Page 53 of Under a Wicked Moon
“Ah.” He dropped his head.
“Look at me, Ky.” When he didn’t, she leaned forward. “You know who the Crown’s Wolves are, don’t you? ‘Wolves’ must mean it’s a group of lycans.”
He swallowed and drew in a shaky breath before looking up.“Yes.”
Vivi’s brows knitted into a frown. “How long have you known this?”
The admission of what he and his brothers were called was inevitable. The anger he was about to incite by his previous omission was a betrayal on his part. Reluctance to break her trust had him hesitating. But they needed this wedge between them. His getting attached meant she would be killed. Roman was right. “We are the Crown’s Wolves. Roman, Flynn, and I. We’re cursed to serve the Crown of the United Kingdom forever, or at least, as long as the curse stays in effect.” He held up his wrist to show her the curse band magically tattooed around it, then dropped it. “There are technicalities that regulate the specifics of what they can ask us to do, but our primary job is to hunt paranormal threats to England. We’re supposed to protect humans.”
“You?”She shook her head back and forth. “No.”
He remained silent when she gasped, holding a palm over her heart. She asked, “You’re part of the Crown’s Wolves? How could you not tell me?”
His chest ached at the pain in her question. He didn’t attempt to stop the slap that landed on his face.
Deserved that.
“You asshole,” she gritted out. “Did you kill my sister in cold blood?” She fisted his shirt to pull him closer with her enhanced strength. “Did you?”
“The order to hunt her went out after I got captured. I wasn’t involved in finding her.”
“So it was those two? Is that why they were weird around me?”
“I think it’s the uncertainty of what was done to your head that has them wary of you. In their defense, the king gives us orders, and we have no choice but to follow them. If we don’t, the curse will kill us. Sounds like resisting the order to kill Nova almostkilled Roman. He fought that one hard.”
“But he’s alive, which means he followed through. Roman did it, didn’t he? He murdered my sister.”
Roman didn’t want her to know about Nova. The sisters would want to see each other, and he feared that could put Nova at risk to remember. Then someone might be able to activate the mental triggers she’d chemically erased. He hedged. “From what I heard, Roman didn’t actually kill Nova. Neither did Flynn. It was a werewolf hunter group.”
“But there’s more, isn’t there?” She stood, her spine stiff, as anger consumed her. “Tell me what happened to Nova. How exactly did my sister die?”
He buried his face in his hands. “Please, don’t ask me about this. I know it seems impossible, but don’t. Leave it alone for now.”
When she said nothing more after a few seconds, he met her glare.
“Tell me,” she said. “I deserve to know.”
Aw, crap.
Something about her made it impossible for him to lie to her.
He said, “Here’s the thing: what happened has happened. It’s done. The Crown needs to believe what you read on the computer screen to be the truth. If they can control you, they can get information from you. They can’t find out what they believe as truth might not be. According to that screen, she’s dead.”
Her eyes widened. “She’s deadto them? I need you to clarify. Does that mean…? Is she not…?”
“Bloody hell.” He stood abruptly and spun to grab a can of beer out of the refrigerator. He popped the top and chugged half.
“Do you trust me?” she asked.
He started when he found her right next to him and almost dropped the beer.
“Do. You. Trust. Me?” she asked again.
“I trust you. But don’t get angry at me for this. I don’t trust whatever they did inside your head. For all I know, I tell you this about Nova, you knock me out and make a phone call to them to relay information.”
Her face scrunched. “That’s ridiculous. If our places were reversed and you wanted to know what happened to that brother of yours who died… If it turned out he might not be dead, what would you do to find out?”
“What wouldn’t I do?” he murmured and took another huge swallow of the beer.
