I closed my eyes, and I could see her lying in a coffin, her silver hair spilling onto a simple black dress.

“You believe her,” Jase said, and it wasn’t a question.

“I believe it’s a possibility.”

My mind was still on that coffin, on Scout’s hands folded over her chest.

“And you let them stay?” Jase’s fury was barely contained. “You believe it’s possible he’s going to hurt her, and you let him stay?”

“Damn it, Jase, he had the mark. What was I supposed to do?”

“You’re supposed to protect her! It’s your job to protect her!”

Jase was right. It was Toby’s job to protect her, but no more. Now I would be the one to make sure she stayed safe and out of that coffin.

“I’m trying to protect her.” The steering wheel gave a squeak of protest under Toby’s grip. “If we don’t let them near her, they can’t hurt her.”

“And what if you can’t keep him away?” Jase asked. “He didn’t exactly look like he was willing to just back off just because you said so.”

I finally opened my eyes and met Toby’s gaze in the review mirror. “Then I’ll kill him before he can lay a hand on her.”

Jase

Sitting in the corner of the Mathews’s living room is a pink chair with a bunch of buttons dimpled into it. The dimples give the chair a plush, soft look, but they’re a lie. In truth, it’s one of the most uncomfortable chairs in the entire world. It had been wedged in that corner my entire life, and as a child I spent at least half of my days trapped there for one crime or another. Now that I am well past the Time Out age, I refuse to get anywhere near it.

“Good grief, Jase,” Talley said from the couch. “Sit down. You’re making me nervous.” Mrs. Matthews cut Talley a look, no doubt a reprimand for her filthy “good grief” language.

I could have sat in the empty spot next to her, but then I would run the risk of her touching me and getting into my head, and I was not cool with that. Not to mention, I didn’t want to give Toby any support for his new ridiculous Jase-loves-Talley theory. It’s not that I don’t love Talley. I do. A lot, actually. But I love her in the way you’re supposed to love the girl whose mother was sent by the Alpha Pack to watch over you since your mother refused to move closer to the pack after your father died. The way Toby had meant it…

That was just wrong.

“I’m good,” I said, even though I felt like collapsing on the floor. Some days there has to be more than sixty minutes in every hour. Maybe a hundred. A hundred minutes per hour, and I had been going on full-steam through all of them. First days of school are obnoxious enough, but when you add a parking lot fist fight and some life-and-death Shifter stuff on top of it, it moves into something beyond exhausting.

Hell, the past three days had been a lesson in exhaustion. Ever since Liam Cole ruined a perfectly good day at The Strip my life turned into a giant cluster f…

My eyes darted over to Mrs. Matthews, and sure enough, hers were narrowed at me as if she could hear my thoughts. Everyone said she Saw colors and patterns, but I didn’t believe it. The way she knew I was misbehaving even before I had a chance to do the actual deed was completely unnatural.

“Jase, sit,” she said. And because it was her - and because I didn’t doubt she would give me my seventy-eighth spanking despite the fact I was now seventeen years old - I obeyed. I didn’t, however, sit in the Evil Pink Chair of Punishment. Instead, I straddled the arm of the couch. She didn’t approve, it was written in the tiny lines bracketing her mouth, but I did it anyway. I could be a good boy, but there was no need to be a saint. Charlie, who was sitting on the end of the couch where I was perched, ran his hand over his mouth, no doubt rubbing away a smile. When it came to Mrs. Matthews, he and I were in complete agreement: You do whatever you must to keep your skin attached to your body, but nothing more. And if you can do it and still annoy the piss out of her? Bonus points.

“What happened to your nose, Jase?” Mrs. Matthews didn’t ask because she was concerned about my well-being. No, she was more concerned about how exactly I screwed up this time.

I could have explained the situation. She should approve of the way I stood up for our pack by confronting Alex Cole. It’s what good Shifters do. But, of course, Mrs. Matthews never approves of anything I do, so instead I said, “I picked a fight with a football.”

Toby closed his eyes and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Turns out the Shifter Jase saw at The Strip last week wasn’t just passing through. When his brother showed up at Lake County High today, Jase had a typical Jase reaction.”

Mrs. Matthews shot Talley another reproachful look, which caused Talley’s face to burst into flames. Obviously, she hadn’t ran home and told Mommy Dearest about our new classmate. It was probably stupid of me to feel proud of her over such a small act of defiance, but I did anyway.

“Shifters? In our Territory?” Mrs. Matthews’s shock wasn’t misplaced. The Hagan Pack isn’t exactly some weak family of three or four Shifters, none of which have enough dominance to stand up to a Girl Scout. Most other Shifters steer clear of us, and for good reason. We’re pretty fierce about defending our Territory... usually.

In my head I saw Toby agreeing to allow the Coles to stay. My fingers dug into the arm of the chair, leaving moon-shaped holes in the tacky upholstery.

“I was able to get their address from the Board Office, and we paid them a little visit this afternoon,” Toby said.

Talley looked up from her careful examination of the carpet. “So, they’re leaving?”

“No.”

Mrs. Matthews lowered her head, one hand fisted on her chest. I watched her lips move in silent prayer before she lifted her eyes and asked, “When is the Challenge going to happen?”

“It’s not,” Toby said. “At least, I hope it’s not.” Toby rubbed his face again. “The older one, Liam, is a member of the Alpha Pack.”

“The Alpha Pack? Here? In Timber? But why?”

Talley, who normally stayed completely silent in all Shifter matters, ignored her mother’s list of questions. “What did he look like?”

“Liam?” I shrugged. “Tall and ugly.”

Toby was a little more specific. “Over six foot tall. Maybe 6’3”. Broad shoulders. Brown hair that leans more toward red than blond or black. Eyes are one of those muddled colors. Not really blue, but nowhere close to green or brown. You remember Alex’s coloring and bone structure, right?” Talley nodded her head in agreement. “In that way, they are pretty similar. They’re definitely brothers.”