Chapter 4 My Brother’s Enemy

My Brother’s Enemy

Scarlett’s POV

Draven didn’t let go of my throat right away.

For a terrifying second, Draven’s claws remained pressed against my skin. His chest rose and fell heavily as he stared at me with those strange eyes. He looked confused, almost as if he couldn’t understand what he was doing or why I was standing in front of him. I couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t scream. All I could do was grip his wrist and shake, wondering if he was going to kill me or finally come back to his senses.

Then something changed in his face.

It was as if he suddenly woke up.

Draven released me so quickly that my feet hit the floor hard. He stumbled backward and crashed into the lockers behind him.

He stared at his hand.

The claws slowly disappeared back into his fingers. The dark fur covering his knuckles faded until his skin looked normal again, as if nothing had happened. His eyes changed too.

He looked horrified.

I pressed a hand against my throat and coughed, struggling to get enough air into my lungs. My skin burned where his fingers had been, and every part of me was screaming at me to get away from him. But my legs were shaking so badly that I couldn’t trust them to carry me anywhere.

I knew what shifting looked like. I had seen other wolves lose control during a full moon, but I had never seen anything like what had just happened to Draven. He had looked like he was caught between two forms.

My wolf paced restlessly inside me.

“What are you doing here? Draven finally asked in a low voice. “I knew something about you was suspicious.”

“Are you for real?” My voice came out weak and cracked, so I swallowed before trying again. “You almost killed me.”

“You should thank your stars I didn’t.”

His eyes dropped to the floor before moving back to his hand.

"what?!" I asked. "Is that all you've got to say?"

“Fuck," he muttered, rubbing his hands on his face.

Any sensible person would have walked out of that locker room and never looked back. But Caleb’s face was still fresh in my mind. The red paint across his chest. The tiny holes in his body where his heart should have been, and I wasn’t about to let fear stop me from finding the truth.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. My hand was still shaking as I opened the picture I had taken earlier. Then I held the screen out for him to see.

“Explain this.”

Draven looked at the picture, and I immediately noticed the way his jaw tightened.

“I found it at the bottom of your bag,” I said. “It’s a picture of you and my brother. Caleb’s side is ruined, and you kept it hidden in your locker. Why?”

His eyes remained on the screen.

“Your brother,” he chuckled, almost to himself. He looked up at me, his expression unreadable. “So you know that I know who you are?"

“What does that mean?”

“I figured it out the first night.” His eyes stayed on mine. “It was obvious. You looked at me like I had done something to you. Like I owed you an explanation.”

“Don’t you owe me one?”

He didn’t answer.

I took another step toward him, refusing to let him avoid the question.

“There’s a lion on your skate,” I said. “The same lion is on Caleb’s skate, right beside the cut someone made in his blade. I spent hours searching for it tonight. It isn’t a team logo, and it isn’t the school crest. I couldn’t find anything about it online.”

I held his gaze.

“So tell me what it means.”

His expression hardened. “I can’t.”

“Everyone says you and Caleb hated each other. My brother always talked about you with disgust, now he’s gone and who benefited from his death? YOU”

Draven looked directly into my eyes.

“Your brother is such an asshole,” he said quietly. “I hated him.”

He paused, his eyes dropping for a moment.

“For a long time, I really did.”

My stomach twisted at his answer. “Then you wanted him gone and you successfully killed him.”

“No!” He said quickly and sharply that I flinched. Draven seemed to notice because he lowered his voice before continuing. “I wanted to beat him on the ice. I wanted to take his title and prove I was better than him. I never wanted him dead.” He took a step toward me, then stopped himself, glancing at the hand he had used to choke me. “I didn’t kill your brother, Scarlett. I swear on everything I have, I didn’t.”

I had imagined what it would be like to stand face-to-face with the person responsible for Caleb’s death. I had convinced myself that I would recognize the truth when I saw it, that something inside me would know if I was standing in front of my brother’s killer. But now that I was finally here, staring at the boy I had suspected from the beginning, I couldn’t make sense of anything.

I wanted to believe Draven. That was what bothered me the most. Despite everything I had seen and everything he was refusing to tell me, a part of me wanted to believe that he hadn’t killed Caleb. Even my wolf seemed to be listening to him instead of pushing me to attack or run. But I couldn’t let my feelings decide what was true. Wanting him to be innocent didn’t mean he was.

