23

She smiled at me sweetly. “Hello, sweetie. I’m afraid we aren’t in the market for any Girl Scout cookies today. Now, if you have any alcohol or painkillers, we’d be glad to take those off your hands.”

“Where’s Kira?” I asked.

Zoe grimaced. “She…um…already left.”

“Where’d she go? I need to talk to her. It’s important.” I nodded toward the car. “She couldn’t have gone far.”

Now Zoe wouldn’t meet my eyes. She seemed to be looking everywhere but at me. “Like I said, she’s gone.”

“Oh, good grief. Move,” I said, pushing past her into the house. Kira had to be in there somewhere.

“Hey? Did I invite you in?” Zoe said as she shut the door.

“Kira?” I called out.

Stepping into the living room, I saw two empty bowls smeared with chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

I pointed at the bowls. “I suppose you ate both of these yourself?”

Zoe shoved her fists into her hips. “I didn’t say she wasn’t here a minute ago. All I said was she left.”

“Where’s everyone else?”

“Well, Mister Nosy, Kolton is at class, and Mr. and Mrs. Durst are out on the edges of pack territory. Some kind of dust-up. If I had to guess, they may be chewing someone’s ass about what happened to Kira’s car.”

“If you aren’t gonna help, I’ll go find her myself,” I said.

Zoe shook her head, “Kira’s right. You are a bossy little shit.”

“I heard that.”

“I meant you to,” she said, then stuck her tongue out.

She rubbed at her temples, and when I really looked at her, I could see she looked drained.

“You aren’t telling me something,” I said, suspicion crawling up my spine.

“I’ve just got this awful headache.” She sighed with resignation and met my eyes. “It took a lot out of me sending her where she wanted to go.”

I took a step toward her, raising an eyebrow. “And where did you send her, Zoe?”

Her face crumpled under the weight of my stare. I could see her at war with herself, maybe having an entire argument inside her head.

“Okay,” she relented. “It’s like this. Those ungrateful jackasses wrecked her car, and she needed to get somewhere. Kira was all like, ‘I have to go, you need to teleport me, I don’t have time to wait,’ but then I was like, ‘No way, chick, it’s too dangerous.’ Then she went all, ‘But you’re my best friend, who else will help me?’ Then I had the guilt and stuff. Then Kira said, ‘I’ll find someone else to take me,’ so then I had to. It would be safer if I did it. See? Does that make sense?”

I stared at her, trying to comprehend the rambling mess that had tumbled out of her mouth.

“Zoe!” I shouted in exasperation. “Nothing you said makes sense. Can you please just tell me where you sent Kira?”

Zoe sucked her lower lip into her mouth and chewed on it, giving me a sheepish look. “She went to audition for The Reject Project.”

A thunderclap went off in my mind, and a red film descended over my vision. Anger, fear, and horror flooded through me in quick succession. No way. There was no fucking way Kira would do something so insane.

“Did you put her up to it?” I asked. Zoe was a big fan of the show. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

Her eyes bugged out. “Me? Fuck, no! I spent thirty minutes trying to talk her out of it. We were eating ice cream and flipping through the channels when a special announcement came on TV. The new season starts soon, and the female lead dropped out. Kira said she had to get on the show. She wants to bring some pride back to her pack.”

“And you fucking let her go?” I growled.

Zoe’s face clouded. “Listen, buddy, I did my best. She said if I didn’t help, she’d walk to Fangmore City or hitch a ride. What would have happened if a Ninth Packer picked her up? Or one of the shitheads who trashed her car?”

Without another word, I shoved past her and stomped outside. Zoe’s argument was valid, but there had to be another way. Anything to keep Kira from going on that show.

Buried memories tried to push to the forefront of my mind. That damned atrocity of a TV show seemed to haunt me everywhere I went. Between my past and its worldwide popularity, I knew exactly what awaited Kira. I couldn’t let her do this. That show was even more dangerous than being a Tranquility operative.

Most shifters who competed ended up dead. They weren’t easy deaths, either. For the thousandth time, I cursed the show. Even more, I cursed Jayson Fell and his father. This was his fault. If I could get my hands on them right now, I’d choke the life from those two fuckers. I’d gladly take whatever punishment came down. Anything would be worth it to see the life drain out of their eyes by my hands.

I was thrashing around in the front yard, trying to calm myself enough to shift, when Kolton came walking down the driveway. He’d had a bright, easygoing smile on his face until he saw me. My rage must have been palpable. I could feel practically feel my blood boiling in my veins.

“Wyatt? What’s wrong?” His gaze drifted to Kira’s car. “Shit. Who did this?”

“Doesn’t matter,” I snapped, raking a hand through my hair. “Do you have any clue what your sister just did?” I stepped close to him, my nose inches from his. “Did she ask you about it? Did you know she was going?”

Kolton’s head pulled away in surprise. “Yo, easy, man. What the hell are you talking about? Go where?”

I could see from the confusion in his eyes that he was telling the truth. I relaxed a fraction, though my shaking fingers were still clenched into iron fists.

“Kira,” I growled, “had Zoe send her to Fangmore City. She’s auditioning for The Reject Project.”

Kolton’s face went gray, and his jaw went slack as the reality of what I’d said sank in. He slowly shook his head. “No way. She wouldn’t.”