“Explain what?”
“The many things that are wrong with you.”
I frown. “Like what?”
“Your self-imposed isolation. How much weaker you’ve gotten since I last saw you. The fact that you smell exhausted. Your affinity for lies. Your refusal to shift even when your life depends on it- “
“You know,” I challenge him mildly, “if you’re accusing me of something, you can just come out and say it.”
“Nah. It’s more fun to corner you into admitting it.” He clearly has feelings about what happened tonight. They include frustration, worry, anger, and even a hint of distrust. I’m not sure how I know, since his stony profile hasn’t moved a millimeter. Maybe I’m getting better at guessing others’ emotions by scent, like a real Were.
Look at me, the little hybrid that could.
“There is nothing to admit,” I say blandly. “Do you think Bob told anyone about our locations?”
“No. He’s an idiot who entered Northwest territory on his own.”
“Was.”
“Was,” Koen concedes, disturbingly pleased. Were justice is swift and brutal, and the Northwest’s most of all. The pack is known for spending more time in wolf form than others, for being vicious beyond what is necessary to maintain their borders, and for holding grudges. The Northwest has fewer members than the Southwest, but its territory is wider and more remote. Which is why, when I decided that I needed to be alone, it seemed like the best option.
But now that I have Koen breathing down my neck, I’m rethinking things.
“You’re tired, and we have a long drive,” he says, abruptly changing the topic. “Go to sleep.”
I am tired. But: “What are we going to do about Ana?”
He frowns in surprise. “I told you, Ana is fine.”
“Ana is seven. We need to have a plan in place to protect her.”
“We?”
“We,” I repeat. When
I was seven, I was an orphan. When
I was seven, nothing but horrible things happened around me. Too much of this hits too close to home, and I don’t want her to ever feel like I used to.
“Ana has Lowe, and the Vampyre- “
“Her name is Misery.”
“- and an entire pack that is ready to die and, more productively, to kill for her.”
“I should help, too. I can- “
“Serena.” There is an edge to his voice. His grip on the steering wheel tightens. “Did you hit your head earlier?”
“What?” I instinctively massage the back of my skull. “I don’t think so. Why?”
“Just trying to figure out what caused the memory loss.”
“I don’t have- “
“Clearly you forgot that you were assaulted about forty-five minutes ago.”
“I didn’t.”
“Really? That’s fucking great.” There is a deep V between his dark, reflective eyes, one that makes his scars pop. “Then I won’t have to remind you that you’re twenty times more at risk than Ana is.”
“That’s not true.”
“Ana is the sister of an Alpha, and her existence is a well-kept secret.
You have no family, no pack, no influence, no resources- you don’t even have a home. You are virtually alone in the world, and you’ve been under surveillance your entire life, which makes predicting your next move very easy for a specific contingent of people. And don’t forget that for the last few months, your face has been plastered on every single news segment all over the world. Now, for a thought experiment: If someone decides that they want to play mad scientist with a hybrid, who do you think they’ll go for, killer?”
Koen is angry- whether at my stupidity or at being saddled with me, I’m not sure. Still, the depth of my lack of . . . of everything is not something I want to contemplate at the moment. “You are correct,” I say calmly, feeling a burning pressure behind my eyes. “And I’m not going to say that I can fend off whoever comes for me. However, if I know about a threat, I can prepare and take care of myself- “
“I will take care of you,” he says roughly.
Oh. “Oh.”
He sighs and runs a hand through his thick, unkempt hair.
“Koen, you don’t have to- “
“Serena.” I hear it in his voice, how little patience he has to spare. For the first time, it occurs to me to wonder what his night was like before he appeared to take care of Bob- and of me. The warning phone call from Lowe. The furious drive to reach me. The fear of being too late.
The part of me that matters isn’t interested in you, he’d said, and I do not doubt it. But even if the mate thing means nothing to Koen, even if he doesn’t care about me as a person, I’m still a hybrid who could bridge the gap between Weres and Humans. I’m under his protection, and hearing that I was in danger cannot have been easy. “Thank you,” I say with sincere appreciation. “For coming to get me. For being there right on time.”
“Don’t thank me.”
“Why?”
“I fucking hate it.”
“You hate to be . . . thanked?”
“Yup.”
“I . . . Why?”
“If I’m doing something, you can be sure that I chose to of my own free will.” He falls silent for a moment. Then his nostrils flare and he turns to scan my face, his expression increasingly horrified.
“What?” I ask. “Is a moth crawling up my nostril, or- ” I pat my cheek with my palm, and it comes back wet.
That’s what’s upsetting him.
“Oh.” Koen just killed someone without batting an eye but cannot take me shedding a single teardrop. “I’m fine,” I reassure him. His alarm doesn’t abate. It’s like I’ve just been shot in front of his eyes. “I’m okay, I promise. I’m just tired.”
“Then go the fuck to sleep,” he orders, panicky.
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