Luna of Rogues

Part 62 - Bloodthirst

WHOOOP! It's the Easter holiday! And craaaap! I have a ton of revision to do. Ah well, at least Skye doesn't have to go to school. Lucky mutt.

The door slammed into the wall of the cabin with enough force to rattle the windows. A fraction more pressure, and I might have torn it off its hinges. Rhys was standing in an instant, reaching for my shoulder. I shrugged him off and stormed into the bedroom, where Cassidy was sat up in bed, still looking half asleep.

But she seemed fairly wide awake when I dragged her off the mattress by her throat. In the blink of an eye, my switchblade was lodged under her chin with enough force to break the skin. Rhys snarled but froze in his tracks halfway across the room, not daring to risk another step when I could open his mate's carotid with a flick of my wrist.

"Skye," he choked out. "What...?"

I ignored him and turned my attention to the human in front of me, who was doing her best to hide her shaking. "You have exactly five seconds to convince me not to kill you. And I'm only giving you that long for my brother's sake."

To her unending credit, Cassidy didn't beg or snivel at me. With that unflinching calmness, she spoke gently but firmly. "You don't seem like the sort of person to kill someone without telling them what they're supposed to have done."

I chose to ignore that statement, because she was right. "Did you know about werewolves before you met us?"

"No."

There was no elaboration or excuse, just what felt like simple, honest truth. Had I been wrong about this?

"Skye..." Rhys seemed to regain some of his control. "You're scaring her, so I really hope you have a good reason to be doing this."

His way of telling me that he was on my side, mate or no mate. I acknowledged him by letting up the pressure on my switchblade. Just so his wolf would calm down. There was already a spot of blood on her neck — it would be awkward to kill her by accident.

"Have you seen Skye?" Leo's voice demanded. A moment later, he reached the doorway, and I heard a sharp intake of breath, followed shortly by a resigned sigh.

"What did she do?" he asked.

I flicked my eyes towards him. Leo was standing alongside Rhys, hands in his pockets. He didn't look panicked, but he did have one eye on my brother.

"Cassidy's father is a hunter. Might be she is as well."

Rhys made an abrupt choking sound and sat down on the bed close to me. Leo, however, looked unimpressed. "Is she armed?"

I used my free hand to pat down her sides and anywhere a weapon could be easily concealed. Nothing ... at least, nothing that would be big enough to do serious damage. I shook my head.

"Then is it possible to have this conversation in a civilised manner? She's outnumbered three to one by werewolves: I don't see much risk in letting her breathe," he suggested.

I considered her for a moment. "Alright. Try anything and you won't live to regret it, Cassie."

I allowed her to sit up, albeit grudgingly, and then I took my place between the boys. All three of us stared her down as she began talking.

"You're right, my dad is a hunter. He goes out deer hunting with my uncles almost weekly. But if it's animal rights you're arguing for, they've never even managed to catch one. I don't see why that's so upsetting..."

Complete and utter ignorance. Hard to feign and harder to make up on the spot. It was starting to look like she might just be a human girl with an unfortunate family. I said, "It's not deer he hunts, it's werewolves. Us."