Page 13 of Wolf Bitten

I played the part of being very drugged, hoping they would eventually give me something that barely affected me and I’d have a greater chance to escape.

After the first day, I realized I had to change tactics. I stopped arguing on Raffe’s behalf because, each time I did, Glinda became angry and left. I had to gain her trust. She seemed desperate for me to buy into her stories, probably because of what I’d overheard the other day.

I could also still feel the strange emotions within me, angrier and more determined every hour.

It had to be Raffe.

Today was the third full day of me being here conscious, and Glinda seemed more frenzied. I’d been forced to listen to her read various accounts of all the bad things the wolf shifters had done and were doing to vampires and witches. The stories were heartbreaking. Vampires dying from starvation. Covens isolated and not free to practice their magic the way the goddess intended.

I agreed that change was needed, but the problem was how the Veiled Circle wanted to handle it. They wanted to oppress the wolves and impose restrictions on them, such as not being able to shift and run and other things that would impact their health and happiness. The secret society wasn’t about making things fair—it was about getting revenge for the injustices they felt had been inflicted upon them.

Both sides were in the wrong, but I couldn’t do a damn thing about it right now. I was just a human with ancient magic, mated to a wolf-shifter prince. Glinda was treating me like I was the hope everything depended on.

Tonight, both Glinda and Warin watched as I ate my dinner. Warin didn’t speak, just glared at me hatefully then administered the drug when he deemed I needed it. Controlling my blood by thinking of Raffe was becoming harder and harder when the medicine wore off.

I took a bite of the turkey sandwich, and Glinda paced in front of the desk, holding a manilla envelope in her hands.

Once I took my last bite, Warin grinned.

He rarely smiled, and when he did, it was invariably about something that would be to my detriment.

“I’ve been waiting for the right moment to share this with you.” Glinda tapped the envelope in her hand. “And I think that’s now—since you’ve become so open to listening to us the past few days.”

I nodded slowly, acting as if the drug had taken effect.

“Now I need you to see.” She removed a few photographs from the envelope and placed them on the desk in front of me.

My stomach clenched, and my blood fizzed.

No.

CHAPTER FIVE

Iblinked, thinking the image would change, but it didn’t.

A lump formed in my throat that was so large I couldn’t swallow.

The first picture had been taken outside a small one-story brick warehouse that looked abandoned. Raffe stood at the back entrance by a beat-up metal garage door, waving toward the building with ten men stepping from the woods behind him, including Adam and Keith, which wasn’t surprising. There was no telling how many more weren't in the frame. In their black clothing, they blended in with the night.

The next picture was from inside the warehouse. The garage door was opened, and a fight was underway. Raffe was stabbing a vampire in the heart while the other men were attacking fifteen vampires clustered together. I searched for captive humans but couldn’t find anyone who looked scared or restrained. In fact, everyone there was angry. Everyone fighting looked supernatural.

Why were the wolves attacking? There had to be a reason. “Why are you showing me these?” I understood that she wanted me to see Raffe differently … to see him as a puppet or an aggressor.

“This was a warehouse for a liquidation shop that went out of business five years ago.” Warin tapped the image of Raffe. “Someone alerted the wolves that a group of vampires were staying at the edge of the city, and Raffe organized the attack. There were no humans there, and all fifteen vampires were killed.”

Glinda removed another photo that showed fifteen corpses on the ground and puddles of blood across the cement floor. Blood was spattered over the eleven wolf shifters with Raffe being the bloodiest.

My stomach churned, the half sandwich I’d eaten not sitting well.

No. I scanned the shot, but all I saw was a door that led outside, nowhere for a human to be hidden.

I tried swallowing unsuccessfully. “There has to be a reason they did this.”

“Oh, there is.” Warin straightened and went still as a statue. Right when I thought he wasn’t going to explain, he spoke, startling me. “They didn’t like how close the vampires were to the city even though it was a smaller population outside of Silverton, Oregon. That was their ‘reason.’”

Silverton was a small city about an hour from here, so proximity must be why Raffe had led the charge. With all the grievances the covens and vampires had against the wolf shifters, I understood how disheartening this could be, and worse, these photos made me wonder if I knew Raffe at all.

That had to be Glinda’s plan and damn if it wasn’t effective. Still, I refused to be manipulated. There were always two sides to any story. Though I wasn’t sure how Raffe could have a good reason forthisslaughter.

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