Chapter 11 · Bride Means Key

"Miss Vale. We need to talk."

I looked up from the lock I'd just cracked. Celia stood in my doorway, two hunters behind her. All three of them staring at the radio on my workbench. The one that had just played eight-year-old me, crying.

"No." I shoved the lock and the radio into my jacket. "You need to get out of my shop."

One hunter stepped forward. Celia raised a hand. He stopped.

"Your wolf just killed three of my people," she said. "You're marked. That makes you an accessory." She tilted her head. "Or a witness. Your choice."

"He didn't kill anyone." My voice came out steadier than I expected. "They cornered him. He defended himself."

"Defended." Celia's mouth curved. Not quite a smile. "That what you call it when a rogue tears out a man's throat?"

I didn't answer. I was too busy replaying Rafe's eyes going red under the emergency light. The way his claws had come out. The way he'd lunged before I said his name.

Celia walked closer. Moved like someone who'd never been afraid of anything in her life. "Where'd he go?"

"I don't know."

"Liar." She said it softly. Almost kind.