Page 48 of Shadow City: Silver Wolf

Dammit, if he called Killian, he would figure out I was leaving and ruin my escape. "Please don't. I'm doing this to protect him."I didn't want to give too much away, but I needed Griffin to let me go.

"How is running out late at night protecting him?" His brows furrowed, and he looked back at Killian’s house.

"I thought you couldn't wait until my ass left him." I bit out the words, trying not to let him see how much it had cut me.

"You know I was being a jerk." His phone rang, and he pulled it from his pocket and rejected the call. "Regardless, you can't do that to him. You have to at least say goodbye. Do you know what you disappearing would do to him? He's already lost too many people in his life."

I didn't need this ass clown trying to make me feel bad. He treated people like shit, and he had the audacity to lecture me? I’d already struggled with this decision, so I didn't need him laying it on me too. "People are hunting me. I care about Killian too much to let him get caught in the crossfire."

"The bear shifter would've attacked anyone close to us that day," he growled. "You don't need to feel bad about that."

"I wish it was just him." If I had only one person to worry about, I wouldn't be so nervous or scared. I'd kicked that bear's ass that day all on my own, and I'd been holding back.

"What are you trying to say?" Griffin leaned toward me.

If I wanted to get out of this gracefully, I'd have to bare my soul to him. "I met Killian only a couple weeks ago." I stopped, needing to prepare myself for the inevitable questions that would come.

Much to my surprise, Griffin didn't rush me. Instead, he patiently waited for me to continue.

"In reality, he probably saved my life." And I’d never even thanked him for that. Another thing I didn't handle correctly. "I almost drowned when I tried to escape a group of men that had chased me from my pack home."

"Drowned?" His body tensed as a low snarl rumbled. "Why were they chasing you?"

"I jumped into the river, trying to hide my scent so they couldn't keep following me. They jumped in after me, and I found an undercurrent that helped me get away, but I almost didn't break free."

"But your pack. Why didn't they help?" he asked. "Is that why you're leaving? To go back to people who abandoned you?"

I laughed without humor. The bleak part of my soul flared. "No, I'll never go back home, but my pack didn't abandon me." I looked skyward at the moon, needing to find comfort in the one thing that I'd never have to give up. "Those men who chased me, they slaughtered my pack before running after me."

His eyes softened as he took a step toward me. "How did you escape?"

I told him the story of how I wasn't there at first and heard the screams. "You see—" I stopped short, bracing myself to spit out the truth. "My pack kept to themselves. We stayed at arm’s length from all other supernaturals to keep our identity hidden. But, somehow, some wolves got wind of what we were and that a woman had been born to be the next alpha."

"So they didn't want a woman to lead?" He shook his head. "That doesn't make any sense as to why they'd kill the entire pack then."

"No, they wanted the woman for someone." I averted my gaze toward the ground. "I'm not sure who, but it doesn't matter. They want her to have babies with this man so he can lead her race."

"Why not lead the current pack?" Griffin tilted his head. "You're holding back key pieces of information. I need to understand how you leaving right now, in the middle of the night, protects my best friend."

He was right. I was dancing around the truth when I needed to get straight to the point. "The reason he killed the pack is because none of them—including me—would ever support someone corrupt. I mean, that was the whole reason my people left Shadow City centuries ago."

"There's never been a race that left Shadow City." He glared at me.

Interesting. But then how did Rosemary know about silver wolves? "There was. Your father knew about us. He invited my father to visit around two years ago."

"Your dad..." Hehmmed. "Silver hair, like yours?"

"Yes." He must have seen Dad during his visit, but why hadn't his father told him of our existence? Had he, like my father, thought he’d have more time? Atticus’s death was starting to seem rather conveniently timed. "Your dad wanted our pack to come back and live in the city." My mind went back in time to the last time I saw my father, and I wrapped my arms around myself. "In fact, with his last breath, my dad told me to go to Shadow City and find Atticus. That he would protect me.” I took a deep breath. “That he was an ally of the silver wolves."

Griffin held himself completely still. "Are you saying silver wolves are real?" He glanced at the moon and then back to me. "And you're the only one still alive—which means you're the alpha they want.” He ran his hands through his hair, making it disheveled, which added to his allure. “But your children would only be half silver."

Our legacy was such a well-kept secret that even Rosemary hadn't known this. "No. Any child I have will be a full silver wolf. It's due to the power of the moon."

"And you're running away…because you love Killian."

"Yes. He's already done so much for me. I can't let him wind up dead like the rest of my pack." And here was the grand finale. The last bit of logic that would feed his self-serving side. "And I'llbe out of your hair. You won't have to see me again, and you and Killian can go back to the way things were before my messy ass interfered. It’ll be like I never existed." Damn, saying that hurt, but I had to seal the deal with him.

"Like you never existed," he said. He scanned my face as if looking for something.

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