Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 168701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 844(@200wpm)___ 675(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 168701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 844(@200wpm)___ 675(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
Most probably wouldn’t be sure who they’re angrier at… Greyson’s new mate or the witch, Erica Young.
I think I’m angrier at Grey’s new mate after seeing the look of pain in Erica Young’s eyes.
I ponder this while quickly texting my father to ask if he can come man the store so I can go to breakfast with these guys when the witch comes back down, not because I want to go for breakfast with her, but instead because I need to be there to be eyes and ears for our council since the sisters are still so new to our pack, not shifter, and have no skills to deal with any sort of DEFCON situation, should one arise. Besides, I feel like I need more information about Erica.
But then my ears prick because I hear through the ceiling the sound of absolute anguish coming from my bathroom up there. The girls don’t hear it, don’t have the hearing a shifter does, but that girl upstairs is in absolute agony. And I’m betting that Linc can hear her from outside, too.
It’s a difficult thing to listen to when you want to despise someone, but can tell that they’re obviously in a whole lot of pain.
Since Linc filled me in on last night’s happenings, I haven’t been able to stop wondering what might possess some she-shifter from another pack to attempt to kill Tyson after poisoning some of our people.
I also can’t fathom why anyone would hide from everything that is Riley Savage, especially knowing the way a super-alpha shifter would grieve their lost mate. And witches would know that, wouldn’t they? Bailey believes so.
Yeah, some people move on after losing a mate, my father included. He mourned my mom for a long time. It hurt to see him feel that pain, but Dad eventually found it within him to move on. And now he’s freshly mated to Amie and Ivy’s mother, which he was worried would upset us, but it made me happy after watching him suffer with losing her.
My older sister Candy was another story, but she’ll eventually come around. My younger sister Colleen is away at school, but I know she’ll feel the same as I do when she meets Kathleen. It’s a great match.
Mom died after a battle with a long illness. Shifter illnesses are rare but when they happen they tend to be treacherous. The only thing that plagued her more than her chronic pain was the worrying she did about my father living the rest of his life grieving her. I know she’d be happy; she’d love Kathleen. She’d love Kathleen’s girls, too.
When I hear the water turn off upstairs, Erica is no longer audibly crying.
Why did she hide? Why did she disguise her scent, letting him believe she was dead? I do know that one look at her and it’s obvious – though not as obvious as it is now after the sounds I heard. That girl in my apartment is in tremendous emotional pain.
I’d better message Bailey to meet us for breakfast. If she finds out I went out with Amie, Ivy, and Riley’s mate and didn’t invite her, I’d never hear the end of it.
8
Riley
Showered and dressed, I head out the door with a rumbling stomach. Hunger, despite the fact I feasted all night as wolf.
I swing left to Roxy’s instead of right to leave the village, also giving me an extra couple minutes before I need to drive past her van, the notion of which makes me want to grind my teeth to dust. I’ll grab one of Roxy’s breakfast wraps to wolf down on the way to the job site, focusing on food instead of the magnetic force trying to pull me to that van and what’s inside.
Mine.
I growl at the intrusive thought and shove it away.
Though I was haunted by the aroma I thought was her when I left the clinic last night, I wasn’t convinced it was real until I saw the van. Suffice it to say my head has been fucked since all this started that day in the drycleaners. After catching her scent, I went half out of my mind because my nose couldn’t find her. Kept waking whenever I did get some actual sleep wondering if I caught her scent again. If it was on the wind, out of reach and evading me, demanding I shift and chase it down.
I even hired Jared, a lone wolf that lives on the other side of Drowsy Hollow, to help track her down when our usual channels brought us nothing. Even him with his skills didn’t help. She was not only hiding, she was disguising her scent again. And her family were no help.
My days and nights were haunted with the dregs of faint scent that was still in my nose. That’s why it took until I was steps away from the four corners last night, looking at that van, that I knew the spike of it hitting me in the face was real. My senses weren’t playing tricks on me.