Page 45 of Shadow City: Silver Wolf

I'd gone a little over a week without seeing her, and still enough time hadn't passed. I stopped short, making my point clear that I wouldn't try to run from her. "Nope, he needed to run an errand, and then he'll be right back." I forced a sweet smile that felt foreign. The only reaction I wanted to give her was the middle finger.

"And he didn't take you with him?" Luna sashayed over, her dark sage maxi skirt flowing out around her. She tilted her head, causing her hair to fall in front of her shoulders, brushing against her cream top. "Sounds like trouble in paradise." She turned to face a girl a couple of inches shorter than me who was following right behind her. "Jessica, you may get Killian sooner rather than later after all."

The girl's forest-green eyes focused on me, and she gave me an uncomfortable smile as she twisted chestnut hair with natural light caramel tips around one finger. Her modest pale pink wrap top complemented her medium olive complexion. "I'm sure he needed something, and things are okay between them."

Wow. I hadn't expected that.

I'd expected this girl to be as hateful or even more so than Luna, but positive energy emanated from her.

"Oh, you don't need to be nice to her." Luna waved me off. "She doesn't live in the city and never will if I have anything to say about it."

I'd never disliked someone as much as Luna before in my life. Well, correction. I outright hated the people hunting me, but she was a very close second. "Killian doesn't live in the city either."

"His best friend—my future mate—" Luna said as she patted herself on the chest "—will get him into the city where he belongs. It's only a matter of time."

That was an odd thing to say, but whatever. I didn't have time to deal with her mind games. "Great, good luck with that."

"I didn't dismiss you." She walked over to me and lifted her chin. "I'm not done talking to you."

She was grating on my nerves. I’d come inside so the wolf couldn’t spy on me, but I’d rather be captured than have to deal with her. However, I had to be careful, I didn't want her to follow me outside. "What?" I couldn't hide my annoyance.

"Look, I'm trying to be nice." She scoffed and crossed her arms. "I wanted to say thank you."

She was determined to tell me whatever was on her mind. However, I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of asking. "You're welcome."

"Don't you want to know why I'm thanking you?" She pouted.

Like that was going to work. "No, but I don't think that matters. Clearly, you want to tell me."

"Griffin’s been spending a lot more time in Shadow City, which has been amazing for me. I was so upset when he bought that house by Killian, but now that he’s avoiding staying there, I'm wrangling him faster than I'd originally planned." She ran her hands through her hair. "I'm thinking you had something to do with that."

My wolf howled in my head so damn loud that I almost whimpered. My heart felt like it was fracturing, but that made no sense. I'd seen the guy only a couple of times, and he’d been an asshole for most of it.

They were a match made in heaven. I should have been thrilled that he had a reason to stay away…but I wasn't. I'd have liked to pretend it was because Killian missed his best friend, but that wasn't the truth. I wanted Griffin around too.

A portion of my heart grew colder at the thought of him with Luna. Not wanting to risk sounding broken, I nodded and glanced at Jessica. I forced my words to be smooth. "It was nice to meet you." And I turned and headed back out the front doors.

"What a bitch," Luna huffed. "I was thanking her."

"Well, you did tell her she'd never move into Shadow City and then in the next breath said her boyfriend would," Jessica said, "I'm thinking that hit her hard."

Not wanting to hear anymore, I stepped outside and walked onto the lawn in front of the building. The vampire girls were now watching a group of bear shifters playing football with no helmets. They had their shirts off, which almost made me laugh because their chest hair was so thick you couldn't even see their nipples.

Needing to be around noise so I couldn't hear Jessica's and Luna's conversation, I sat against a tree trunk close by and watched the idiots tackle each other over and over again.

Familiar footsteps madetheir way to me, and Killian's scent tickled my nose. I glanced toward the building and found his gaze on me.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked as his eyes flicked toward the bear shifters, who were putting on a show for the girls sitting around them.

The longer I’d sat out there, the more girls had congregated. I had to admit the bear shifters were sexy in their own right, and they were eating up the attention. Even a few angels, their floral scents giving them away, were standing around near the vampires, pretending to want to watch the game.

"Yeah." I knew I sounded terse, but, I hated being around people right now. My skin was crawling. Any time one of them made eye contact with me, I felt like they knew my secrets.

I needed to get control of my emotions because being rogue was beginning to cause even more problems. My hands kept growing sweaty, and my mind became hazy more frequently. At times, I felt a phantom pack connection that made my wolf restless. But it would vanish almost as quickly as it appeared. My wolf and I both needed to feel a connection to something, and the cold void seemed to be expanding and putting a wall up between my animal and human sides. If I didn't find a pack soon, I might go insane. Even Killian’s comforting presence was having less of an effect on me. But if I became part of his pack, I’d connect with all the other hundreds, which wasn’t an option. And the fact that he tried to maintain distance from his pack spoke volumes. I doubted they’d accept me—an outsider—so easily.

I had no clue what the answer was, but I needed to figure out something soon.

"Well, come on," he said and reached out a hand.

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