Chapter 37
Jessica pales.
She’s like a fawn. Her eyes dart around nervously, but there is nowhere to go.
“I asked you a question.”
She licks her lips to moisten them. It’s one of her nervous habits. “I, uh, just meant that they didn’t stand a chance against us.
I look at her as if seeing her for the first time. It’s true she’s always underfoot and I’m as familiar with her as I am with myself.
But I don’t know that I’ve really seen her.
Not in a very long time.
“Are you happy, Jess?”
If my first question made her nervous, this one has her even more unsettled. She bites her lip hard and lowers her gaze.
Jessica is twenty-nine years old. And, as far as I know, she’s been alone for at least as long as Leah has lived beneath this roof in our home.
I think of the wolves. They attacked me that fateful day, but
they’d been willing to d ie to ki ll Leah.
“Did you do something stu pid, Jess?”
She can’t look me in the eye. Her gaze skits around the room.
“Sonofabitch!” I slam my hand on the table.
The glasses tip over and shatter and the dishes jump.
“I didn’t do anything!” she insists.
But I think she played a part or she knows who did.
My claws extend through my fingertips and I feel my spine starting to curve. “Get out!”
She runs from the dining room, terrified. But there is nowhere she can go or hide where I won’t find her.
I flip the giant table, sending it flying into the sideboard. The food and glass and porcelain shatter all over the floor.
James strolls into the room. He lets out a low whistle. “Chef spent hours on that meal.”
My body is partially shifted but I’m coherent enough to speak. “Was it you?”
I should shift fully and run. I need to get this rage out of my system so I can think and act rationally, because I’m not good to anyone-myself included-with my emotions as clouded as they
are.
And I really don’t want to ki ll one of my own packmates, if I can help it.
At least not yet.
James frowns at the table. It’s a huge antique and the intricately carved oak has cracked in half. “This table has been in our pack for generations.”
I retract my claws and wait for my jaw to realign. The muscles in my forearms burn as they contort to my human shape.
“I’ll only ask once more, James. Was it you?”
“It wasn’t me.”
“But you know who planned the attack.”
“I have my suspicions. It didn’t originate in our pack, Aaron. I know what you’re thinking, but—”
“You mean the evidence I have that your sister is colluding with our enemies and may have been behind an assault that nearly ki lled her Alpha and Luna.”
James grimaces. “She loves you. She’s always loved you. This hasn’t been easy on her, seeing Leah everyday.”
I won’t mince words. “Did Jess do this? Did she set this up, and did you, as my beta, look the other way?”
