“Callie?”
I shook my head and looked back up at Bea, realizing I’d gotten lost in my thoughts again. That seemed to happen a lot lately.
“Hey, Bea. What’s up?”
She shrugged and stepped into my room. Cautiously, of course, because of the mess all over my floor. In a few weeks, all this crap could be moved to an office and out of my bedroom for good.
“I just wanted to come talk.”
I spun around in my office chair and frowned in her direction. “Yeah, I feel like I’ve barely seen you since the solstice party and everything that happened after.”
We both knew what I was talking about without me having to say it. But maybe that was the problem. We weren’t really talking about it. Maybe that’s what would help us get past it.
She sat down on my bed with a huff and shook her head. “I know. Having Will here has been strange. He never really talks, you know that? He kind of just lurks in the shadows. Like a giant fly on the wall. And have you ever noticed his eyes? How they seem to look right through you?”
Or I thought we both knew what I was talking about.
My brows rose higher the longer she talked. When she finally paused for a breath, I had a chance to cut in.
“I wasn’t talking about Will.”
The apples of her cheeks darkened with a blush as she flicked her icy blue eyes away from me. “Oh. Yeah. Neither was I.”
What?
I shook my head and decided to give her a pass on this one. But just this one. “I was talking about Calvin and the whole murdering women in the woods and kidnapping Ellie thing.”
My sister winced as she met my eyes again. “Oh yeah. That thing.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my desk chair. “I don’t know about you, but I’m still having trouble believing it. I mean Calvin of all people. The guy who cried when we were kids because he accidentally sat on a butterfly. That Calvin was the one who killed all those women, attacked Ellie, and then kidnapped her. What the heck?”
My sister shook her head, her face paler than before. “You didn’t see him that night, Callie. He wasn’t himself. That wasn’t the cousin we grew up with. Something happened. Something changed him and there was no coming back from that.”
I’d heard much of the same from Abraham, but it was still so hard to grasp. We’d grown up alongside Calvin. He’d been a part of this pack from the very beginning. How he’d managed to abduct and kill eight women and attack Ellie without any of us knowing was still a mystery. The more we learned about his depravity, the more I realized I really didn’t know the man he’d become.
I bit my lip as I studied my linked fingers. It was still so hard to swallow. “Have you talked to Clyde?”
She blew out a deep breath, her shoulders slumping. “I’ve tried a few times, but I know he’s not hearing me. If you think we feel betrayed, imagine how he’s feeling right now. Abraham had him leading the investigation of the murders, and all along, it had been his own brother, killing all these women right under his nose. I don’t know if he’ll ever be the same,” she said, her voice softer than I was used to hearing it.
We sat quietly for a while after that, both of us lost in our own thoughts that I was willing to bet were running along the same line. Finally, she let out a deep breath and gave herself a shake.
“Anyway, what are you up to in here? You’ve been hiding in your bat cave more than usual lately.”
I shrugged and let the truth fall from my lips without thinking it through first. “Doing some research on fated mates.”
My sister paused, and in that silent moment, I realized I shouldn’t have let that slip. Dang it.
“Why?” she asked slowly, suspiciously.
I opened my mouth to tell her it was at Ellie’s request, but closed my mouth before I could tell her secret like that. “Just doing some light reading,” I lied, my voice high-pitched and instantly giving me away.
Bea’s blue eyes narrowed on me. “Callista.”
“Beatrice.”
She pursed her lips, her penetrative stare never leaving me. “Is this about Wyatt?”
My eyes bulged out of my head as my heart shot to the back of my throat. “NO.” I cleared my throat and tried again, this time with a little less fear in my voice. “Um. No. Why would you ask that?”
She raised a dark brow and leaned back in her chair, her eyes perusing me in a way that made my skin itch. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten our conversation. I know how you feel about him, and I’ve been watching the two of you. It’s obvious something’s going on.”
My gaze darted to the plush rug at my feet. “It is?” I asked, my voice small.
“It’s obvious to me because I know what I’m looking for. Is it obvious to everyone else? Maybe not.”
I blew out a small, relieved breath, but she wasn’t done.
“So, if this research isn’t for you, then who’s it for?”
I looked away again before she could read the answer in my eyes, but it was unnecessary. Beatrice was smart as a whip and it took her no time to put the puzzle pieces together.
“Let’s see. The only other fated mates around are Abraham and Ellie. Since Abraham is so smitten he’s basically a high school girl doodling Ellie’s name on his binder, it’s obviously not him questioning things. And since
