Page 48 of Wolf Hunter

I say that because I don’t see much of him until he practically splinters the wood trying to get into my room later in the day. He leaves me alone for hours before dinner and only comes to talk to me once the sky begins to darken.

The snow doesn’t show any signs of stopping. The wind continues to blow, and my heart travels with it, to places best kept in my memory.

Carmen used to love this kind of weather.

She always said that winter was her favorite season, as long as it snowed. If it had to be cold, she wanted to see the snow; she wanted to look out the window at something beautiful. And when she finally got her wish and a storm rolled in, well, she bundled up in an instant and practically threw herself into the piles of fluff.

She’d stay out for hours soaking in the silence. The hush only found on those pure white days.

Is she alive to see this storm? And if she is, then is she safe?

I normally banish those kinds of questions the moment they form. Thinking about her, remembering her, none of it gets me any closer to finding her.

After the ceremony, she’d disappeared without a trace, and no matter how hard I tried to barter and beg for answers, none were forthcoming. So I ran. I ran too far from home and still can’t escape what had happened.

Until fate, or my own tired psyche, brought me back to this town.

And now I sit in the one place I’d tried desperately hard to infiltrate all those years ago, and still… nothing.

Right then, as if sensing my distress, Reid beats his way into the room using his fists, and all thoughts of Carmen flitter away like smoke.

“Well, come in,” I call out dryly over my shoulder. “It’s not like I’m busy or anything.”

Yeah, busy thinking about his tight ass and six-pack.

When I finally get a good look at him, I see that his eyes are wild and the rest of him is on edge.

Danger thickens the air between us, and I make sure to keep a healthy distance from him in case he loses control. I don’t need to deal with a wild animal, especially not when I’ve seen what he did to his brother.

And that’s his flesh and blood.

“Care to explain what this is about?” I ask with forced calm.

Drawing in a breath, he closes us in and activates the wards on the door’s wood before speaking. “I found something.”

“Hopefully your sanity.”

He glares at me. “I’m serious. I went into Julius’s room.”

“Oh.” I start. “Without me? And you found something? Is it about Carmen?”

Hope flares to life in my chest, and I hurry to tamp it down. No sense in getting ahead of myself. For all I know, he might have found a lucky coin he’d been missing for years.

Reid reaches into his back pocket and draws out a piece of scrap paper. He holds it between us like it’s supposed to mean something to me.

“What do you have there?” I ask, slowly rising to take it from him.

He watches me unfold the paper and read the single sentence written there. “It’s something my father wrote to my brother, apparently. And I can’t make out the meaning, but he hid it well.”

“Your father?”

“Really?” Reid looks at me like I’ve shown him the loose screws in my brain. “Julius.”

I glance down again at the barely legible writing. “What do you think it means?”

He shakes his head until hair falls across his face. “I’m not sure. I found it by accident in a secret compartment in his nightstand. So why go to such great lengths to hide it if it didn’t mean something big? Julius will kill me if he finds out I know about this.”

“So put it back.” I resist the urge to drop the note on the floor like it’s some kind of poisoned toad.

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