“You’re bleeding, where are you hurt?”
I look down quickly at my hands that are scratched up from falling but don’t hold them out to him. “I’m fine.”
“Remi, clean up her hands while I take a shower.” With that, he marches out of the room.
“What do I look like? A nurse?” Remington scoffs.
4
Ranger
My wolf is on edge, pacing around in my head as I shower off the blood and dirt. He’s pissed that we got our asses kicked with a baseball bat, but he’s more upset that Ransom tried to attack the girl. And he did not like the smell of her blood, it made him lunge and fight for control, wanting to take down whatever had made her bleed
Which in all honesty is odd. My wolf has never been quick to anger in the past. Like me, he is always calm and calculating, taking in his surroundings and the people around him. We sit back and watch before we take action. It wasn’t until three months ago that had changed for me, but my wolf still was calm as ever. Until tonight. He had never been as mad at his identical twin as he was when Ransom lunged at Winslow.
Winslow.
She’s a fucking mystery. She just shows up out of the blue asking for me. My family and pack keep low profiles in the human world, so how does she know who I am? She never did answer my question about why she was here and that pisses me off, constantly evading my questions with her own. And shit, she probably has alotof questions. It’s not every day that a human stumbles into pack territory and catches us shifting. I have no idea how she made it past the pack enforcers that patrol the territory.
Out of the shower, I quickly change into jeans and a T-shirt. With a quick look at the time on my phone, I wince, it’s one in the morning. I’m exhausted from the day I’ve had and the last thing I want to deal with is the little human sitting in the other room. My wolf wants to protect her, but we can both smell the trouble coming off of her.
Barefoot, I stalk back into the living room. I come to a halt when I see what’s happening. I’m the last one to come back, Ransom and Pruitt are both sitting on the couch watching the stare down Remi and Winslow are having with each other. Most humans would flinch under the heated glare that Remington is throwing her way, but not Winslow. Her chin is slightly lifted in defiance as she glares back at my sister and her too-thin arms are cross stubbornly across her chest.
“What is going on here?” I ask the room, hoping someone will answer.
“She won’t let me look at her hands. I can smell the blood; I know she’s hurt, but she won’t let me help her.” Remi never looks away from the tiny human as she explains.
“I said I was fine; I don’t need your help. I can clean them later when I’m back at the motel,” Winslow explains tightly.
“Ugh! Humans are so annoying.” Remi throws her hands up like she’s giving up.
“Hey! I was human up until three months ago!” Pruitt scolds.
“You were never actually human though,” Remi reminds her. “We just thought you were human—there’s a difference.”
“Is there?” Pru raises a brow.
Remi shrugs. “Of course there is.”
Pruitt had her wolf bound by a witch when she was seven. She lived her life for fourteen years thinking she was human. It wasn’t until she moved back to Montana that her wolf started to surface. For a while, we didn’t think she was ever going to be able to shift into her wolf form, but when Ryker’s life was threatened and he was shot, her wolf pushed free and she shifted. Her first act as a wolf was ripping out Nicolai’s throat, something I’m still upset over—the fucker didn’t get to suffer enough for what he did to those women in that facility.
Winslow grumbles something under her breath before speaking. “You people are honestly insufferable, and I’ve been around a lot of highly irritating people, but you people blow them out of the water.” She glares at each of us. “Someone start talking or I’m going to start filling in the answers as I see fit.”
“You have a lot of nerve to show up here all mysterious like, asking for Ranger by name and then demanding we answeryourquestions,” Ransom scoffs. “How about you answer our questions.”
“Not to mention she was talking to herself like a lunatic when we showed up,” Remi mumbles under her breath.
“Let’s not throw stones at glass houses here.” Winslow rolls her eyes. “You people are werewolves and you’re bothered by the fact that I was talking to myself.Really?”
“It was weird.” Remi shrugs.
Winslow waves her hand in Pruitt and my direction. “I think watching these two shift into wolves was weirder, let’s talk about that instead.”
I can still smell her blood, and it’s making my wolf restless. “Let me clean up your hands first, and then we can talk.”
She narrows her eyes at me in response.
“How bad do you want your answers?” I grab the wound cleaner and bandages from Remi. I motion for her to sit on one of the couches.