pres

erupted inside him. This was the girl he was supposed to kill? Really? Why the hell did it have to be her? S

Harvenk werewolves had disappeared into. "I need to go back to my village. I need to...to...," She took a

uld already tell but he didn't want to come right o

you search and maybe provide some kind of ai

ppreciation. "Thank you. I didn't want to...you kno

to her. "You shouldn't have to do something like th

, maybe northwest, towar

. "I've spent the majority of my childhood in this forest. I know it

her mind something else to focus on other than the tragedy of what Drake did to her village. The truth was, he could have found it on his own very easily. Al

d simple. Lola walked ahead of him, her pace slow at first. It didn't look deliberate but Russel figured s

the silence stretching between them to be mildly

focus on getting through the forest

as insensitive," Russel told he

tive," she told him, brushing a stray tree branch away from her face. After she

his," he said. "Why would he risk coming her

ization that everyone's deaths, includi

ense," Russel told her. "

," Lola

ricken state and any questions on what happened would push her too far. Two, she clearly didn't know Drake or why someone she had never seen or met before wanted to kill

n as gentle a way as he could

rest of the walk down to her village, the

kward

rapped like he was in a prison cell, it drove him crazy. He even started doing weird things with his hands like cracking each knuckle. Or he

nd went off like a tiny explosion and sounded way louder than he intended. Lola,

ildings of Gloucester still burned brightly. Heat blasted them in the face but Lola was determ

ires was a loud, gruesome thing to hear.

ss. The way everyone in the village looked out for each other. The sense of family she'd had there. The beautiful nights spent looki

ed by her side, standing watch over her like an avenging angel. Her pain suddenly felt just as real to him and he wondered how that could possibly be. Just two weeks a

still have to kill her. Don't f

you just let Dra

be dead like his father wanted and Drake would have been the one to do it, leaving his hands free and clear of blood. It

l on her knees in the grass. "You can head ba

nto his head like waiting me out and then coming back to try his luck again," he told

tears from her eyes. She got up from the ground, wiped off the dirt from her pants, and looked at

her head up to look him in the eyes. "You don't have t

away from him, her e

grief, shame, and guilt inside me but I am done crying. Right now, there's

"He's like me. A royal. His father sits on the th

he glared up at him, her

you are. You know how to fight other werewolves. You

at to say and quickly

aid, insistent. "Teach m