Pain flared down my neck, sharp and grounding. I focused on Ezra’s eyes, steady, certain, unyielding, and let the sting anchor me there.
She was right.
I didn’t need her. I didn’t need anyone beyond the family standing around me.
And I sure as hell didn’t need a mate.
Not now. Not ever.
3
OLIVIA
Five Years Later
“Alto, I told you to stop buying this crap!”
The canister hit his desk with a metallic slam, rattling the scattered invoices and a half-empty coffee mug. The impact echoed through the small office and out into the garage.
Alto jerked so hard his chair rolled back a few inches.
His wings burst free in a flash of iridescent color, stretching wide enough to brush the car-themed calendar hanging behind him. Burgundy hair shot straight up as he lifted a few inches off the ground on instinct alone. Papers fluttered in the displaced air.
“Oli!” He shoved his glasses up his nose with his middle finger, hovering just high enough to glare down at me. “I told you to stop doing that!”
I pressed my lips together, but the corner betrayed me. The stern line cracked, and a laugh slipped out before I could stop it.
“Sorry, Al.” I wiped my eyes as I watched him flutter about in the air. “… but also not sorry.”
I dragged the canister closer to him with two fingers. A smear of thick, murky oil clung to the rim.
“That sludge is garbage. I don’t care how much you save on your margins.”
His pale gray eyes, ringed faintly in gold, shifted from the oil to me. Even hovering in suspenders and ink-stained cuffs, there was something sharp behind his gaze. Inhuman. My spine straightened on reflex, boots planted a little firmer against the floor.
Predator.
Prey.
The reminder flickered between us in the silence.
His wings folded in tight and vanished. His boots hit the ground with a dull thud. He rubbed at his chin, staring at the canister as if it had personally insulted him.
“Come on, Oli. You could sell fangs to a vampire.” He waited for me to grin at the joke.
I didn’t.
Just as I opened my mouth to snap back with something snarky, a loud bang and crash came from the garage.
Both of us closed our eyes at the same time, waiting for the inevitable.
“I’m fine!” Yendor’s voice wobbled through the open door between the office and garage.
I inhaled slowly before opening my eyes and raising a brow at Alto.
“If he broke my torque wrench, I’m ending his bloodline.”
Alto scrubbed a hand down his face, exhaustion setting in. “I just might let you. Damn fool of a grandson.”
