Page 16 of Enspelled

He takes a step toward me.

I tighten my hand around the jerky. “Mine.” He halts, his gaze darting from my mouth to my defensive position, which is communicating that I’m about to fight to the death for a salty snack.

Where this possessiveness has come from, I have no idea, but suddenly this jerky means more to me than any cake that’s ever passed my lips.

I get the sense that I just did something else wrong. “Now what?” I ask around the meat stick.

“Nothing. I’m getting some stuff out of the truck.” Without waiting for a response, he turns on his heel and stalks out of the kitchen.

My eyes track him as I continue to chew. When I’m confident that his leaving isn’t just a trick so he can lunge at what’s mine, I let myself relax.

Until I hear his truck start up. That’s when I rush after him. Still chewing, because Goddess forbid I stop eating for a second.

By the time I’m pulling the front door open, his headlights are disappearing into the distance.

There are several things I could do. Run far away from Keane while I have the chance, for one. Or go find Sera so I can hide in her closet before Liam comes after me and sticks me in a cage. Maybe even take the opportunity to leave town before the elementals come after me for killing their leader.

But I do none of those things.

I just stand in the doorway and eat jerky.

5

KEANE

I’m halfway to town before it hits me that I don’t know where Layla Markham’s house is, and I have no desire to strip and spend the next couple of hours sniffing it out. Especially not when the first raindrops hit my windshield.

My eyes go to the black cell phone that I returned to the console from my jeans pocket.

You could call Bodie for help.

Help?I mentally snort. From a drifter who clung so hard to me at the bar that if Jonas hadn’t walked in, I was getting seriously concerned he’d follow me home.

No, I’m on my own.

Better that Bodie sticks with Briar’s friend, so at least I’m not having to spend every waking hour waiting for a spell to blast the back of my head open. He can keep her distracted and away from me.Faraway from me.

Before I’ve made up my mind about where I’m going, or why I ran out on Briar, I’m pulling up in the grocery store parking lot with no memory of having passed through Main Street. The acrid stench of smoke from the explosion in the Madden Grove Tearoom still lingers in the air despite the fire having been extinguished hours ago.

With the engine still running, I stare out at the darkening sky as the afternoon gives way to evening.

My thoughts return to Briar and the horror stamped on her face.

A bark of laughter bursts out of me, surprising me.

She thought she’d humped my leg. Fucking hell, I’ve never worked so fucking hard to choke back laughter in all my life as I did then.

But then I remember the possessiveness in her stare as she tightened around the jerky. She’d thought I was going to take it from her.

If it’d been a muffin or a cookie, I wouldn’t think anything of it, what with her need to snatch up the first sweet thing around her when she’s nervous. But it was meat, and I only know of one type of person to be so guarded over meat like that.

A shifter. Ayoungshifter who believes a bigger, stronger wolf is getting ready to take their food away from them.

And her low keening. A sound she didn’t even realize she was making.

My smile fades.

Something is wrong with her. Every instinct is screaming that whatever Briar is, she shouldn’t be a wolf.

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