Kieran reeled with the memory of the image that had come to him when he saw Lori’s body. Gévaudan hadn’t mentioned that death. “Who could stop such a killer but one of his own kind?” he asked in a whisper.
Gévaudan nodded. “We have laws, and we live safely and in peace by obeying those laws. We don’t kill humans, whatever myth claims.” He took a step forward, raising his hand. “I know you don’t believe you killed. With us, among your own kind, there may be a way to learn the truth. And isn’t that why you’re here, Kieran Holt—to learn the truth?”
“And if the truth is that I killed, then you’ll make certain I never do it again.”
Gévaudan said nothing, but his silence was answer enough. The only answer there could be.
“If you’re innocent,” Gévaudan said at last, “we can offer you a home, a place among your own kind where you’ll be accepted. And needed. There are not many of us in the world. We welcome all who come. You’ll have a purpose here.”
Kieran met and held the other man’s gaze. “I’ll go with you to this Val Cache,” he said.
He saw Gévaudan relax, so subtly that perhaps only another of his kind would have noticed the change. “Good. It’s faster if we run as wolves—”
“No.”
“Then we’ll walk.” He shrugged into his pack and started off into the woods, north and west on a route that would just skirt Lovell. “I’m taking the short route straight through the pass. I’ve got enough supplies that we can camp over a night if you’re not up to it.”
Kieran smiled humorlessly. “I think I’ll be up to it.”
Gévaudan gave him a sideways glance. “I saw Ms. Warrington camped just outside Lovell with the other man, so I assumed you split up for some reason and came separately. You’ll have to leave them behind—”
Kieran came to a dead stop. “What?”
“When we’re in Val Cache you can send a message to her. I’d strongly advise that you tell her to go home—”
“Alexandra is here?” he said.
“You didn’t know?”
Alexandra, here. She had known where he was headed—she had told him about Lovell herself. In his anguish over Lori’s death and his own searing flash of memory, he had thought only of leaving Alexandra safely behind. There had been no time for explanations, to make her see that she must let him go.
But he’d been blind to think she’d simply return to Minnesota, even though she’d surely heard of Lori’s murder and would have been faced with all the same horrifying possibilities that had driven him away from her. He’d underestimated her courage and stubbornness, her own deliberate blindness.
Alexandra, here. His heart sped with mingled joy and dread. To see her once more, only from a distance, when he’d thought never to see her again. To know she was still safe…
And then he remembered Gévaudan’s words, all of them “… camped outside Lovell with the other man.”
“Who is with her?” he demanded.
Gévaudan’s eyes narrowed to wary slits. “I don’t know him. An older man. You didn’t know she’d come here? You two left Merritt together—”
But Kieran was no longer listening. He didn’t know this older man, or why he had joined Alexandra in her journey here. But he knew he would never go with Luke until he had seen Alexandra, spoken with her, assured him self she was safe. He would convince her that she must go back to Minnesota. He would not let her risk herself again.
She was more precious to him than life, and he could never tell her, because to speak such words would bind her to him irrevocably. He had to drive her away at any cost, now and forever.
He broke into a run. Gévaudan gave a soft grunt of surprise and caught up to him within a few strides.
“No, Kieran! Leave her where she is. It’s better this way—”
Kieran brushed past him, and Gévaudan caught his arm. They skidded to a stop and faced each other, breathing hard.
“Whatever separated you is for the best,” Gévaudan said urgently. “Her loyalty to you is admirable, but you don’t know what you are. She’s human, and vulnerable. Until you do—”