Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 131137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 656(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 656(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
“I know. Your old packmate, Ryan, assured me of that.”
“Ryan?”
“I saw him with the flirt at a club one night. I think Ryan was worried that I was going to attack his packmate—which I was—so he told me the facts in an effort to instill some rationality into me. Ryan then said he’d hate to hurt Shaya’s mate, so if I could leave the flirt alone, that would be great. Still, hearing you say his name makes me want to bite you.” To mark her, remind her that she didn’t belong to Dominic, she belonged to him. “I think you’d like that.”
Blushing and stifling her smile, she snapped, “Fuck you.”
“What, you mean right now? In front of all these people? I guess I could.”
She slapped his arm, and he laughed. Eager to change the subject, she said, “You need to make some friends. Whether you like company or not, it’s important to have friends.”
“Why would I want friends when I have you?”
“You don’t have me.”
“I will. Do you want to know what makes me so sure of that? Because no other situation is acceptable to me.” His life had been a dull time without her. He didn’t want to go back to that. Even arguing with her made him feel alive. It was the strangest feeling to have his wolf in a bright mood, but that was what she did to him. “Nothing you say or do will make me give up. Like I said, you’re too important to me. The sooner you accept that, the happier we’ll both be.”
The resolve in his tone and expression practically petted her wolf. Their food came then, and it seemed that Nick’s interest in chatting was over. With any normal person, it might have been because he was ready to tuck into his meal. But Nick wasn’t normal, and apparently what he really wanted was to up the level of sexual tension between them. If he wasn’t feeding her and then watching her chew as if riveted by the movement of her mouth, he was holding her hand and fiddling with it or nipping at her palm. In between all that, he would reach over and play with stray strands of her hair or snatch some of her fries, knowing she didn’t like to share her food. Then he tried playing footsie under the table, but after she lost her patience and stomped hard on his foot, they just ended up playfully kicking each other instead.
Shaya had been shocked to find that she was actually enjoying herself. She spent more time laughing and smiling than blushing, which was no small thing, given the filthy thoughts traveling through her mind. Of course that smile faded somewhat when they walked to the car and found a human guy with cold eyes and a cocky countenance waiting there with two other males, his hateful gaze trained on Nick. She recognized them as some of the human extremists from the other night.
She wasn’t surprised when Nick easily held the leader’s frosty gaze, not in the least bit intimidated. Nor was she surprised when he stood in front of her slightly in a very protective move. Derren seemed to appear out of absolutely nowhere on Nick’s other side, as expected. What did surprise her was that rage was radiating from both Nick and Derren. Sure, the humans were cruel and prejudiced, but this…this rage had a different source.
The human smiled at Shaya, creeping her out. “It’s clear to me that you’re Nick’s girl. What’s not clear to me is whether or not you know he’s an animal.”
“Being a shifter doesn’t make someone an animal,” she replied. Her wolf bared her teeth at him.
“Oh, so you’re a shifter groupie.” The humans all laughed. “There sure are plenty of them roaming around.”
She was about to correct him and declare that she was a half-shifter and proud to be, but then Nick took her hand and squeezed lightly. She understood the signal: He didn’t want them to know in case they targeted her. Neither did she but, dammit, this jabbed at her pride.
“How can it not bother you that he’s inhuman? You’re a traitor to our race.”
“And you’re a pedophile, a rapist, and a sadist…aren’t you, Logan?” said Derren, ending the sentence with a snap of his teeth. “You have a fondness for young boys, as I recall.”
Shock crashed into Shaya as the implications of that comment settled in. Now she understood where Nick and Derren knew him from, just as she now understood the source of Nick’s and Derren’s rage. She also understood that if Logan had succeeded in abusing either Nick or Derren, they wouldn’t have allowed him to speak—he’d have been dead before he could blink. And she’d have looked on, clapping. Sick bastard.
Logan’s attention shot to Derren. He narrowed his eyes, his expression nostalgic. “I should have known that his guard is you. You always did follow him around.”