Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 62782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 314(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 314(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
“What’s that?” he demands, his body tense and ready for a fight.
Unfuckingbelievable.
His hand tightens around my wrist when I start to walk off, and his other hand reaches to grab the dogtags. With a hard yank, he breaks the chain, pulling it from my neck.
“Where did you get this?”
I scowl at him, trying and failing to break free from his hold. Sometimes I really wish I could yell at him. He releases his hold on me, allowing me to speak. I manage to sign, Give it back.
He pockets the dogtags, his jaw working as he attempts to control his fury, completely ignoring my demand. I want to shove him, punch him, kick him—anything that’ll make him feel the way I do. Small and trapped and defeated.
With each passing second, clarity chases away my earlier buzz. I’m thankful to not feel so lightheaded and dizzy. At least now it’s easier to erect my mental walls.
Cy leans in, his lips brushing the shell of my ear and making me shudder. “This thing with Cash ends now. He’s a bad influence.” His voice deepens. “I don’t trust that little shit.”
I’m unable to argue with him so close, so I settle for subjecting the bond to more hatred. His mental response that echoes inside my head is almost immediate. His words are loud and clear. I don’t care if you hate me. If it means I keep Cash out of your life, so be it.
“And in case that wasn’t clear enough in here,” he says, tapping the side of my head, “I’ll say it again, this time out loud…” He pauses to let me feel the impact of those words. That he knows I can hear him. “You won’t see Cash anymore.”
I jerk out of his hold, signing with enough force my wrists ache. I’ll run away if I have to.
A sinister smile curves up one side of his handsome mouth that I can still taste. A shiver runs down my spine, simultaneously chilling me and heating me at once. My body and emotions are so conflicted. How can I hate him and want him at the same time? It’s maddening.
“Try it. I’ll shift into my wolf. Together we will hunt you down,” he growls in a low tone. “And when we find you, we’ll drag you back. I’ll chain you to my fucking bed if it means making sure you don’t get the slip on me again.”
My lips open, and I suck in a gasp. Out of his entire rant, all I heard was the chaining me to the bed part. Filthy images of me lying naked in the center of his bed with my wrists trussed up above me, tied tightly to his headboard, tease the back of my mind. Heat floods through me, settling at my cock.
For one second, his blue eyes burn bright like they do before he shifts. Claws poke into my arm, and his nose quivers like it always does right before it elongates into the wolf’s snout. But we’re not at home. We’re standing on the stoop of the police station on Main Street with at least two human witnesses.
Is he going to shift and tear me to shreds?
No. It’s Cy. Not that monster.
I might hate Cy, and he might be a monster in his own way, but he’s the monster I know and can handle. Not that crazed thing who killed my family and tried to kill me.
Something in his demeanor shifts, and thankfully it’s the man, not the beast. He studies me for another beat before releasing me to storm toward Judd’s car.
“You okay?” Jax asks from inside the police station, concern etched on his face as he stands in the doorway.
I give him a clipped nod and then a thumbs up because what the hell am I supposed to say? I could tell him when I was eight a monster raped and killed my family. Another group of monsters found me and raised me. But those monsters kept me locked in their dungeon, even when I was old enough to be on my own. Now, I’m realizing I have an unnatural attraction to the main monster in charge, which is really fucking confusing since I hate him.
I definitely don’t say all that.
I just get in the damn car.
The drive back is quiet. Judd turns up the music to drown out the awkwardness, but it doesn’t work. I’m pissed off at the turn the night took while Cy broods in the seat in front of me. Cash seems agitated too, but I’m unsure as to why. Cy’s phone rings, and he answers it with a grumpy hello.
“W-What? Slow down, Rey. Who?” Cy curses under his breath and then says, “Do what you can. We’re on the way.”
“What happened?” Judd demands, his foot pressing down on the accelerator once we reach the highway out of town.