“There’s nothing we can do if Ramsey’s joy-changing. We have to wait.”
“Can’t we wake him up?” I ask.
Liam shakes his head. “If we wake him suddenly, he might abruptly change. There’s no telling what he’d do. It could hurt him.”
“He’d want us to,” Mom says, giving me a look. “I’m sorry, Ruby, but wouldn’t he? He’d want us to if it saved your life.”
Liam looks at me, nodding. “I think she’s right. But it’s too late. They’re already here.”
“What should we do?” I say.
“Stay with Ramsey. Both of you. I’ll try to stop them. They’ve made a mistake, only bringing one wolf. But I smell gunmetal.Fuck. I may have to talk him down. Try, anyway. This isn’t good.”
“He’ll kill you,” I say.
Outside, I hear a car pull up, followed by another, then another.
Mom shivers when his voice rings out.His. The voice that led so many lectures and lessons when I was a kid, the voice that told me I was fundamentally wrong, deficient, always.
“Don’t make me huff and puff,” he says, with his characteristic evil laugh. “I can smell you in there, Ilsa, reeking of fear as usual.”
Liam takes a step back, looking lost for a moment.
“What is it?” I ask.
“He stinks of murder. He wants to kill. He’s hungry for it. There’s no talking to a wolf like that.”
“So, what do we do?” I ask.
“Keep him talking,” Liam says softly, walking to the rear of the room. “I can change without alerting him. But I need to focus. Talk with him.”
“Ilsa,” Pete calls. “Are you in there?”
“She is,” I snap when Mom doesn’t say anything. “And she wants you to know, it’ssonot impressive, your little wolf routine. It doesn’t change what you are.”
“Oh, and what’s that?”
“A pathetic little man!”
“Silly, silly Ruby,” Pete says, his voice getting closer to the barn door. “I can smell that wolf on you. You have no clue how shocked I was when I heard about what happened with that stupid kid, the tattooed idiot calling himself a hunter. Still, he came in handy. He’d taken your photo, and we hunters like to share. There you were, the daughter to the traitor, to the woman who left me. It felt like Christmas. I left the following hour.”
“You’re sick,” I snap, my head swimming, hardly able to believe this is real.
Let me wake up. It can’t be him. Anybody but him.
In the corner, Liam quietly groans, his bones making cracking noises and shifting. I want to check on Ramsey, but at the same time, I know Liam’s right.
I have to keep talking if I want to save us.
“I’msick?” Pete laughs, his voicerightoutside the barn now. I can hear other men, the rustling of clothes, and metallic noises. “I’m not the one who fucked a wolf.”
Mom gasps, and I glare at her, fighting a note of rage.
“I love him, Mom,” I hiss.
“You do?” Her eyes widen. “Since when?”
“Since the first freaking time I saw him,” I snap. “That’swhen.”