Page 46 of Shadow City: Silver Wolf

The stench of spray paint attacked my nose. I almost coughed but managed to hold it together. If the wolf was watching me, I didn't want to tip him off to what Killian had done. He could figure that out on his own. Granted, he probably wouldn't carethat the image was covered. He’d painted it to get a reaction from me, and I’d already fallen into the trap.

Placing my hand in Killian’s, I let him pull me to my feet, and the two of us headed toward the truck. We held an amicable silence until we were pulling out of the university.

"Were you able to cover it?" I tried not to let him know how nervous I was, but he knew me too well.

He nodded. "Yeah, I was. Sorry it took so long, but I had to make sure I didn't get caught."

"No, it's fine." His words weighed on me. "You shouldn't have done it. You're putting so much at risk by housing me and being my friend."

"Stop it." He pointed at me in warning. "That's what friends do for one another, and come on, you know I think of you as a sister."

"Because I remind you of her." Maybe he was investing too much in me because of that. "Even though we have different tastes in clothes."

"Olive wanted to fit in with Luna and Jessica." He sighed. "She dressed more like you until the last year or so before her death, but to be clear, I’m not helping you just because you remind me of her. Maybe at first, that was why, but not anymore. You've become a true friend. "

I loved that he could be honest with me. I owed him the same. "I don't want anything to happen to you. There was a wolf watching me when I went off on Rosemary."

"What are you talking about?" His brows furrowed.

I filled him in on my embarrassing display.

"That doesn't change anything, other than that we need to figure out who the wolf is.” He patted my arm as he said firmly, "And we're going to get through this together. We're each other's family now. That's final."

But the problem was I couldn't agree with that. If I were in his shoes, I'd have been saying that same thing. But he’d lost his family too. And because of me, his best friend hadn't been around.

Thinking back to the night before Griffin disappeared felt like a punch to the gut. One second, we were at each other's throats, and the next second, I wanted to rip his clothes off and do things I'd never done with anyone else. I still had whiplash from my emotions that night.

The worst part was that not seeing him was driving me crazy. And to know he'd been spending time with Luna was like mixing Pop Rocks candy and Coke. I was about to explode, or implode, and I had no fucking clue why.

I decided to change the subject from something I didn't want to talk about to something he didn't want to. It would make him shut down, at least for a little while, and I could use the reprieve. "Jessica doesn't seem all that bad." I lifted a brow at him. "In fact, she's quite breathtaking."

"How'd you meet her?" Killian pursed his lips as he glanced at me.

"Well, it involved Luna, which was very unpleasant." On so many levels. "Jessica was with her. She seems sweet."

"Jessica isn't the problem." He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. "It's more of who her best friend is. Although honestly, what does it say about her that she chooses to be close friends with Luna?" He shuddered.

He did have a point. "They’re from Griffin’s pack, right?"

"Yes, and their fathers are close. They grew up together, but still. Also, my parents were fated mates, and I want to find my own. I don't want to settle for something other than that. A chosen mate is out of the cards for me. Why try to build a relationship with someone fate knows isn’t for you? Why waste time in a relationship with someone when I know how it'll end?"

And he had a good point there too. If he knew what he wanted, then pushing him to do otherwise would only result in heartache.

Either way, with my secret coming out and the wolf now watching me, I knew exactly what I had to do to protect Killian and myself.

The moon shonethrough the window, alerting me that it was around midnight. I’d been lying in bed for hours, needing rest, but sleep wouldn’t come. Each time I closed my eyes, images of my dead pack jumped vividly through my mind, but surprisingly, that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was Killian lying lifeless with them as well.

I got up and paced back and forth at the edge of the bed, trying to find some sense of calm, but it was futile.

My wolf howled in my mind, wanting to seize control, desperate to get out, and Killian’s lifeless face was in every shadow of the room. Somethingtuggedinside me, making my wits scatter, the sensation adding to my sense of losing control.

Terror took hold of me, and I couldn’t regain my calm. My wolf surged forward, bucking against my hold.

Staying here wasn’t an option any longer, but leaving would break my heart. I’d promised Killian we were in this together. However, if I didn’t do something, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold my wolf at bay.

On the nightstand sat some plain white stationary and a pen. I grabbed it quickly and wrote a note.

Killian,

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