A sob worked up Kiera’s throat, and she clutched onto his shirt, desperate to push him away and hold him tighter all at once.
“I tried to find you,” Kane rumbled.
She was staining his shirt with her tears. “I didn’t want anyone to find me after… I just needed to be alone,” she whispered in broken words.
“All this time?”
Feeling weak, she shoved off him and wiped her cheeks with her sweater sleeve. Her stomach hurt so bad. A wave of nausea took her, and she retched near the left headlight of her ride. When nothing came out, she squatted down and linked her hands behind her hair.
“Are you sick?” Kane asked.
“Is it an STD?” Dustin asked.
“Leave us,” Kane demanded of the Blackwings, all gathered around them now.
“I don’t like this,” Beast murmured low to Kane. “Something’s wrong with her. I don’t like you this close to her.”
The murderer had protective instincts. That was a surprise. Kiera stood and smoothed her hair back away from her face. A thin sheen of cold sweat had spread across her forehead. She felt like death warmed over, but that was her new normal. “I’m no threat to your alpha.”
“She’s my friend,” Kane murmured.
“From where?” Rowan Barnett asked from behind him. From the compassionate look in her blue eyes, she likely already knew.
Kane sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. Looking so sad, he mumbled, “Apex.”
“Shhhhit,” Beast murmured. He stood ramrod straight, his chest rising and falling too fast. His eyes were so bright it hurt to look at them. “You were a shifter?”
Kiera looked off into the woods near the restaurant. That was nobody’s damn business, and how rude of him for asking.
“What animal?” Beast asked low.
“Beast,” Rowan said softly, sliding her hand over his bicep.
The titan shook her off and asked louder, “What animal, Kiera?”
Her throat was so tight it was hard to get the word out. “Lioness.”
“No,” Beast said, shaking his head in denial. “No! Kane I’m not doing this. She has to go.”
“What?” Kane asked.
“No lions here. None but me.”
“She was stripped of the animal,” Rowan said, anger blasting through her voice like shrapnel.
“Doesn’t matter, it’s too fucking close.” Beast was panicking. Even Kiera could smell it. He was backing up on the gravel lot, pace by stumbling pace. His emotion filled eyes and those pinpoint pupils were trained on her. “Please go,” he choked out. His voice dipped to a ragged whisper. “Please.” And then Beast turned and strode for a bright blue Ford Raptor, got in, slammed the door, and peeled out of the lot, spraying gravel as he went.
“And biggest asshole trophy still goes to Beast,” Dustin said, his work boot propped on the edge of the El Camino bed as he watched the truck disappear down the road. He turned to Kiera, his long, sandy-blond hair whipping in the cold breeze. “You want some sausage?”
“Dustin, really?” Winter asked.
Dustin threw up his hands, feigning innocence. “Not a dick joke that time, I swear. I can hear her stomach growling from here.” He made a circle with his fingers over his head like a halo and smiled sweetly. “Today I’m being an angel.”
“You started another fight with me in Danny’s,” Logan growled. “Your halo is broken into horn shapes.”
Dustin narrowed his eyes and flipped Logan off. Again.
“Also angels don’t give the finger,” Winter pointed out.
Kane looked pissed, and his eyes were now that bright dragon green with the elongated pupils. “Did no one hear my order to leave us alone?”
Emma, the hearing-impaired one, raised her hand with a crooked smile on her lips. “I did.”
Kane shook his head, called them, “smart-asses,” then jammed his finger back toward the restaurant. “Leave! Now!” Power crackled through his words. Even Kiera could feel the command in his tone.
Kiera was having a hard time dragging her gaze away from where Beast’s truck had disappeared. “What’s wrong with him?” she asked Kane as the others meandered inside.
Kane hooked his hands on his hips and followed her gaze. With a shrug, he muttered, “A lot of stuff. It’s not personal, though, Kiera. He’s…troubled.” He twitched his chin toward his crew. “They all are.”
“But not you. Not anymore.”
Kane huffed a tired sound. “Or maybe I’m the worst one. Are you in some kind of danger?”
The question caught her off guard, so she hesitated before she nodded.
Kane reached forward and touched her dyed locks. She’d grown her hair out since they’d shaved it at Apex, colored her fair hair dark with a deep purple sheen all over. When he pushed up the side of her hair, she knew what he was looking for. He was searching for the scars from Apex. The ones that were part of the program to cleanse her, as the humans called it. The scars that helped to take her animal away. She jerked away from him and gave him a dirty look. They weren’t that familiar. Not anymore.
Kane swallowed hard and looked sick. Welcome to the fucking club.
“Why are you here, Kiera? Do you need something from me? Some kind of help? Name it, and I’ll do anything.”
“Why would you help me now?” she said bitterly, yanking her gaze away from him and giving it to the woods again as she leaned up against her ride. “Don’t you know it’s too late?”