Page 47 of Wolf Hunter

An unspoken agreement between us keeps any of the three Holden boys from going into each other’s personal spaces. And it might have held, too, if not for how freaked out Tasha had been the other day in the hall.

An unmade bed stands pressed against the far-left corner with clothes strewn across the floor and on every available surface. The man seriously needs help. No wonder he constantly nags at me for a personal maid. Not that I’m going to hire one for him. He’s a grown-ass man who needs a lesson in keeping a clean space and how it can benefit his mind.

The drawers of his dresser dip open, with more clothes spilling from their depths. I cross the room, the wet and musky scents turning more mildewy and rancid. It’s disgusting in here.

The dresser yields nothing of interest, and neither do the side tables.

Not until I nearly knock an empty glass smelling suspiciously of Scotch onto the floor and find a secret hatch underneath the right nightstand. The cold feeling in my chest almost forces me out the door, but if I stop now, I’ll never get to the bottom of this and clear his name.

Pressing the button sees a series of locks disengaging and a compartment popping out of the side of the leg. It’s not big. Just large enough to hide a sliver of paper rolled into a cylinder.

My heart lodges in my throat, and a cold pit opens inside my stomach. Julius has gone to a great length to keep that paper from me. From anyone, really. I want to leave it there. To close the latch and make sure he never finds out about this.

Curiosity eventually gets the better of me, and I reach out before I can stop.

It’s like one of those moments where your body reacts on autopilot.

Thin and delicate and old, the paper nearly falls apart when I grab it. It’s clearly a note of some kind, but it only has a single phrase written across it in looping black ink.

To save the family, you will do what is needed.

It’s written in Father’s handwriting.

A chill slides over me. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s clearly important.

But what does he mean? And why was Julius the one Father gave it to? The longer I stare at the paper, the more my eyes blur and the harder it feels to breathe.

There is definitely more going on than I originally thought. I settle back, balancing on my toes and fighting against the tingling of fear on the back of my tongue. Had something happened between Father and Julius before I took over?

And will I ever get a straight answer out of my brother?

Something seems utterly wrong about this room and the odd silence now. The wind outside should rattle the shutters, howling out its fury against the world. All I hear is the sound of my own breathing.

The mingled smell of the woods and stale liquor surrounds me, the scent I’ve always associated with Julius. It whispers of security, of our shared upbringing. It’s supposed to be a comfort.

Is anything real?

I stuff the note into my pocket and nearly have the door shut behind me when I remember I left the hidden compartment open. He’ll know in a second that I’ve been here, if he doesn’t first catch a whiff of my scent on his things.

Spinning on my heel, I move back in and snap the hatch back into place.

This is far from over. This whole adventure is far from over, and each passing discovery brings me farther from this moment.

Julius and my father were apparently closer than I knew.

And what does the note mean when it sayssave the family? Save us from what?

Or whom?

To hunt the traitor in my pack, I’ll have to be willing to enter a world where everything I know has been turned on its head. Where nothing is as it appears, and my power isn’t enough. I’ll have to give up control completely to the unknown and risk death.

Because only one person alive knows the truth, and it isn’t me.

ChapterFourteen

Tasha

Reid acts weirder than normal for the rest of the afternoon.

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