Page 65 of Rejected Moons (Rejected Moons 3)

“I thought he was a good guy,” I murmur.

“He is,” Emlyn protests. “He is, Milo, he—he saved my life. Herescuedme from my pack. They’d caught me, and he set me free—”

“So that he would be able to bring you back,” I say. It just makes too much sense to ignore.

“No,” she breathes.

A rustling noise interrupts us, and we both turn to see that Nate has returned from the river. He’s tramping through the woods carelessly, not bothering to be stealthy.

He checks when he sees us staring at him. “What’s up?” he asks. “You two look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Not a ghost. Just an enemy where we didn’t expect to find one.

Emlyn holds up the paper with her face on it. “What is this, Nate?” she asks.

He freezes. He looks from her to me, and the expression of guilt in his eyes is all the confirmation I needed.

Then a mask of anger drops over his face. “Why were you going through my bag?”

“Fuck you,” Emlyn spits. “I know you don’t think you’re going to turn this around on me. This is abountyflyer, Nate! This was drawn by someone in my pack! They’re offering a reward for my return! Youknowwhat they’ll do to me if they get me back. Why do you have this?"

“Emlyn,” I say because the truth is that, as much as I know we both want answers, it doesn’t matter why Nate has the paper. What matters now is getting away from him as quickly as possible. I have no idea how I’d match up against him in a fight. It could go either way.

But Emlyn waves me off. “No, Milo. He has to answer. He promised that he would never lie to me again.”

“We should get out of here.”

“Not until he fucking explains this!”

I move toward her, put a hand on her arm. I’m afraid she’s going to throw herself at him and force the physical conflict. She looks like she might be willing to rip the skin from his face. I never imagined Emlyn could be violent like this.

“I took the flyer ages ago,” Nate says. “I just picked it up at the bar. That’s all.”

“The bar?” she repeats. “The bar you were taking me to when we ran into Milo? That bar?”

He doesn’t say anything.

She looks at the flyer. “You were going to turn me in,” she says. “That’s why you were taking me there. We weren’t getting information. You were about to hand me over. If we hadn’t found Milo when we did, if we hadn’t gotten diverted, I’d be deadright nowbecause you would have given me back to my pack.”

“Em,” he pleads.

“No, don’t fucking call me that,” she says. “Get away from me. If you ever come near me again—if I ever see you again—I won’t stop until one of us is dead. Do you understand? You’re not going to get any bounty for me because you’ll have to kill me to get me to stop coming for you. Walk away. Right now.”

He opens his mouth.

She holds up a hand. “I don’t want to hear one more fucking word,” she says. “Go.”

And to my surprise, he does.

She shudders in my arms as we watch him walk away, her breathing ragged, and I understand.

It feels like something’s been ripped out of my chest.

But it’s the right decision. He’s a traitor, and we can’t keep him around.

Chapter Forty-three: MILO

Wehardlyspeaktoone another all day. It feels awful that we could have been tricked like that. Awful to have fallen for it.