Page 79 of Scapegoat

“OK, so he’s dead.” Jamie’s wavering voice had my eyes jerking up. She never sounded like that, ever. We’d had near pile-ups when cars had pulled something stupid just in front of the truck, dealt with some scary guys in pubs when we stopped for the night, and she’d stayed perfectly calm the whole time. “We need to get the fuck out of here, now.”

“Death by animal attack.” Atlas was the calmest of us all, his tone perfectly flat. “That’s what it will look like.”

“With footprints and DNA all around the dead body?” The challenge in Jamie’s voice rang out, but the thunder rumbled in answer. “I don’t know how shit works in your hometown but—”

“We need to get clear of here,” Xavier said, his voice cool and crisp. “Get away from the concert and away from this town.” His gaze landed on me. “Decide where you want to go, beautiful, and we’re out of here.” His eyes narrowed as he glanced down at what was left of Ned. “But quickly.”

“You think getting away from here will help?” Jamie said, straightening up, some of her former composure returning. “They have all sorts of scientific means to track murderers down.” She listened to a lot of podcasts while driving, many of them true crime. “You have any kind of history with this guy?” Our silence was deafening. “Fuck, you have, don’t you?”

“We’ll be fine,” Xavier said.

“They got into a fight.” I croaked that out, everyone’s eyes focussing on me. “Back at the farm.”

“Did anyone who knows Ned see you here,” Jamie asked them, not me.

“No—” Xavier said, but Atlas contradicted him.

“We saw Brent in the line for food. I told you that.”

“So you’ve been seen by people who know this Ned and who also know you had beef with him?”

Jamie’s words hung in the air between us, feeling like they got heavier and heavier like the storm clouds above, the wind now tugging insistently at our clothes. The wolf whined inside me. She’d let me come back to skin because she thought the threat was gone, but now the others were introducing even bigger ones. I felt her tense inside me, the need to run rising. We could streak out of here in fur, run and run until the roads finished and there were only trees, grass, scrub. We could live off the land, eating all the feral rabbits that bred unhindered in this country, growing fat on coney meat. We—

“We’ve gotta go home.” Jayden’s eyes flicked from me to the others, the worry plain there. “Not for long.” He blurted that out as he watched my legs coil beneath me. “Just in time for shit to blow over. The alphas will know what to do.”

The others spoke all at once, their individual voices hard to hear. They weren’t listening to anyone else but themselves, all their thoughts, feelings, fears spilling out. They were getting louder and louder, only the steady rumble of thunder from above drowning them out enough so that no one else spotted us.

Lightning cracked as I stood up, the remains of my dress fluttering around my legs. Rain spattered on my skin, disguising my tears. I stared and stared until finally they all fell silent, looking to me.

“Take me home then,” I told Jayden, more gently than I felt. “Get me away from here, away from him.”

We drove all night to get across the border and into the next state, swapping seats to either take over driving or sleep when we could. Everyone but me. I sat in the front seat, rocking back and forth with the motion of the truck, staring at the rain until my eyes ached, before we reached Granville.

“Look after yourself.” We were standing out front of the diner and Jamie had reached across, pressing her forehead to mine. “Keep your head down and stay safe, kid. It won’t be long. Just enough time for that fuck’s death to be ruled an animal attack, but remember…” She sucked in a breath and I did too. “I’m just a phone call away.”

Chapter 45

Xavier

This hadn’t been the plan. My eyes strayed over to Kai far too often to be safe, checking her sitting in the passenger seat, but how could I stop? She was curled up there, staring blankly at the windscreen, following the wipers as they swept back and forth. She didn’t move, didn’t say a thing.

“Kai…”

I reached across to touch her, to try and break whatever spell she was under, but she just gave my hand a squeeze, without even looking my way, and then went back to staring.

“You’re coming home?!” The hope in Mum’s voice, the excitement, fucking killed me. We’d stopped at a petrol station at some stupid hour of the morning and I’d given her a call while Jay went in to pay for fuel. “You found Kaia. You must have.”

“Mum—”

“You took her as your mate? Of course, you did. You must’ve done the moment you saw her.”

“Mum—”

“So you’re bringing her home and you’ll take your place as alphas—”

“For fuck’s sake, Mum.” I waited for silence, for her to fucking hear me and finally I got it. “We have Kai. She belongs to us, like we do her, but…” I let out a sigh, waiting for Mum to horn in, dominate the conversation again, but instead I heard the whistle of her breath between her teeth. “But something happened and we need to come home for a bit. We’ll explain when we get there.”

But the further we drove, the quieter Kai got, right up until we pulled up out the front of the house we’d grown up in.

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