Chapter Eleven
Twenty minutes later, Greer paced Xander’s living room, trying to put everything together. Jill was resting in the spare bedroom and Xander was in the kitchen making coffee.
How in the hell was she supposed to wrap her brain around all this? Jill had been bitten by a shifter and Xander, the guy she’d thought she could trust, was one too. Her ex was dead, Kelsey was dead, and she still had a butt load of questions Xander needed to answer.
“So, are you like a shifter bounty hunter or something?”
Xander didn’t even look up from his task as he answered. “No, I’m not a bounty hunter or a cop.”
“Okay. Then why were you following them here?”
He stopped pouring the coffee to meet her gaze. “They killed my family. Came through and slaughtered them while they were sleeping.”
“Oh, Xander, I am so sorry.” The way he said it, flat and emotionless, made her want to reach out and hold him.
He ignored her condolences, which didn’t surprise her. When she’d lost her parents in a car accident three years ago, she didn’t want to talk about them at first. It was too painful.
“That’s why I was in the woods when you fell. I was following their scent and I saw Pax watching you. I ran after him, planning on ending it there, but when you collapsed, I couldn’t leave you.”
She had no idea why it had taken her so long, but the pieces finally clicked. “You were the wolf.”
“Yes.”
“I just…I feel like my head is going to explode.”
“You knew shifters were real, right?”
He sounded almost impatient with her and it rankled her. “Well, yeah, but—
“Then you shouldn’t be so surprised.”
The muscle in her jaw tightened. “Okay, fine, but all of the news stories paint you as warm and fuzzy toward humans. Why are they attacking us?”
“Most shifters are pro-human, but there is the occasional issue with shifters killing other shifters and even humans. There are bad guys in the paranormal world, too, just like with humans.”
“Why are they doing this then? Why Kelsey, Sam, and Jill?”
Xander finished pouring the coffee and handed her a cup. “To punish me. After they murdered my family, I have tracked them down one by one, making sure they would never hurt anyone else. There were originally seven. Now there is only five.”
“You mean you’ve been killing them.”
He hesitated. “Yes.”
“Still doesn’t explain why they killed Kelsey, and Sam. You had no connection to them.”
“It’s you. Somehow they must have seen me with you and thought that I might…feel something for you.”
Greer’s heart slammed in her chest, beating a tattoo against her breast bone. “Do you?”
“Does it matter? You think I’m a monster, right?”
Did she? She was scared shitless, no doubt about it, but not of Xander. That voice in her head that had told her to trust him before was still there, still convinced he was a good guy. A good guy vigilante who just happened to be a werewolf.
She set her mug down on the coffee table, and then stepped closer to him. “I don’t think you’re a monster. I…I can’t explain it, but I care for you too. I believe you would never hurt me.”
Tears slid over her eyelids, trailing down her cheeks as the reality of what was happening crashed over her. Kelsey was dead. Sam, too, and now, Jill’s life was completely turned upside down.
And two dangerous supernatural creatures had her in their sights.
Without asking her permission, Xander reached out and gently hauled her into his arms. He held her against his chest, rocking her back and forth. His lips brushed the top of her hair and she leaned into him, squeezing his waist tight as she cried out. Sobs wracked her body as she completely lost it, breaking down like a freaking basket case because she could.
Because Xander, a man she barely knew, was letting her.
He rubbed his hand over her back, murmuring low and soothingly. “It’s okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you or Jill. You have my word.”
Finally, she got a hold of herself. She smoothed her hand over the wet spots on his chest where her tears had soaked his t-shirt. “Sorry for losing my shit all over you.”
His hand came up and he trailed his fingers down her cheek. She tipped her head back to meet his gaze, his electric blue eyes boring into hers.
“You needed it and I’ll be here anytime you do. Anything to get you into my arms.”
It was a line and maybe under normal circumstances, she would have called him out for being cheesy, but she just smiled as she laid her cheek against his chest. The steady thump of his heart kicked up and she wondered if it was because of her proximity. Did she really get to him the way he did her?
“Is it crazy that I just want to stay here with you and push all the bad stuff away?”
“Not at all. If it was up to me, I’d keep you here with me forever.”
To her surprise, the word forever coming from Xander didn’t send her into a blind panic.
“As much as I’d love that, we have some serious problems and I need to know where we go from here. Do we call the police?”
Xander’s grip on her tightened. “No. No cops, of any kind.”
“But isn’t there a branch of paranormal law enforcement that can catch them.”
“I don’t want them caught.”
Greer pulled away as his meaning sunk in. “You want to kill them too.”
“They deserve it, Greer. You don’t know all they did.”
Her palm cupped his cheek. “Tell me. Make me understand.”
Xander’s expression clouded and he cupped her hand, moving it away from his skin.
“I can’t.”