Page 66 of Wolf Hunted (Rejected Moons 1)

“Milo?” Emlyn says. “Is everything all right?”

She’s behind me. She’s looking over my shoulder. “What is that?”

Wordlessly, I hand it up to her.

“Where did you get this?” she breathes.

“It was in his bag,” I say.

“This is a misunderstanding.” She sinks to her knees beside me. “It has to be.”

“Maybe.”

She looks at me. “You don’t think so.”

“Why would he have this?” I ask. “What good reason could there be for him to have this?”

“Maybe…” But she trails off, and I know she’s realizing the same thing I am.

There is no good reason.

“I thought he was a good guy,” I murmur.

“He is,” Emlyn protests. “He is, Milo, he—he saved my life. Herescuedme from my pack. They’d caught me, and he set me free—”

“So that he would be able to bring you back,” I say. It just makes too much sense to ignore.

“No,” she breathes.

A rustling noise interrupts us, and we both turn to see that Nate has returned from the river. He’s tramping through the woods carelessly, not bothering to be stealthy.

He checks when he sees us staring at him. “What’s up?” he asks. “You two look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Not a ghost. Just an enemy where we didn’t expect to find one.

Emlyn holds up the paper with her face on it. “What is this, Nate?” she asks.

He freezes. He looks from her to me, and the expression of guilt in his eyes is all the confirmation I needed.

Then a mask of anger drops over his face. “Why were you going through my bag?”

“Fuck you,” Emlyn spits. “I know you don’t think you’re going to turn this around on me. This is abountyflyer, Nate! This was drawn by someone in my pack! They’re offering a reward for my return! Youknowwhat they’ll do to me if they get me back. Why do you have this?"

“Emlyn,” I say because the truth is that, as much as I know we both want answers, it doesn’t matter why Nate has the paper. What matters now is getting away from him as quickly as possible. I have no idea how I’d match up against him in a fight. It could go either way.

But Emlyn waves me off. “No, Milo. He has to answer. He promised that he would never lie to me again.”

“We should get out of here.”

“Not until he fucking explains this!”

I move toward her, put a hand on her arm. I’m afraid she’s going to throw herself at him and force the physical conflict. She looks like she might be willing to rip the skin from his face. I never imagined Emlyn could be violent like this.

“I took the flyer ages ago,” Nate says. “I just picked it up at the bar. That’s all.”

“The bar?” she repeats. “The bar you were taking me to when we ran into Milo? That bar?”

He doesn’t say anything.

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