“Outliers?”I thought of the enormous monster we’d encountered in the ocean. “Wait, there’s more than one? What are they?”
I was sitting up straight now, staring at Darian with a hopeful expression as I waited for him to give me answers.
As if they’d heard my questions, which they probably had, Kade and Locke finished their conversation and came to stand near us.
“The outliers are a different type of monster,” Kade answered. “While we were all humans who were turned by the curse, the outliers were once animals. They have no remorse nor seem to have any goal other than to destroy those around them.”
Animals?I frowned. “But surely you have tons of animals here? Does that mean there are hundreds of outliers?”
Again, I pictured the gigantic monster from the ocean, with its spined back and five red eyes. I couldn’t imagine facing hundreds of them. “Wait. The monster in the ocean. You’re telling me that it had once been an animal?”
“Yes,” Kade replied with a serious expression.
Whoa.I was glad I was sitting, then, because it was a lot to wrap my head around.
“So far, only a handful of animals have turned, and we don’t know why,” Locke added. “The curse never affected them in the past, but in recent years, things have changed.”
“But if only a few have turned, you can take care of them, right?” I asked.
Locke sighed heavily. “A few we can handle, but if all our animals start to turn, they will be like an army descending upon Katakin.”
An army?I leaned back in my chair, almost wishing they hadn’t told me.
“And we can’t exactly kill all our animals, or we’d starve,” Asher added with a relaxed shrug and a nod of his head toward the silver platter, where the remainder of a whole roast chicken sat nestled between herb-crusted vegetables.
“We’re lucky we survived the last one,” Darian said grimly, and I noticed the hardening of his body.
Don’t die, he’d said to me before throwing me from the creature’s mouth. Goddess, I’d barely survived one outlier monster. I shivered as I thought of a thousand of the creatures sweeping over Katakin city and crawling through the mountain.
I licked my lips nervously. “So what do we do?”
Locke’s dark gaze locked onto me, and his voice was harsh when he said, “The Week of Orash begins tomorrow night. You need to rest.”
“Rest?” I shot to my feet. “What happened to throwing everything you have at me?” If I was being honest, I could have used the rest, but now more than ever I realized I needed to turn. I was already disadvantaged as a human against the monsters, let alone against outliers. I needed to change, and taking a night off sounded an awful lot like giving up. I hadn’t come this fucking far to give up.
One moment Locke was standing near Kade a few steps away, and the next, he was in my face, glaring down at me.
Darian and Asher lifted to their feet as well, but my focus was only on Locke as he said, “If I truly threw everything I had at you, you’d be so broken you’d wish for death. If it weren’t for Darian and me, you’d be dead in that water. You should be grateful I’m giving you a night off.”
A chill clawed its way down my spine, but I gritted my teeth as my anger rose. “Grateful? You’re just worried that if I die, your miserable life will be snuffed out as well.”
“If you can’t see—” Locke started, but a growl vibrated from Kade, and it was loud enough that Locke didn’t finish. Darian shifted, his body moving closer to mine, and even Asher’s body angled more toward me.
“Back off, Locke,” Kade barked, his command cutting through the air. “I won’t ask again.”
Locke’s black gaze remained fixed on my face for a moment longer, and I thought I saw something like regret in his dark eyes, but then he turned away from me and strode toward the common room door. “Make sure she doesn’t leave this room. More monsters will be in the mountain as they prepare for the beginning of the Week of Orash.”
And then he was gone from the room.
I clenched and unclenched my fists and focused on calming my breathing. Locke had saved my life, but holy Mother, he was still an ass.
Kade stepped closer to me, his hand going under my chin and tilting my head up so I was looking at him. I was about to wrench my head away, but the concern in his golden gaze and the warmth of his fingers on my skin had me rooted to the spot. “Locke can be a bastard, but he’s right. You need to rest.”
I narrowed my eyes at him but nodded begrudgingly, my body remaining tense.
“I need to meet up with Locke, but Darian and Asher will be here with you. Stay in the rooms. Locke wasn’t wrong when he said this mountain will be filled with more monsters than usual. I’ll be back sometime after the sun rises.” And with that, he leaned down, pressing his lips to mine. My muscles finally loosened, my anger replaced by desire that warmed my whole body.
“Where are you going?” I asked when Kade pulled back and stepped away from me, but the wolf shifter didn’t answer my question. “Take care of her,” he said to Darian and Kade, and then he left the room as well.
