Chapter 3
Misti made a scoffing sound. Who was Anders kidding? He was nothing but a murderer and a liar and?—
That’s when she spied Kastner’s claws in her peripheral vision.
What in the hell?
She stood and faced Kastner. His fingers were back.
“Your Shadowed Star friend has a terrible sense of humor.” Kastner was scowling. It only made him look uglier.
She never had felt at ease around the alpha. “Anders’s sense of humor is lacking,” she agreed.
Anders was stiffer than she had ever seen him. He was fighting himself.
Kastner was smirking now. Almost taunting him. He wants Anders to attack him.
What the hell was going on?
First Anders killed Talon, claiming he had sold them out. Now Anders was suggesting that Kastner wanted to turn them over to their fathers.
Best to avoid it and change the subject.
“Who did this?” she asked, kneeling beside Talon again, but watching the two werewolves from the corners of her eyes.
“One of our enemies, obviously,” Kastner said testily. “They all need to pay for his death.”
Anders crossed his arms, his muscles flexing. “It’s a shame he wasn’t a stronger fighter.”
“He was a ferocious fighter,” Kastner yelled.
“Of course he was.” Misti shot Anders a look. If he wasn’t careful, Kastner just might kill him. And she just might not step in to stop him.
Seeing her husband like this, dead, trapped forever in his wolf form, made her hate herself. She hadn’t wanted to marry him. Her body had been touched and licked and kissed and caressed by Anders so many times that touching Talon felt wrong. Thank the moon she never had been claimed by him. She wouldn’t have been able to survive that.
But she had no business feeling for Anders as she did. Even before he had murdered her husband, he had been a Shadowed Star. For centuries, her pack had hated the Shadowed Stars. She should have killed him the moment she recognized him as one.
But by that point, she had already given him her body. She had been so confused and frustrated she hadn’t been able to kill him. Weak, that was what she was.
And her body was definitely weak right now too. Her back hurt far more than slash marks should warrant, even despite the willow bark. Had a nerve been severed?
“I am sorry for your loss,” she murmured.
“And I yours.”
She had overheard only a single phrase between the two werewolves during their heated exchange. Obviously, Anders hadn’t confessed his crime to Kastner, not that she thought he would. Although he had planned on going to her father to confess seducing her in the hopes of a swift death, unlike the one his father would give him… Anders did have a rather over-active conscious.
Which meant he thought that he had been in the right to kill Talon.
“On a spike,” Kastner had said. She had assumed he meant whoever had slain his son, but what if he had meant Anders? Had he only been joking as he had said? Or was he a liar? And if he had meant Anders, and Anders was telling the truth, had Anders also been honest about Talon?
Her head was swimming, and she could hardly think clearly. “I need to lie down.”
“Of course. You’re injured. I shouldn’t have brought you here…”
The wounds on Talon… they weren’t as numerous as she would have thought. Almost every werewolf here had been injured time and again because of the two battles they had fought already. Talon’s wounds weren’t all that impressive, actually. Did that mean he was that skilled of a warrior after all? Or that he hadn’t been fighting as much as the other werewolves?
“Anders, will you please go and find Youngless and Golden? We need to discuss how long we should stay here, if we should change course…”
“I would rather help Misti to a place where she can sleep.”
“I asked you nicely. Do not make me ask you again.”
Anders took a step toward Kastner. “I am not pledged to you.”
“Then you can leave. Without our protection, you won’t survive for five minutes.”
“Stop fighting. Please.” Misti’s vision was growing dark. Her eyelids felt like weights. She could hardly hold her head up. “I do need help.” She hated to admit it, but she did.
Anders wrapped an arm around her, and she had no choice but to lean against him. “I will help her. Then I’ll fetch your wolves.”
Kastner grunted.
She closed her eyes as Anders picked her up and cradled her to his chest. He walked easily. He had been the one more seriously injured before, and she had helped him. Now the coin had been flipped.
When he laid her down, she opened her eyes. “I don’t trust him.”
“Kastner? I never did.” He scowled, his hands curling into tight fists.
“I don’t trust you either.”
Anders winced and hung his head. “I don’t blame you. You’re right. I can’t offer you proof. You didn’t see what I saw, didn’t hear what I did. Why believe me? I have every reason to try to turn you away from him. I… I…”
He straightened, jerked around, and stalked away.
Misti watched him leave, and a sense of isolation settled around her. She was going to die soon. She could tell, and she’d be all alone when she did. After all, she was pushing everyone away. Distrusting and misgivings were her only companions. Sleep came, and even that was troubled.