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"But you weren’t?" Ezra asked, and his stance grew ed in response and lowered his eyes to the ground "Is that why you stayed behind? To see if we came back?"

"Maybe," Leif said, then quickly added, "But not like you think"

"You don’t knohat I think," Ezra said evenly

Leif shifted and looked at thehis arm, he looked like he wanted to say but couldn’t find the words

"You’re after Peter, aren’t you?" Leif asked, and I stiffened "I’et him He killed my brother, but it was self-defense Krist had a te here," Leif went on "He was ‘trying out’ for the pack, but that’s not hoorks Gunnar put hih all these tests, and Krist was one of theetic, his eyes wide and sincere "It wasn’t fair what they did to hi to him"

"Still?" The fear in Ezra’s voice es, and Ezra had seen far worse than I had He knehat true torture could be for a vampire

"He’s alive He’s okay" Leif’s voice cracked on the last word

"What are they doing? Where is he?" Ezra derowl, and Leif shrunk back Any pretense that Ezra had of sub Leif worked to our benefit, so I put a hand on Ezra’s arm Reluctantly, he responded and took a step back Leif nodded his appreciation and stood up taller

"I don’t know exactly," Leif said "They’ve been hunting him"

"He’s in Sweden?" I raised an eyebrow

"No, he’s still here," Leif shook his head "The pack is in Sweden"

"I don’t understand Why is he still here? If they’re gone, why didn’t he just coed a look "What? Why won’t Peter leave?" I looked at Ezra since Leif didn’t answer

"Us," Ezra said thickly "The pack will track hiood at tracking, then why haven’t they killed hi the implications