“Then why was that photograph hidden in your bag?” I asked.

His lips pressed together, and he looked away without answering.

“And why do you and my brother have the same symbol on your skates?” I continued. “What does that lion mean? Why was someone so determined to destroy the picture that they ruined Caleb’s side of it?”

Draven remained silent, and my frustration grew with every second.

“What are you?” I demanded, my voice shaking despite my efforts to keep it steady. “I’ve grown up around wolves, I’ve seen people shift, and I’ve watched others lose control. But I’ve never seen anyone change the way you did. What was that?”

He turned his face away from me, his jaw tightening as if he was fighting with himself over what to say. “I can’t tell you that either.”

“Can’t or won’t?” I asked, taking a step closer.

“Does it really matter?” He dragged a hand over his face and let out a tired breath. For the first time, I noticed how exhausted he looked. “If I tell you the truth, things will get worse for you. I need you to trust me on that.”

“Trust you?” I laughed, but the sound scraped painfully against my throat. “You had your hands around my neck a few minutes ago. You could barely control yourself, and now you’re asking me to trust you? Why would I ever…”

I stopped when he flinched.

It was barely noticeable, but I saw it. He looked as though my words had hurt him more than he wanted to admit.

Something tightened in my chest, and I immediately hated the feeling. Why should I care that I had hurt his feelings when he had nearly crushed my throat? I had every reason to hate him, yet somehow, I was already struggling with the thought of hurting him.

Caleb would have been disgusted with me. He used to say I had too much of a soft heart and that one day, it would get me into trouble. I had always laughed whenever he said it, insisting that there was nothing wrong with caring about people.

Still, I wasn’t going to take back what I had said.

“I’m not leaving this alone,” I told him. “I gave up everything to come here and find out what happened to Caleb. I’m not going to let you stand in my way just because you refuse to answer my questions. If you won’t tell me the truth, I’ll find it myself.”

Draven’s expression darkened, he looked more frightened than angry.

“That is exactly what scares me.”

I frowned, about to ask what he meant, when a thin beam of light moved across the frosted window at the far end of the locker room.

Draven’s entire body went still as we listened to the footsteps approaching from the hallway. They were slow and heavy, followed by the jingle of keys.

“The guard,” I whispered, my stomach dropping. “He already came through here once. He shouldn’t be back so soon.”

“Fuck,” Draven muttered.

Before I could speak, he reached for my arm, and he pulled me toward the narrow space at the end of the lockers. The wall formed a dark corner there, just enough to hide us if we stood close together.

He pressed his back against the wall and guided me in front of him, positioning himself between me and the open room. One arm rested against the wall beside my head, while the other hovered near my waist. His body blocked most of the view from the doorway, shielding me from anyone who might look inside.

“Don’t move,” he whispered close to my ear.

I nodded, too frightened to speak.

The door at the end of the hallway rattled, and a moment later, the light swept across the floor. I watched its glow travel over the lockers, moving slowly toward our corner. The beam paused on the opposite wall, and I held my breath, praying that he wouldn’t take another step.

Draven was standing so close that I could feel the warmth of his body through my clothes. His scent surrounded me, in a way I couldn’t explain, and I found myself noticing things I had no business paying attention to at that moment. When I accidentally brushed against him, he went still.

Keeping my eyes fixed on the collar of his shirt, I tried to ignore how close his face was to mine. I was too afraid to look up and meet his eyes because I had no idea what I might see there.

The light finally moved away from our corner.

A moment later, the door closed, and the guard’s keys jingled as he walked down the hallway. We listened until his footsteps faded completely.

I knew I should have stepped away the moment the danger passed. Draven probably knew it too, but neither of us seemed able to move right away. I counted five slow breaths before he finally lowered his arm from the wall, giving me enough room to step out of his shadow.

I turned toward the exit, desperate to put some distance between us and make sense of everything that had happened. But before I could take another step, his fingers closed around my wrist.

I stiffened. Draven noticed my reaction and immediately loosened his grip, leaving me free to pull away if I wanted.

“Stay away from me, Scarlett,” he said.

I turned to face him, trying to understand why his voice sounded so strained.

“Not because I’ll hurt you,” he added quietly.

His gaze dropped to my mouth before returning to my eyes.

“Because I don’t know what I’ll do if I keep wanting to be near you.”