Gray

He stared in shock for all of two seconds, then his reflexes kicked in.

“Come on,” he said quietly, taking Kelly by the shoulder and turning her away from the body. He escorted her back to the nearest unit and hammered on the door until someone answered.

“Ye—” The poor woman didn’t get a chance to finish. The blood-drenched figures in front of her must have shocked her silent.

“Take her inside. Keep an eye on her at all times; do not let her out of your sight. Do you know the number to the embassy?” he barked, command infusing his tone. He spoke like someone who simply expected to be obeyed.

The woman, responding to the iron in his tone, nodded. “Yes.”

“Good. Call it. Tell whomever answers what your unit is, and that Gray said it’s all hands on deck, Priority One. Got it?”

She nodded.

“Repeat it back,” he ordered, nodding once when she got it right. “Go!”

He turned and headed back to the body, and with only a minor bit of hesitation and dissatisfaction at the way things had gone down, hauled the corpse out of the way back between the two buildings, where it would be much harder to spot. He didn’t do it because he was afraid of someone finding it and coming after him, but because the buildings were all full of pregnant women who simply did not need to see a dead man bleeding out in the middle of the roadway.

The dark brown gravel made the pool of his blood look almost like an oil stain or something similar, much to his relief as it soaked it up into the dried ground. That job done, he raced back for the unit and let himself inside, moving over next to Kelly.

“Hey,” he said, taking both of her hands in his and holding them tight. He’d hated to even leave her for that long, but it had to be done. Now though, he promised himself he was never going to leave her side.

“Hi.” Her voice was surprisingly strong and clear.

“Are you okay? Did you get hurt at all? How’s the baby?”

Kelly shook her head. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine.” She paused, then there was a little scared-sounding laugh. “I feel like I shouldn’t be able to answer that. That I should have a list of things to tell you about what’s wrong. But seriously, Gray, I don’t feel bad at all. No problems with the baby either. All feels normal. Other than my heartbeat being a little elevated.”

She snorted at the word “little,” knowing it was an understatement.

“Okay,” he said, feeling uncertain about it all, but not wanting to push. “It’s over now.”

“I know it is,” she said. “I killed him.”

He frowned at the steadiness in her voice.

“Am I in shock?” she asked, looking up at him at last.

Gray looked her in the eyes, taking note of her pupils, her breathing, and the calm demeanor she had about her. “I…don’t know,” he answered truthfully. “You should be, but you don’t seem like it.”

“I see.”

“How do you feel?”

“Honestly?”

He nodded.

“Relieved. Almost even a little bit happy, though any time I feel that it’s drowned out by guilt about feeling happy that he’s dead.”

Gray held her tight, but she kept speaking.

“It just solves so many problems,” she said. “Which is why I’m feeling guilt over being happy about it. Things were so much simpler when he was already ‘dead.’ To have him now be officially dead just means I don’t have to worry about him coming back to haunt me again, like he had been doing.”

His jaw hung open slightly. She sounded like a shifter. Upset that someone had to be killed, but coldly logical about the reasoning behind it, and not feeling any remorse.

“You sure are acting rather logical about all this,” he admitted.

“I…I feel like I should be feeling distraught. Horrified. And I mean, part of me is upset. But I’m more upset about the fact that I was forced to kill, not that I actually did.” She frowned up at him. “Is that normal?”

“For a shifter,” he said quietly.

Kelly nodded. “I never knew my parents, I told you that, right?”

“Yes. You were an orphan, adopted as a babe.”

“Was one of my parents a shifter?”

“I…I don’t know,” he said. “But it seems possible, doesn’t it?”

Kelly nodded. “I’m thirsty.”

Almost immediately their host was there with a glass of water. Then she realized there were two of them, and came back a minute later with one for Gray.

“Thank you,” he said.”

She nodded nervously. “I’m Rachel, by the way.”

“Gray,” he rumbled, then nodded his head toward his mate. “This is Kelly.”

“W-What happened?” she asked. I heard noises and kind of hid in my bedroom when the building started shaking.

“Smart move. Um, there was a rogue shifter,” he said, deciding on telling most of the truth. “Unfortunately I was forced to fight him.”

“But I killed him,” Kelly said. “Saved the day, really.”

Gray eyed her, wondering if she was in some deep form of shock. But her tone was relaxed. Comfortable. At ease. Maybe she really was part shifter. That might explain her way of thinking, of the anger at her hand being forced, not given the option to save his life. But Jacen had been crazed, and unwilling to give up it seemed, even when he knew he was beaten. Gray was positive he could have gotten the better of him, but Kelly had intervened before that happened. No sense in dwelling on that now of course.

Rachel looked back and forth at them, wide-eyed. Gray decided he was happy he’d left out the part about Jacen being a former Institute shifter. The last thing he needed to do was induce a panic amongst the women, who would all be jumping at shadows, thinking it was the shifter who had impregnated them come back to haunt them. Not ideal.

“Come down to the embassy with us,” he said silently. “We’ll ensure you get looked after. Including some new furniture,” he joked lamely, indicating the blood smears that covered hers.

“Um, thanks,” Rachel said, trying to smile at his joke. It didn’t really work.

Gray just nodded, and the trio descended into an awkward silence as they waited for Andrew and the others to arrive to clean up the body and deal with the aftermath.