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“Tell me about it.”

She paused, then peered over. “What’d he do this time?”

“You know, just being himself.”

“Himself or his wolf?”

My heart raced as I thought about his wolf from earlier, thought about him fighting with his inner beast, about the beast winning over, about that needy look in his eye, the desperation for me to choose him in his voice …

“Both,” I murmured, keeping my gaze on the painting. “Where is he?”

“He should be resting in his bedroom,” she said. “His wounds are still healing.”

“Healing? From what?”

“Another pack attacked us.”

Eyes widening, I looked over at her. “They did? Why?”

She peered down at the grass and shuffled her feet across it. “All the hate we get from other packs stems from the curse on our people …” She drew her fingers across her neck where that scar was and frowned. “It’s fine though.”

Deciding this painting wasn’t getting done anytime soon, I closed up my paints and sat down on the porch with her. I was still pissed she hadn’t yet told me where she planned to meet Cade later, but she looked so sad.

And I’d seen that look in Cade’s eyes before.

They had almost the same scar, and I’d bet that … those scars were related somehow.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“It’s not your fault. I’m just worried about Davix.”

“Why?”

“Usually, his wounds heal quickly, but they’re taking longer and longer every time we get attacked by another pack.” Her bottom lip quivered, and she shook her head. “He pretended like they weren’t, but they were especially bad earlier.”

“Especially bad?” I repeated. “When he left, I didn’t see any wounds on him.”

“He is really—” She paused halfway through her sentence, brows scrunching together. “Wait … what do you mean, you didn’t see any wounds on him when he left? He came over?”

I opened and closed my mouth a handful of times, then tucked some hair behind my ear.

“He did, didn’t he?”

“Listen, I … he wasn’t supposed to … he wasn’t invited …”

She snapped her head toward me. “Oh my Goddess. He did?! Really?!”

“It wasn’t anything, okay?” I exclaimed. “We were just … Cade was …”

“WAIT!” she said, grabbing my shoulder. “Cade and Davix were here together? Not trying to kill each other for once?! When did this happen? Where was I?! Why didn’t you call me immediately?!”

Damn, she really was into this, wasn’t she? Even when she was supposed to go out with Cade later? Maybe she didn’t really like him like that, and he had told her to just giggle to make me jealous so he could see how I truly felt about him.

Stupid alphahole.

“If they weren’t trying to rip each other’s head off, what were they doing?”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek and shuffled my feet together. Daisy ran up to us, and I swore to God this girl smirked at Hazel. Pumpkin giggled in the distance. And my face started burning up.