Page 52 of Bitten, Marked, Obsessed

“Yeah,” I whisper. “I figured.”

“You already knew, didn’t you?” she asks.

I nod before I realize she can’t see me. “Yeah. I knew.”

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I didn’t know how to say it. I thought maybe if I didn’t talk about it, it would go away. That if I ignored it long enough, I could pretend it wasn’t real.”

“Trust me, Igetthat,” I say with a dry laugh. “Ignoring shit is like my superpower.”

There’s silence for a beat, and then her voice comes back—smaller.

“Can I see you?”

The question slices right through me because I want to say yes, but my instinct knows better.

“I want to,” I say. “So bad. But I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m being hunted, Adora. And if you’re near me… they’ll come for you too.”

“I don’t care,” she snaps. “You’re my sister?—”

“Idocare,” I cut in. “You think I can live with myself if something happens to you? After everything we’ve already been through? You think I could survive that?”

She goes quiet.

And then the FaceTime rings.

My screen shifts and suddenly she’s there—blurry, backlit by a crappy apartment lamp. Her hair’s up in a knot. Her eyes are tired and rimmed in something deeper than sleeplessness.

“Kendall,” she says softly, “I talked to Mom.”

My stomach drops.

“Yeah?”

“She didn’t tell me much. She didn’t want to. But I pushed.” Her eyes flick to the side like she’s making sure she’s alone. “She admitted it.”

“Admittedwhat?”

“That she knew that it was Dad– Edmund that attacked me. That it wasn’t… normal. That it wasn’t an accident.”

I feel my fingers tighten around the phone.

“She said heshouldn’t have tried,” Adora continues. “Because I wasn’t like you.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Adora swallows hard. “That he’s not my real father.”

My mouth opens. Then closes. No words come. I knew that but hearing it confirmed by someone other than Dad was a different level.

“And that mine’s here. In the city.”

“Who?” I whisper.

“She didn’t say a name,” Adora says. “But she said he wasn’t human. Not even werewolf.Something else.”

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