Page 49 of Wolf Hunter

“Nope,” Reid says, taking it from my hand delicately. “Not until I’ve figured it out.”

“You didn’t, ah, find anything else? About my sister?” I try.

“You can see for yourself what it says.” His voice holds only a hint of impatience.

I roll my eyes at him. “Yeah, I get it.”

“There’s nothing about your sister on this paper.”

“But it’s suspicious,” I say. “It shows your brother is hiding something. He isn’t being honest with you about this note and whatever meaning it holds for you both. So what else is he keeping from you?”

It feels like grasping at straws to me, no matter how suspicious it looks. I only hope a few of the straws will piece together a clearer picture for us.

Reid stares at me for a full minute before responding with, “I’m not sure. I want you to come to dinner with me as soon as everyone has returned. Sit next to me, and see if you notice anything out of the ordinary.”

“With what? My oh-so-special witch skills?” I look out the window at the endless wall of white. “In case you haven’t noticed, I can’t do jack shit right now. Neither one of us can unless you want to flirt with frostbite. I highly doubt you’ll enjoy losing your fingers and toes.”

He needs the fingers for… certain extracurricular activities.

“You watch people for a living. You have to, in order to be successful at what you do. Come to dinner. See what you can find out and if there’s any cause to look into Julius a little further,” Reid urges.

The idea of his own brother going behind his back doesn’t sit well with him, I notice.

And I have a sneaking suspicion the others will go apeshit seeing me eat at the table with them. Especially at the alpha’s side. I’ll need time to prepare for a tornado of pure crap.

“I’m sorry,” I say, reaching out to him before I know what I’m doing. I rub a palm along his arm and feel the tension in his muscles. “I know this isn’t easy for you. And you’ve accepted it with a lot more grace than I would, if the situation were reversed. I’d go out of my mind.”

“It’s not grace, trust me,” he replies grouchily. “It’s a whole lot of shit piled high.”

Ha. Hadn’t I just said the same thing?

“I’ve just gotten good at making it through,” he continues. “I’ve got my wading boots on.”

I want to laugh at his joke but can only manage a tense smile. “I get it, I do.”

He sits on the bed to join me in the pensive staring out the window. But the snow doesn’t hold any of the satisfaction we crave.

“Will you tell me about her?” he asks, his tone going soft. “Will you tell me more about your sister?”

I stiffen at his request because until this point, my pain has been my own. I have no one to share it with, and even if I did, I wasn’t sure I’d want to. “It won’t make a bit of difference,” I tell him.

“Still. I’d like to know.”

“Why?”

“Because it might make this a little easier on me. And I’m curious.” He casts his gaze to mine, and I see nothing but sincerity there. “I want to know more about you and why you’ve become the person you are.”

I shrug in an attempt to look unbothered. “Maybe I’ve always been this way.”

“I somehow doubt that.”

Biting my lower lip, I scoot back until my rear hits the pillows, keeping my distance from him, deciding what I want to do versus what Ineedto do.

It isn’t unknown to me that Reid has been honest until this point. I’ve never detected a lie out of him, and I’m usually pretty good at sniffing them out. Like he said before, I need to be in order to be good at my job.

So finally, I drop my shoulders on a low, deep exhale. “For the longest time, it was just the two of us,” I say. “My parents loved each other to death. Literally.”

Reid chuckles in scorn as though he really doesn’t believe me but keeps silent to let me finish.

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