Page 73 of Wolf's Chance

My burst of laughter surprised him so much that, for the first time, I saw the man beside me actuallyreactto something.

“Who in the name of God am I going totell?” I demanded. “Who am I going to tell who isn’t going to take my delusional ass right to the nearest mental health facility?”

“You’re not delusional,” he reasoned.

“Iknow that, but if you weren’t here with me and hadn’t seen it, would you believe me?”

“Yes.”

I scoffed. “No, you wouldn’t.”

“I would,” he admitted. “Because it was you.”

My tummy did a little somersault, and I tried to ignore the thrill his words created within me. He didn’t look at me, and I wanted him to. I wanted him to look me in the eyes when he told me such fantastical things as werewolves existed or that he would so readily believe me.

Believeinme?

“What do they want?” I asked, looking away. He confused me. Looking at him only made it worse.

“You?” He shrugged, drawing my attention back to him. “Me? Both?” Caleb turned his head, meeting my gaze. “I don’t know. I don’t know how they know about you.”

“You told your friend,” I said reasonably.

“He would never tell anyone who would want to harm you,” he spoke quickly. He started worrying his bottom lip. “He may have told the Pack Council.”

“Pack Council?”

Caleb grimaced and I realized he hadn’t known he had spoken out loud. “You have your governments, they have theirs.”

I stared at him, the weight of his words sinking in. My mind raced, trying to piece together how I had gone from a quiet, uneventful life to being hunted by something out of a nightmare. Shifters? Creatures that weren’t even human? It was too much, too fast, and yet here I was, tangled up in something I didn’t understand.

“You’re saying this like it should all make sense to me,” I murmured, more to myself than to him.

He flinched, just a small movement, but I caught it. There was something more he wasn’t saying, something that connected me to this mess. My heart pounded as I considered the possibilities, each one more terrifying than the last.

“They’re a secret, you say,” I continued, my voice rising with panic, not waiting for him to answer. “Why would my paintings matter? What aren’t you telling me?”

He kept his eyes on the road, his jaw tightening. “I don’tknow,” he admitted, his voice low, almost a growl. “But I do know that a woman like you shouldn’t be able toseeme, and that makes you dangerous.”

“A woman like me?” I hadn’t liked the way he said that, but then he said something even more preposterous. “Dangerous?” My voice cracked, it was so high. “Me?”

“You don’t know what it is you paint, Willow. You’re a threat to their way of life.”

The realization hit me like a punch to the gut. It wasn’tbothof us they were after—it was just me. I hadn’t been dragged into this world because of Caleb—a world of dangers and secrets I couldn’t begin to understand—he was involvedbecauseofme.

The fear that had been simmering inside me threatened to erupt. “You should’ve told me,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “You should’ve warned me before it got this far.”

“Maybe,” he said, and I could hear what sounded like regret in his voice. “But I didn’t know it would come to this.”

Anger and helplessness mixed within me, adding to my feeling of disorientation. I hadn’t asked for any of this, hadn’t wanted to be part of some supernaturalreality. However, it was already too late. I was involved, whether I wanted to be or not, and there was no avoiding the fact that my life would never be the same knowing there wereshiftersout there in the world.

“I didn’t think they’d catch up so soon. I’m not sure who’s following us.”

I locked my eyes on him, struggling to reconcile the man I thought I knew with the person now seated beside me, a man concealing secrets that exceeded my wildest imagination. There was a battle within me, torn between the desire toscream out and demand answers, and the fear of what those answers might reveal.

Caleb seemed to sense that I was struggling. “You okay?”

“No.”

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