Free Me From the Wolves

[30] Stealing Daggers, Stealing Hearts

By seven thirty, I found myself banging on the Ramons' door. Three of the four elaborate cars were parked in front of the house so I knew someone had to be home. I kept banging my fist on the door for another twenty seconds and then Zander opened it.

"Well, well, well," he said with a smirk and narrowed look in his eyes. Though I knew there was a big chance he'd be the one to open the door (obviously because Ryder was AWOL and Merida's car was gone), the actual sight of him was still a letdown and reminder that I despised his presence. "Are you—"

"I'm here to get what you stole from me," I interjected.

"A kiss?" he asked with a frown and a look of disgust I had shared with him and Colin last night, as if he was the one disgusted by the thought of the embrace.

"Stop being a smart ass," I ordered. "Just give it to me and I won't tell Ryder or Andrew you took it."

"Okay...this could still play into my 'stolen kiss' guess, but I'll bite," he replied. "What are you talking about?"

I scoffed and ducked under his arm to enter the house and march up the stairs without his permission. I ignored his shouts behind me in order to get into his room.

As soon as I realized that Preston was going to be unpunished for what he did to Aaron and Marc and Stella, I went on a craze. Cassandra and Andrew weren't home, but someone had dropped off my dad's will, a copy of the treaty, and the bejeweled key beforehand. But I didn't care about any of it. I only cared about the missing weapon. I tore up my room and the house trying to find the dagger. I figured that if anything, I should be the one to end it, but I couldn't find the dagger anywhere. I knew it was in my possession because Ryder had given it to me after the tribe meeting so where was it now? Even if I had fatigued the memory of Ryder returning it to me, he had all my stuff so it would've been returned with the lot.

I had looked in just about every place I thought it had resided within the past few days but it didn't turn up. Part of me was grateful because as I calmed down, I realized that I didn't really have it in me to kill Preston. And as I thought about that aspect, I figured that neither could Aaron or Stella if they had the option to. I doubt Andrew could even do it. But that revelation only led me to the only other person who had a vendetta to settle against another werewolf and access to the possibility that Ryder kept the dagger after the meeting: Zander.

When I got to his room, it was more disheveled than Ryder's, but less torn through than Andrew's. He had a messy bed with the fitted sheet threatening to slip from its corners, his desk covered with items, and clothes hanging on doorknobs or edges of surfaces. But as I glanced over it, I couldn't immediately find the dagger, but I knew it had to be in here. I began rummaging through the drawers of his dresser until he entered his room.

"What the hell are you doing?" he roared at me. He neared me, but before he reached me and could pull me away from his dresser, I was already maneuvering to glance at his small shelf of books and cases. I saw nothing but turned to him anyways.

"I know you have my family's dagger," I told him. He didn't frown in denial or look shocked for me accusing him. He just pursed his lips.

"I don't have it."

"Bullshit," I named. "Preston's out of the hospital and you're the only eligible person to kill him now that Aaron's opted out."

"Well that's news to me," he finally frowned for a second before smirking. "The Aaron thing—not my eligibility. It's always been clear to me that I'm the only one with the strength to kill him."

I rolled my eyes and turned to see what new corner of his room I'd explore next.

"I really don't have it," he said and then I zeroed in on the actual difference between his and Ryder's room. Though the rooms looked to be about the same size (still twice the size of my room), Ryder's bed was pushed against the middle of the wall. But Zander's was wedged between the wall and a window with a built in window seat. And if I was correct, there was storage in the seat.