. The distance between us grew and I couldn’t explain why I felt relieved by that, relieved that someone I considered a friend was getting as far away from me as possible.

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