“Doesn’t sound ugly to me.” Talley’s voice shook just a little, her evident fear in complete opposition to her words. “If he looks anything like Alex, then ugly is probably the absolute last word anyone would use to describe him.”
No, they would probably start with hulking, crass, cocky, rude--
“It matches what you Saw, doesn’t it?” Toby asked.
“I don’t See--”
“What she Saw?” Mrs. Matthews looked back and forth between the Pack Leader and her daughter, a Seer who only discovered her ability to See thoughts and emotions a month ago. “Who did you touch? What did you See?”
“I didn’t touch…” She drew a deep breath into her lungs. “I didn’t touch anyone. I mean, I did. You can’t go a day at high school without--”
“Talley had a vision over the summer,” Toby said, interrupting. “Right before her other Sight kicked in, she Saw the future.”
“Wait. I’m confused.” Not a totally new state of being for me, but normally I understood this Shifter and Seer stuff better than square roots or split infinitives. Still, ever since Toby dropped this little information bomb on Charlie and me in the car, I couldn’t figure out what was going on here. “Seers can only See one thing, right?”
Talley and Mrs. Matthews, the Seers in the room, said, “Yes.”
Toby, Pack Leader and general Know It All, said, “Maybe not.”
“I shouldn’t have even told you--”
“Yes, you should have.” Toby fixed Talley with his most fierce look. “Actually, you should have told me before today.”
“Talley, why are you bothering Toby with this nonsense. You’re a Soul Seer. It’s a perfectly good Sight to have. There is no need to go around begging for attention by making false claims about having visions of the future.”
Of all the stupid things for Mrs. Matthews to say. Like Talley went around begging for attention. It’s more like she seeks out shadowy corners to hide from it. I blamed her mother for that. Talley is pretty much one of the most awesome people alive, but her mother seems to work hard at making sure she never realizes it.
“What happened?” I asked, turning towards Toby to let Mrs. Matthews know I wasn’t asking her.
My Pack Leader leaned forward and settled his elbows on his knees, assuming his let-me-put-this-simply-for-you-morons pose. “Apparently, over the summer, Talley had a vision, or what she thought was a vision. Why she didn’t call me then--”
“I wanted to make sure it was something worth your attention before disturbing you,” Mrs. Matthews cut in. “Obviously, once her real Sight kicked in, there was no need.”
“What was it you thought you Saw?” Toby already told me it had something to do with the Coles hurting Scout, but I wanted to hear specifics.
Talley looked at her lap and started twisting some of her hair around her finger. “There was this guy... a big guy with grey eyes and this aura of power or something. I could tell he was a Shifter even though he was in human form. He was walking towards me, no shirt or shoes on. Just jeans. And in his arms he was carrying…” Talley’s finger snagged in her hair. “He was carrying a girl. She was all ripped up. There were claw marks across her stomach, and blood was everywhere. I… I think she was dead.”
A large block of ice moved into my chest. “Scout?”
Talley wouldn’t look at me.
“You’re sure it was her?”
Talley gazed at her knee as if it might hold a different answer as she shook her head.
“Oh, for the love of all things holy, this is ridiculous,” Mrs. Matthews said. “Toby said this man is a member of the Alpha Pack. They’re the most honorable and sacred Shifters in the world. He’s not going to hurt Scout.”
The ice in my chest expanded until it filled my entire body. My toes and fingers went numb. Chill bumps broke out across my skin. My teeth even threatened to chatter against one another.
“So, it was her?” How I managed to force the words out was a miracle. “You Saw him kill Scout?”
I tried to see it myself. Scout’s body lying limp across Liam’s arms. Her blood smeared across his bare chest. Her own chest unmoving as her lips turned the same shade of almost-blue as her eyes. That image managed to melt the ice and turn it to steam. Anger was a raging inferno inside me.
“It will be your fault.” I bounded off the couch, and Toby immediately followed me up. In the blink of an eye, I was in his face. “You knew about this, and you just walked away. You made a treaty with the guy who is going to kill my sister.”
Scout and I weren’t related by blood, but she was just as much my family as anyone else in the room, maybe even more so. That twin thing may be a joke to everyone else, but to us it’s real. We might as well have shared a womb since we’ve shared everything else in this world.
“He’s a member of the Alpha Pack,” Toby said, as if that excused his behavior.
“So what? You’re too scared to Challenge him? Fine. I’ll do it.”
Toby leaned in until I could feel his breath all over my face. “I’m not afraid.”
“Funny. Looks like it from where I stand.”
We lunged for each other at the same time. There was a moment when we just stood there, two unstoppable forces becoming an immovable object, but then Toby shifted and we plowed backwards. Charlie, Mrs. Matthews, and Talley were all sitting on the couch, but we still pushed it back a few feet before my back smacked against Charlie’s face.
“I am sick and tired of you questioning every single damn thing I do,” Toby said as I landed in Charlie’s lap.
“Yeah, well, I’m sick and tired of you sucking at your job.” I pushed off the couch with a little extra nudge from Charlie and plowed right into Toby’s stomach. I managed to push him back about three steps, but got nowhere close to slamming him into the sharp edge of the fireplace like I intended. Instead, a punch to my gut stopped me in my tracks right before my legs got kicked out from under me.
“He’s Alpha Pack,” Toby growled.
“And she’s my sister.” How many freaking times was I going to have to say it before people started to understand? I wasn’t just going to sit around and let someone hurt her. I didn’t care if they were Alpha Pack or my cousin, Scout was off limits. I would do anything - anything - to keep her safe.