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  “I just know.”

  “That’s not an answer. How do you know?”

  He took several steps away and then came back toward me. “Yeah, okay. Maybe you do need to go out with him.”

  My heart thumped; I was panicking with the possibility that we were breaking up. Was this what I wanted? I honestly didn’t know any more. “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah, I think I am.”

  He started to walk away.

  “Connor, wait!” I hurried after him. “I don’t want things to end—”

  I came to an abrupt halt. The hairs on the nape of my neck began to prickle with the weird sensation you get when something just isn’t right.

  “Connor!” I whispered harshly, loud enough for him to not only hear me but to detect the dread in my voice as well. Before I knew it, he was back at my side, emitting a low, throaty growl.

  “Do you feel it?” I asked. It felt like…a disharmony in the universe—which makes me sound like some sort of New Age guru or something, but I don’t know how else to explain it. The forest just felt…wrong.

  I heard Connor inhale deeply.

  “Blood,” he said in a low voice. “A lot of it. Still warm. Maybe a recent kill. Or someone badly wounded.”

  “Someone? Maybe it’s an animal.”

  “Definitely human.”

  My stomach roiled at the thought of who might be out there, wounded and possibly dying. I knew we had to find out what had happened—and Connor knew it, too.

  He took my hand, our fight apparently forgotten. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay with this?”

  “Of course.” In fact, I actually wasn’t sure, but no way was I going to admit it.

  He released my hand, and I was aware of his movement and his clothes being shoved into my arms.

  “What if it’s a trap?” I asked.

  “It’s human blood, Lindsey. Someone might be hurt.” And he could find whomever it was far more quickly in wolf form. “We won’t be able to communicate, so just stay close. If you think there’s a danger to you, run as fast as you can. Holler to get attention if you have to.”

  “Got it.”

  He quickly brushed his lips over mine, and I could only hope that it wasn’t the last kiss we’d ever share. Could I be any more confused? One minute I’m not sure we should be together and the next I’m hoping that kiss wasn’t the last.

  A sort of electricity filled the air, and then fur was brushing up against me. Connor wasn’t too difficult to see in the dark because his fur was pale blond in color, a little darker than my hair. As a wolf he was able to read my thoughts, so I focused on the task before us. I brushed my hand along his fur. As he began to walk, sniffing the ground and air, I remained close enough so I wouldn’t lose him, my fingers occasionally sifting through his fur.

  So I was very much aware when he suddenly bristled, as though whatever we were searching for, he had found. I could smell it now, the metallic odor saturating the air so thickly that it made me queasy. I could see a shadowed form lying prone on the ground.

  Connor released a long, low howl. I didn’t know why the call of the wolf could carry so far and so effectively. I could be screaming bloody murder and few would hear me to come and help, but many of our kind would hear Connor. They would come. And with any luck, they’d bring flashlights. A lot of information could be communicated in a howl.

  Connor was suddenly hairless, and my fingers were touching his warm, bare shoulder. He was in a crouched position. “He’s dead,” he said somberly.

  “Who is it?” I dared to ask.

  “Dallas. I recognized his scent a while back, and my night vision is good enough that I can see him clearly now.”

  Stunned, I was barely aware of a tug on the clothes I held in my arms. I released them. The inside of my mind was screaming, Who would do this? Why would they do it? Only one answer came to mind: Bio-Chrome.

  Connor wrapped his arms around me. He’d put his jeans back on, but he was shirtless. I could feel the warmth of his skin against my cheek.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  With him so near, I could now ask for the answer I’d been dreading. “How did he die?”

  Connor’s hold on me tightened as though he needed as much comfort as I did. “Looks like someone—or something—ripped out his throat.”

  TEN

  Connor hadn’t put his shirt back on because he’d draped it over Dallas’s face and shoulders. When Lucas, Rafe, and Zander, another Shifter, arrived with flashlights to illuminate the grim scene, I was grateful to see nothing more gruesome than a stained, hunter-green T-shirt.

  “You didn’t notice anyone around here?” Lucas asked.

  “No,” Connor responded.

  I felt a touch on my arm and jerked my head to the side. It was Rafe. I couldn’t believe how glad I was to see him, to know for sure that he was all right. His gaze wandered slowly over me as though he wanted to make sure that it wasn’t any of my blood tainting the air.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice raspier than usual, the way mine got when I had a scare.

  I nodded quickly—too quickly. “Yeah, I just…I’m okay.”

  He left my side then, and I felt keenly the loss of his presence. He knelt down and peered beneath the T-shirt. “Looks like the real deal,” Rafe said.

  He was referring to the bite—it was real, not a wound that someone had made so it would look as though Dallas had been attacked by a wolf.

  “Thought you were supposed to be watching him,” Connor said, irritation in his voice. I wasn’t convinced it was just because Rafe had neglected his duties.

  “We were going to grab a burger at the Sly Fox, but he wanted to shower first. I didn’t think I needed to sit in his room, so I went to wait for him at the bar. When he didn’t show, I went back to the hotel. He wasn’t there.”

  “I wonder what happened,” I murmured.

  “Maybe someone figured out he wanted to help us—and didn’t like it,” Rafe said, his voice sympathetic. I felt the force of his gaze on me and knew I should probably look away, but I couldn’t. “The clerk at the desk said some big dude had been looking for him.”

  “One of the mercenaries from Bio-Chrome?” I asked, my voice low.

  “That’d be my guess. If so, looks like he found him.”

  “We need to alert the sheriff,” Lucas said.

  “Do we want to get the police involved?” Rafe asked.

  “I don’t see that we have a choice. He’s not one of ours. He could have family somewhere.”

  Sheriff Riley, however, was one of ours. He’d play this any way he could in order to keep the press low-key and to ensure the National Enquirer didn’t start poking around for a story on rabid wolves or werewolves that tore out the throats of unsuspecting tourists.

  “I’m going to take Lindsey back to her cabin,” Connor said.

  “Okay,” Lucas said, distracted, staring at the body.

  I didn’t remember anything about the walk back to my cabin, except that it had been silent. The owls weren’t even hooting. It was as though the entire forest had gone into mourning.

  When we got to my cabin, I opened the door and walked in. Connor followed.

  Kayla was sitting up in bed. She threw back the covers and hurried over to me. I wondered what my face showed—maybe she saw that all the blood had drained from it. I felt like a walking zombie. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  I was beginning to think that was the dumbest question in the entire world. Why would people ask that when it was obvious I wasn’t?

  “Tell her, okay?” I asked Connor. “I want to take a shower.”

  I strolled into the bathroom and closed the door. I turned the knob on the shower as far as it would go in the direction of hot water. It was summer and the nights were cool, but I felt as though I’d just walked across the frozen tundra. Without removing my clothes, I stepped into the shower, sat on the floor, and just let the water slam into me. I felt like the scent of blo