Page 46 of Wolf Hunter

Julius expects me to say something eloquent, no doubt, to make up for the insane lapse of logic of my attack.

Damn, I’m coming up with nothing.

“Touching her was a mistake you won’t repeat,” I tell him. “You know you’re pushing your luck. We haven’t seen eye to eye lately, but on this, please do as I ask.”

My brother holds his arms out wide. “I don’t have any other choice, now do I?” he says.

It takes me a few moments too long to get my breath back to a normal speed as I stare after Tasha, though she long since disappeared.

This isn’t like me. I normally don’t give a shit what Julius does because I know he makes it his life’s mission to get under my skin any way he can. He lost the title to me and has to make up for it by being a raging asshole.

Although, to be honest, he’s been this way most of his life. The competitiveness is as much a part of us as our shared blood.

My stomach sours at the thought of food, and I cast a glare at Julius. “You made me lose my appetite.”

“Me?” he squawks with deep indignance. “Don’t you dare blame your stomach issues on me.”

“What are you doing here, anyway? Did you want to talk to me about something?” I ask.

He’s trying to feel me out, but why?

“I don’t need a reason to be in my own kitchen. Especially with the others gone.”

I refuse to believe he got lonely. “You’ve got something to tell me. Something on your mind.”

He closed up more after Mom died. Julius had never been the best at sharing his feelings, none of us were. Father made sure we were hardened animals capable of surviving in this world, and without Mom’s more gentle nature around, my brother began running as a wolf more and more. We’d go days without seeing him. Sometimes weeks.

“It’s nothing,” he starts.

“It’s not nothing if you felt the need to track me down.” And he’d waited until everyone was out of the house to do it. Unlike the other day, when he’d felt the need to confront me.

Just more questions.

Julius stares at me for a moment before shaking his head and walking past me, close enough to knock me with his shoulder. “Forget it. Okay? Just forget it.”

His body language is all wrong, his head down and a slight quake in his knees.

I watch him leave with an odd itch in my veins, but I don’t stop him. His odd behavior, though, has a new idea nudging me, growing louder and more impossible to ignore the more time that ticks by.

We didn’t get tohisroom today. Granted, we still have most of the afternoon ahead, but I didn’t want to wear Tasha out too soon. Clearly, I’d asked more of her powers than she was able to provide.

And although I know she’d never say anything to me, the searches wiped her out. She must be less proficient with her magic than I had assumed when we first met.

We have a few days before cabin fever sets in or the storm breaks and the others return. But… I also possess a few reservations about going through my brother’s private things.

It’s like a betrayal.

We’ve had enough of those moments in our past, too many to count, and I don’t want things to end with Julius looking at me the same way we looked at our father.

But if Tasha is right, if those doubts Liam planted in my mind actually have roots in reality, then I owe it to the continued safety of this pack to make sure of my brother’s innocence. Absolutely sure.

I wait a few more minutes in the kitchen, putting away the sandwich items I no longer want before creeping out into the hallway. A glance toward the library shows me Julius with a decanter in one hand, staring at the fire like it’s somehow to blame for how much he hates his life.

Which means I’ve got a few minutes before he decides to crawl out of the cave of his own making. I only need a few.

Shame erodes me as I go upstairs and push open the door to his room, a few feet down from my own. The scent of freshly turned earth and grass, of the forest, fills my nostrils seconds later as I close myself inside.

Thank fuck for good vision, courtesy of my wolf. Julius had the shades drawn to block out the barest hint of light. Like a literal cave.

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