Page 50

CHAPTER 49

“YOU WON’T DO it,” Mac Hardy says.

My finger creeps toward the trigger. I want to do it.

“She don’t dare,” Logan says. But his voice trembles.

Would I dare?

How about just a little graze of the arm? Nothing life-threatening—just a warning. This is what happens when you keep calling me a freak. When you track me like an animal. When you jump me every chance you get.

The trigger is cool to the touch. I think Mac would’ve shot me and Holo if he could’ve. That means if I shoot him, I’m no better than he is.

I don’t care.

I still want to do it.

Mac’s eyes bore into mine. Challenging me. Telling me how much we disgust him, no words necessary. He and his brother are never going to leave us alone. Never going to stop telling us that we don’t belong in Kokanee Creek, and that wolves don’t belong in the Idaho woods.

I hate them.

The world would be a better place without them.

“Kai,” my brother warns. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to go.”

I keep my eyes on Mac. Let’s see who wins the staring contest when I’m the one with the gun. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is what we call justice .”

Logan is still on his hands and knees. He’s crawling toward his brother.

I move the pistol between Mac and Logan. Ribs? Teeth? Heart?

Mac finally blinks. Clears his throat. Says, defiantly, “I know you can’t do it.”

Oh yes I can.

“You save people, Kai,” Holo calls to me. His voice sounds high and scared. “You don’t hurt them.”

I save the ones who deserve to be saved.

“Go on, you little chickenshit forest bitch,” Mac growls. “I’m getting bored.”

Logan has gotten all the way behind his brother now. He’s using him as a shield. How brave. How brotherly.

My finger presses a little harder on the trigger now.

All it’ll take is one tiny squeeze.

And then I hear the siren.