“Are you ignoring me because I’m a warg?” A hint of bitterness. “Would you speak to me as an equal if I were fae?”

“My issue is not your species,” I said, voice weary. “You’re too close to the case to act rationally.”

“Do you have any siblings?” He wielded the question like a blade. “All I had was Marie.” The sentiment cut deep. “Survive a loss of that magnitude and then we can talk about acting rationally.”

Too late to conceal my flinch, I smoothed the gesture into a shrug. “This isn’t about me.”

Head cocked to one side, nostrils widening, Graeson cataloged a piece of me I hadn’t meant to share with him. Old hurts roiled in me. I must stink of emotion to such a sensitive nose as his.

“You might as well tell me why the magistrate called,” he coaxed, his voice a dark promise. “I had the resources to locate you once. I can again.” Gold eclipsed his irises. “Marie was my sister. She died on Chandler pack land. As her brother, as beta, I have a right to this hunt.”

My tongue pressed against the back of my front teeth. As much as I might wish otherwise, he had as much right to hunt Charybdis as I did, maybe more. His earlier stab in the dark had drawn heart’s blood. Had Marie been my sister, I would be in his place. No question. It was instinct to punish those who harmed what we loved. For Graeson, that meant Charybdis. In my case, the only person to blame was me.

“There’s a girl.” My throat scraped raw. “A witness.”

“Where?” His hand dipped into his pocket, emerging with a ring of keys looped around his forefinger.

I bit the inside of my cheek and made a decision. “How did you get here?”

“I drove that gray SUV by the portico.” He showed me the fob with a familiar rental agency logo affixed to its surface. “Why?”

“Great.” I hustled past, the time for dawdling over. “Then you have plenty of room for Harlow.”

Putting the two of them in the same car meant I could keep an eye on both. It was a win/win that promised Graeson only the access I decided to allow him and Harlow protection should the igel mount another effort against her.

His fist clenched. “What about your car?”

“All they had available was a subcompact.” It was cute as a button, but tight even for a quick trip to the airport once you factored in two women and two sets of luggage. “You can drive Harlow, and I’ll meet you both at the airport. We can travel the rest of the way together.”

A thoughtful pause while Graeson no doubt weighed the compromise I offered against the effort it would require to uncover the same information from one of his resources. “All right. You have a deal.”