Page 14 of Brandon’s Mate

A chill ran down his spine. When they were kids, Kitty had always known when he was in his darkest moods, had always come to comfort him. Why was she suddenly starting again now?

He closed his hand into a fist, squeezing it so hard it hurt. He wasn’t going to answer. She couldn’t help him. Nick was his mess, his fuckup, and he had to fix it or die trying. And if he somehow managed that, if he banished the ghosts instead of becoming one of them like he deserved… well, maybe he’d try to see her one more time.

But he sure as hell wasn’t dragging her into this.

He made himself dismiss the messages and set the screen so it wouldn’t time out. Then he put the phone into the cubbyhole with everything else, Kitty’s picture still shining from the screen.

It seemed a fitting way for it to die.

Chapter 5

Kitty was cruising along a county road somewhere in the wilds of Kentucky, the top down on her vintage red Pontiac Catalina V8, the late spring sun warm on the top of her head.

The rushing wind pulled curly tendrils out of her pony tail and swirled through the heap of empty Hostess wrappers on the passenger seat.

Anticipation and anxiety were fighting a battle inside her, with snack cakes as casualties.

She was so close.

She’d spent the last month hunting for Brandon, trying to subtly pry information out of anyone who might possibly have heard from him. She had to be careful not to mention the dream visions—if people knew she’d started developing white wolf powers, the Wolf Council would insist on a full psych evaluation for her.

And by the time they were satisfied she wasn’t going to go batshit crazy and start dismembering people with the power of her mind, Brandon would be dead. They might even put her in protective custody for “observation.”

Polite decline.

When she’d come up empty on Brandon sightings, she’d coaxed Colt and Remy McCall to take a road trip out to Idaho with her. Supposedly just to visit their friends in the Silverlake and Hunter Mountain wolf packs, but really so Kitty could try to sweet-talk Kane and Rachelle Colton into using their contacts in the Agency—a secret and probably illegal group that hunted down shifter bad guys—to find Brandon.

Turned out Brandon had actually worked with the Agency for a while—who knew? But what had started her gut gnawing again was that he’d stopped taking assignments over three years ago. There were rumors that he had hooked up with a last-chance panther crew somewhere in New Mexico, but the crew had dissolved and not even the Agency knew where Brandon was now.

She’d been left with one clue—the burning building from her dream, and the sign outside. Of course, there were only about sixty gazillion bars and roadhouses and B&Bs in the United States called the Crows’ Nest.

Kitty had almost gone blind combing the internet for images that matched that fucking sign. She never wanted to see another crow again. Ever.

A month of searching and worrying, her wolf about to jump out of her skin.

A month of waking up in the night, feeling the heat of the flames.

A month of anxiety clawing her stomach, knowing time was running out.

But finally, finally she’d found it.

Not even a website. Just a snapshot from some hardly-even-a-real-town called Farville, in Kentucky, posted by some random yahoo on social media who really needed to adjust their privacy settings before a stalker identity thief took over their life.

After six years, she was going to see Brandon again.

Even after all this time, she could picture him as clearly as if he were standing in front of her. Tall, with silky dark hair that spilled down over his collar. Moody eyes, dark blue like a midnight sky. Tough as nails, sexy as fuck.

Angry.

Wild.

But fiercely protective, with a soft place in his heart for the few people he cared about.

One of them used to be her, until she’d been stupid enough to fall in love with him. Then he couldn’t run far enough or fast enough to get away from her.

The humiliation of that still burned inside her.

Get over it, she told herself. It was a long time ago.