Page 115 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

“He wants you to kill me, doesn’t he?” I snarled, feeling my canines elongate enough to pierce my bottom lip. A hot dribble of blood rolled down to my chin.

A soft hiss escaped Grey’s lips, and I saw his fangs sharpen, growing longer, too. He licked his lips. “He would like that, I’m sure, but no…at least, not yet.”

If that wasn’t an admission of guilt, I didn’t know what was.

“Ryland killed them, didn’t he?” I asked, emboldened now that I knew he didn’t intend to kill me. “The shifters who keep vanishing. They haven’t run away at all, have they?”

Grey clucked his tongue.

“Didn’t he?” I pressed, my voice rising. “Just admit it.”

Grey’s lips pressed together as he regarded me with a cool sort of interest. Like he was impressed. “I don’t think I can rightly give Ryland credit for my work,” he said, his voice a sly whisper, smoother than silk.

“For your…” I trailed off, understanding at once what he meant.

“Ryland had you get rid of them,” I said, more to myself than to Grey. A soft crinkle sounded from my chest as I pointed an accusing finger at him.

But what about…

“And Jared’s parents? Did you kill them, too?”

All I needed was his admission of guilt. A nod.

Anything.

Something that would incriminate him and not Ryland. If he gave me that, I’d unleash my wolf.

Grey underestimated us. We were strong. Fast. We could take him.

We would revel in the taste of his blood coating our tongue.

Grey’s smile grew. “Some things can be done as favors,” he said, the ‘s’ lengthening into a hiss. “But there are some things a man must do himself.”

I gasped at the admission, my shock quickly morphing to anger and a dangerous understanding of what was going to happen next.

A bolt of white-hot apprehension seared through my chest as Grey darted forward, too fast for me to react while still dazed by his words.

My eyes met his and his lips parted. “Now…” he cooed, standing over me, his hand reaching up as though he intended to stroke my cheek. I did my best to stand my ground. “You will forget everything we just spoke about.”

What?

“You will set aside your suspicions about Ryland, and you will convince anyone else who shares those suspicions that they are unfounded. Ridiculous. From this moment on, you will be loyal to him in every way.”

A strange thought crossed my mind. A whisper of doubt planting seeds in the garden of my mind.

Maybe Ryland was innocent. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding…

I realized what Grey was doing with a start I hope he didn’t see in my eyes. My clenched fists at my sides steadied me, fingernails digging deeply into flesh.

Stay still, I told myself, pulse thrumming like a hummingbird’s wings.

Grey was trying to compel me. How hadn’t I seen it before.

Holy fuck, this wasn’t the first time, either, was it?

YOU WILL NOT TELL anyone of this meeting, he’d said to me in Ryland’s office just over a week before. You will not speak ill of your alpha. You will adhere to his will and command. You will be obedient.

Except…I had told Clay of the meeting. And I definitely had spoken ill of Ryland. And I certainly was not obedient.

Like the spell shielding Clay’s family’s cabin from view, and the magic the witch had tried to use to heal my arm, apparently, a vampire’s compulsion also held no sway over me?

“Do you understand?” Grey asked, a knot forming in his brow, and I realized I may not have been acting like someone compelled would act.

I had no idea what that would look like, but I wanted—no, I needed—him to think this was working.

It was the only way I was going to get out of here without a fight.

I forced my face to slacken, staring unblinking into his dark eyes, fighting my emotions.

“I understand,” I replied, trying a slow succinct tone.

Grey bent closer, putting his face a mere three inches from my own. Near enough that I could smell the metallic tang on his breath and the musky scent of his aftershave. He searched my gaze, and I did my utmost best not to move, attempting to slow my erratic pulse.

He tipped his head to one side, brushing the tip of his index finger down from my temple to my jaw. I stiffened at the contact, my jaw twitching with the urge to bite his head off.

“Such a pity the Endurans claimed you first,” he purred. “You would have made an exceptional vampire.”

Don’t shift. Don’t shift.

“Since we’re here,” he continued, his gaze following the trail his finger had just made on the side of my face and down lower to my neck. “I don’t see why we shouldn’t make the most of it. I doubt Ryland would mind.”

His fingers came to rest on the side of my neck, pressing against the pulsating artery there as his other hand came around my back, drawing me in closer to him.

No, I roared within. There was no way in hell I was going to let this happen. I began unfurling within, letting my wolf know that she was about to take the reins she wanted so desperately, giving her permission to end this fucker before he could sink his teeth into us.

On my mark, I whispered within, ready to let go, but not until the right moment.

Let him get a little closer.

Closer.

I held my breath. “Allie?”

Clay’s growl rebounded through the woods.

In a matter of less than a second, Grey’s hold on me loosened and then vanished entirely.

“Until next time.”

His whisper lingered even after he was gone. “Allie! Where the fuck are you?”

“H-here.” I whispered, unable to project my voice as the weight of everything came crashing down around me.

We’d been right.

My stomach heaved and just as Clay reached me, I crumpled to my knees, retching into the dirt, my arms quivering beneath my weight.

“Hey,” he said, rushing to sweep my hair away from my face.

“Allie,” he growled. “Allie, what happened?”

Booted feet running through dry leaves sounded somewhere behind Clay, and I flinched, my watery gaze lifting to find the pursuer.

“It’s okay,” Clay said, rubbing a wide hand over my back. “It’s okay, it’s just the others.”

“What the hell happened?” Jared’s voice demanded, and I felt a tug as he gently folded me into his arms, enveloping me in warmth and his woodsy scent.

“Allie?” Layla.

“Did he touch you? I’ll fucking kill—”

“Quiet,” Clay barked, silencing everyone. “Jared, get her up. It’s time for us to leave.”

“But their ceremony—” Vivian began just as the hooting of cheers and the clatter of an applause rose from camp in the distance.

“Is already over,” Jared snapped, his tone defiant and dangerous and not at all the one that I liked. I wanted my calm Jared. I needed him. As the dark spots crowded in at the edges of my vision, my panic taking root, I clutched him.

“Let’s get you home,” Jared said, and I felt my body lift from the ground just as my vision began to darken.

I fought against the dark and the fear that if my heart beat any more quickly—more erratically—that it would stop entirely. My wolf prowled, dogged by my panic, but enraged beyond measure.

“No,” I muttered, trying to get a grip on myself. “NO.”

“Wait, stop,” Clay bellowed, and felt Jared jerk beneath me. “What is it Allie?”

My head spun and the cold sweat that had bloomed over my chest earlier was beginning to creep like frost down my arms, leaving a numb tingle in its wake.

We were right.

I tried to say the words. I needed to make him understand that we couldn’t leave. Sam was in danger. We were all in danger.

But my heart gave one more fitful stammer, and I jerked with the force of it before darkness consumed me.