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“You mean,weare going to bring her back, right, Ryker?”
Ryker cocks his head in my direction. Trish, who radiated pure joy when Ryker gave her permission to go home again, deflates a little when she realizes what it is I just announced.
Yup. Good decision, Gem.
Before either of them can try to argue, I kick off my sneakers, then shift on the spot, shaking off the remnants of my work shirt and my black jeans. It’s the first time I’ve gone wolf in two days, and though my wolf is eager to stretch, I glance down.
Phew. Just like Aleks’s charmed fang, the golden canine that Ryker gave me transfers over when I shift forms. It had been almost an afterthought—I realized I was wearing it the second I gave my wolf the command to switch places with me—but I shouldn't have been worried. Ryker’s a shifter himself. If he bought me jewelry that wouldn’t survive the shift, it would’ve been his fault if it exploded like my clothes did.
Using my snout, I nudge my sneakers toward the front door of the bar. Hopefully one of my vamp customers will recognize they’re mine and save them for me. Clothes are shot, but those sneakers cost me sixty bucks. I might risk getting caught shifting in public, and I could’ve ruined Ryker’s necklace by shifting so impulsively, but I wasn’t about to ruin sixty-dollar work sneakers.
Oh, yeah. I totally know where my priorities are.
Then, cocking my wolf’s head at them still standing there in their skin, I give them a look that says, “I’m ready when you are.”
9
You would think that a run all the way up the mountains to Accalia, a pit stop to pass Trish into the hands of Audrey and Grant Carter, and waiting for Ryker to call a pack meet for his inner council before hightailing back to Muncie on my own would have given me time to cool off.
Yeah. Right.
It does the opposite actually. Especially during the long run back to the apartment, all I can do is obsess over everything that just happened.
I can’t even blame Trish. Not really. Respecting her Alpha’s wishes, she had been begrudgingly joining the River Run Pack—until Aleks talked her into crossing into Muncie, finding me and Ryker, and begging for a second chance.
Like, really? I thought that I didn’t have anything left to worry over after she left. Now she’s back, and there’s only one vamp I can blame for that.
Despite running for hours, I’m still fully energized as I lope down the backstreets of downtown Muncie. The way I’m feeling, I’m just aboutprayingthat the wrong vamp wants to start shit with me. Maybe then, if I take my frustration out on them, I might not want to go for Aleks’s throat when I see him next.
No dice, though. As if they can sense the rage pouring off of my blonde wolf, no one—not a regular vamp, a human, or a member of the Cadre—gets in my way as I head around the back of the apartment.
I bound up the fire escape, throwing my wolf’s shoulder into the balcony door to get inside.
One good thing for my shit mood: Aleks isn’t in the living room.
He’s not inside at all.
Did he pick up on my mood as I approached the apartment and high-tail it out of there? It would’ve been a lucky break for him if he had. I can’t imagine where else he might be. It’s barely after sunset, and I know he’s not scheduled for patrol until midnight. Since his return, Roman gave him his old shift back: midnight to eight am, every day. It’s not even eight o’clock at night yet.
Well, at least that gives me a minute or two to change. I’d been so angry when I burst into the apartment, I don’t think I would’ve thought twice before shifting back to my skin to confront him.
Alekssodoesn’t deserve to see me naked right now.
So I pad toward my bedroom, bristling as I go. As soon as I step into my personal space, I slam the door, then shift back to my human shape. My hair is a rat’s nest, my bare skin covered in grass clippings and dots of mud.
Welp. I guess a shower is in order. I’ll make it a cold one and hope that it does something to cool my temper.
Just as I’m finishing up, I hear the front door of the apartment open, then close. I can sense Aleks’s vampire aura filling up the space so I know it’s him out there; not like it can be anyone else since only a moron with a death wish would break into an apartment that belongs to a pair of supes.
I finish yanking my brush through my damp hair, tossing it on my bed before I storm across the room. I grip the doorknob, almost snapping it with how quickly I give it a turn, then shout out, “Aleksander Pietro Filan!”
Oh, yeah. I go full name with him over this one.
My door flings open and I stomp out into the hall.
“Yes, Gem?”
I’m still so stinking pissed at him for interfering with Trish that it’s all I can do not to slash at him with my claws if only to let out some of the wild fury that’s taken root.
