It wasn’t until late afternoon, James jumped awake to the sound of the bathroom door opening. His heart went out to Lily when he saw her puffy red eyes from crying.
“Where’s Chris?” she asked in a stoic voice.
“He’s in his room,” James told her. “Look, Lily, it wasn’t his fault honestly. She was trying to kill him. It looked as if she almost did it too. I saw the scars that had yet to heal,” He added quickly. A pained expression washed over her and she nodded before leaving.
James watched her leave with concern, worried about what she was going to do when she went to Chris’s room, but he knew he had to keep his nose out of it. He paced nervously waiting for one or both of them to come back to the room. What seemed like forever to his surprise, they both returned… holding hands. James swallowed a hot flash of possessiveness, knowing it was a sign she didn’t keep Lacy’s death against Chris.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you Chris?” she asked him her voice still heavy with sadness
“Yeah, you guys have to stop Xavier,” Chris replied and she nodded. They went into the bathroom and took Lacy to Chris’s truck. James offered to help, but both refused. They said their final goodbyes then watched as Chris drove off.
“I’m sorry for yelling at you like that earlier James. I know it wasn’t your fault as it wasn’t Chris’s either,” she told him, her voice flat. “But do me a favor and keep that vampire bitch from me or I swear I’ll rip her to pieces,” she said, anger filling her voice.
“I’ll do what I can Lily and when this is over, I’ll make sure she pays for taking Lacy’s life,” he promised her. She looked over her shoulder at him, her face cold and hard.
“Good,” she replied. “But first it’s Xavier’s time to pay. He’s the one responsible for everything. For you, me, Kyle, Greg, and Lacy,” she told him and walked away.
It had been three days since Bianca had killed Lacy. Lily refused to forgive Bianca for what she had done. She didn’t care if the vampire didn’t understand why she was so angry. It had been three days, and Lily still wanted to shove a stake through the red head’s chest as far as it would go. There had been a chance that Lacy was under the influence of something Xavier had done but thanks to that blood hungry leech they’d never know.
Lily’s thoughts went out to Chris. He no longer was the cocky, flirty, and funny guy she had come to love. She hated to see him go without her; it made the wound in her heart grow even more. As hard as that was, it was nothing compared to the phone call she had to make to Greg and Tony. James had offered, but Lily wanted to do it herself, it was her sister after all.
At first, Tony didn’t want to believe that Lacy was capable of such a thing but when she told him that she experienced it firsthand, he had no choice but to accept it. As if that wasn’t bad enough then she had to tell him that Lacy was dead. Hearing the strong future alpha and big brother break down and cry, tore her already hurting heart into more pieces.
Once he recovered Tony made her swear that no one would tell Sandy or Andrew the truth, and she agreed. They didn’t need to know, and it wouldn’t do them any good knowing. Her father was already beating himself up with guilt for not seeing Xavier’s betrayal and her being taken under his nose. If he knew his own daughter also had betrayed him, who knows how he would take it.
Lily stared at the ceiling of the hotel room sighing loudly. They were finally in Montana, and this little town is where the trail of credit card transactions stopped. James was sleeping, and Lily was bored out of her mind. She got up from the bed and put on her sunglasses with the determination to do some snooping around until sunset. She decided to stop at a tiny diner and try to eat some real food. She had only been drinking blood that Dorin gave her lately, and it was becoming bothering just how much she actually started to enjoy the taste.
She smiled at the waitresses as she sat down and ordered coffee and a donut. “This is a nice little town though a bit out of the way. Do you get many tourists in around here?” she asked the waitress with a friendly tone. The older plump woman smiled as she poured the coffee.
“No not too many but we get a few,” she replied keeping her smile.
“I am looking for a man, maybe he passed through here, Xavier Thompson?” The woman thought for a moment then shook her head no. “Oh, that was a shame I had heard he passed through here. He’s a doctor you see and a real good one,” Lily started with a sad expression. “My poor little sister is really sick and he is probably the only one can help her,” she said with a heartbreaking tone and the woman gave her a look of pity and compassion.
Lily suppressed a growl hating that look more than anything in the world. “I’m so sorry dear, but I haven’t heard of any Thompson around here,” she replied before leaving to attend another customer. Lily managed to keep her sad expression from turning into a scowl as she ate what she could of her food that was a two forced bites of her donut and three sips of her coffee. She had to stop there, or she was going to get sick.
After asking a few more people about Xavier, she decided to check out the woods. At first, it was difficult because she had to spend nearly an hour distinguishing what smell belong to what, oddly not all forests smell the same. She knelt and picked up a fallen leaf, finally starting to pick up a scent that didn’t belong to the natural setting of the forest. “Mind telling me what you’re doing here?” Someone asked with a strong, deep voice.
Lily looked up to see a group of three police officers, a sheriff, and his deputies, glaring at her. How the hell did she not hear them? The one in the middle was enormous, and it’s possible he was even taller than James. He had dark hair and eyes, beard and was nearly double the width as Lily. The other two were smaller but still taller than Lily. One had dark hair and the only lighter sandy brown color.
“I’m…” she started standing up dusting off the non-existent dirt of her jeans. “Just appreciating a nice walk among nature which isn’t against the law, I didn’t see anywhere it mentioned this was protected or private land,” she replied.
“But entering into my territory without my permission is,” he told her and that’s when she noticed their scent. They were werewolves and the big one playing sheriff appeared to be the alpha. Crap, crap, and double crap, she thought, wondering how to get out of this one. She had no idea about werewolf protocol. She also cursed James; he didn’t think to warn her about these things!
“Oh right,” she started sticking her hands in her back pockets. “I am kind of new to all this so… my bad,” Lily said with a shrug. The one of the sheriff’s left, the sandy brown, growled at her, and she narrowed her eyes at him.
“Well, your mate should teach you better manners. Where is your mate by the way?” the sheriff asked, and she frowned crossing her arms.
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” Lily asked with a cynical tone. “For the record I don’t have a mate and don’t need one, what is this the sixteenth century?” She barked back, and the alpha glared at her sternly growling at her quietly. She wanted to slap herself, why can’t she keep her damn mouth closed! “Look I am not here to cause your pack trouble; I am only planning being here for a day or two then I will never to return,” she explained.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded, and she could feel him trying to do his alpha thing on her but, at least, she couldn’t fall under that.
“Sightseeing,” Lily replied with a simple shrug and started to walk back to town.