Page 16 of Claimed By Werewolf
His eyes flicked to me, then back to the wheel.“That your brother was asking questions he shouldn’t have.”He paused for a beat.“Guns,” he muttered finally.“Moving through places they shouldn’t have.He started asking whose names were on the manifests, and that’s when he signed his death warrant.It was just bigger than he thought it was.”
My stomach dropped.“Bigger how?”
He didn’t answer.It was big enough to get him killed.
“Werewolf.”My voice cracked on his name.“Bigger how?”
He slammed the truck into gear, with tires squealing as we tore out of the lot.
“Drop it, Demi.”
“No.”Heat rose in my chest.“You can’t drag me out here, terrify a man half to death, and then tell me nothing.That’s not fair—”
“Fair?”He barked a sharp laugh.“This isn’t about fair.This is about survival.And if you keep chasing this, you won’t.”
I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, and tears stung my eyes.“Tyler didn’t survive either.”
Silence fell.
Finally, he muttered, “You think I don’t know that?”
The words were soft, raw, and like they’d been torn from somewhere deep inside him.
I froze and stared at him.His hands gripped the wheel too tightly, and his veins strained against the skin.His jaw was clenched, but his eyes, just for a second, looked haunted.
Like he wasn’t just carrying my brother’s ghost.He was carrying a hundred more.
Something twisted in my chest, sharp and unexpected.
I should’ve been furious.Should’ve been disgusted.Instead, all I wanted was to reach across the seat, press my hand to his, and tell him he didn’t have to carry it alone.
But I didn’t.
Because I wasn’t sure whose hand would burn more.His or mine.
We drove in silence until he pulled onto a back road and killed the engine.
He sat there for a long time, just staring out the windshield.Finally, he said, “He worked that warehouse, didn’t he?”He mumbled, more to himself than to me.“Clocked in like it was any other night, only this time he saw crates that weren’t supposed to be there.Asked the wrong question to the wrong man.After that, there was no walking away clean.He was a liability.”
My stomach turned to stone.“A liability,” I whispered.“He was a person.My brother.”
His eyes closed, just for a moment.“I know.”
Tears spilled hot down my cheeks, and I hated myself for letting him see.“Why are you telling me this?”I asked as my voice shook.
His gaze finally met mine, dark and steady.“Because you wouldn’t stop until you found it out anyway.Better you hear it from me than from someone who’d bury you for asking.”
The words hit like a hammer and knocked the breath from my lungs.
Because for the first time, I realized he wasn’t just keeping me in the dark to protect himself.
He was protecting me.
The silence stretched thick with things I couldn’t say.
Finally, I wiped my face and forced steel back into my voice.“Then who killed him?”
His jaw tightened.“That’s the question that’ll get you killed fastest.”
