“I don’t want to,” Holly admitted. “Despite the fact that you’re a huge pain in my ass, you’re also my friend. I listened to you when you asked me to make sure Trevor wasn’t hurt. I took your word for it when you said he wasn’t the person I thought he was. You were right. Do you want to spoil it now?”
Elise opened her mouth, but Holly cut her off.
“Don’t try to argue with me. Your brother makes that same face when he wants to argue but can’t.”
Elise pursed her lips. “How much time did you spend with him in Golden Oak?”
“Enough to spot your similarities.”
“Is anyone else allowed to weigh in here?”
“No,” Elise snapped.
“Yes,” Holly said.
“Are we completely sure Trevor is trustworthy? You’re calling him a double agent. Double agents play both sides and ultimately go with the side who wins, not the side that’s right.”
“I believe him to be trustworthy,” Holly said.
“You like to see the best in people,” Loch said. “It’s sweet, but it’s not always accurate.”
“I saw the best in you when no one else would,” Holly reminded him. “Are you saying I was wrong to do that?”
“I recede my earlier statement,” Loch murmured.
“That’s what I thought.” Holly grinned.
“So, what’s the next step?” Elise asked.
“Tonight, I will ask Lucien to check in with Trevor,” Holly replied. “He can move faster than a shifter. It’ll be no problem for him.”
“Fine.” Elise nodded.
“I’ll take that as a thank you.” Holly smirked. “Until Lucien wakes up, we need to find Keller.”
“You’re getting quite good at this Maiden thing.” Johnny smiled.
“There is no method more effective than trial by fire.” Holly chuckled.
“We’ll go look for Keller. You stay here and defrost.” Loch grinned.
Holly received a kiss from each shifter before they left the house. Only she and Elise remained.
“You’re not going to go?”
“Keller still talks about killing my brother, so, no.”
“That’s fair.” Holly nodded. “I see why you and Loch are friends. He doesn’t mesh well with Keller, either.”
“As much as I don’t like him, his behavior is getting weird to the point where I’m concerned.”
“Have you seen anything like it before?”
“Not exactly,” Elise said. “But when my dad started losing his mind, he forgot big chunks of time.”
“Didn’t he lose his mind when the dark shifter transition didn’t work?” Holly asked carefully.
“Yes.” Elise nodded.
“That’s good, right?” Holly asked. “If Keller is going insane, it’s because he couldn’t go dark.”
“But why would he try to in the first place?”
“We don’t know that he tried to at all,” Holly said. “He wouldn’t go dark of his own free will. I just know he wouldn’t.”
Elise didn’t say anything more on the subject, but Holly felt her doubt. Even worse, Holly felt doubt in her own heart.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE—KELLER
No place felt more at home than the forest.
Every single grain of dirt had a place, and it fit into said place perfectly. The forest nourished itself constantly without help from anything else. It was complete as it was.
Soil. Trees. Moss. Rain. Water.
Decay. Death. Rebirth. Growth.
Complex, yet simple at the same time.
Keller didn’t understand why he didn’t spend more time out in the forest alone.
His paws sank into the damp earth as he walked along the riverbed. He’d been looking for trout all day and hadn’t had any luck. About an hour ago, he’d caught a small perch. It did little to soothe his cravings.
What he wouldn’t give for a juicy, fat, chinook salmon. Unfortunately, it wasn’t spawning season.
Keller lifted his large head and sniffed. He knew the smell of black huckleberries anywhere. He ambled off into the woods to find them. He couldn’t remember the last time he had black huckleberries.
A memory flashed through his mind. A flaky dessert overflowing with mushy black huckleberries served warm. He didn’t understand why anyone would do that to a perfect berry.
He found the bush. Another creature had gotten to it before him and ate most of the berries. There was only a mouthful left, if that.
He grumbled in disappointment and ate the berries anyway. Still, he wanted more. More than he wanted the berries, he wanted to swipe at the bear that ate all of them first. He sniffed around, hoping to catch a scent.
It was faint, but he found it.
Nose to the ground, he tracked the scent through the forest until it grew stronger. He found scratch marks on a nearby tree and fresh scat that carried a twinge of those damn berries.
The black bear who ate them wasn’t far off. It only took one look for Keller to know it wasn’t another shifter.
Even if they had similar outsides, he despised normal bears. Slow, stupid, creatures with only their strength to get them through the world. They couldn’t think of anything more complex than food, sex, or shelter.
What a waste.
Keller let out a roar, a challenge.
The black bear turned around, snarling in response. It wasn’t going to pick a fight. Keller was twice its size. Any bear, no matter how slow and stupid, knew they were outmatched when Keller showed up.
The only bear in the area bigger than Keller was Garret, but he hardly shifted. He preferred the human parts of him.
Keller’s upper lip pulled back in distaste. How could anyone prefer being on two legs in a weak body? Human forms came with pretty good eyesight, but everything else sucked in comparison to being in bear form.
There wasn’t anything in a one-hundred-mile radius that Keller couldn’t fight and beat.
What a strong, clever shifter you are.
Keller’s head shot up. Unable to speak, he couldn’t do much more than grunt and groan. Perhaps there was one other advantage of being in human form besides the eyesight.
