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Really? We’re gonna have a quaint conversation like you didn’t slash me across the face last time I saw you? Oh, and that wasafteryou tried to convince me to dump Ryker and mate you instead?
I want to say that to him. I want to throw it in his smarmy, smirking face. But I can’t. I’m too busy goggling at him.
What the fuck is he doing in Muncie?
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Not the most bad-ass opening line, but it’s all I can manage right now.
Shane pushes off of the tree, taking a few steps closer to me. Smart wolf, there’s still a good fifteen feet separating us, but he’s still close enough to look me up and down, leering openly as he does.
“And you shouldn’t be alive,” he counters. “Did you know that you’re supposed to be dead?”
“Did you know that, if I get my claws on you, you will be?”
My retort is nasty, but I punctuate it with a sweet smile. Anyone who knows me would take that as the warning that it is, but despite Shane thinking hedoes, he has no clue what the real Gemma is like. I have no problem using that against him if I can.
Shame he doesn’t seem to be bothered by it.
“No, really, Gem. You see, my new Alpha told me a very interesting story. About how he lost his mate. He thought he lost his daughter, too. Drowned. Very ugly way to go. For twenty-odd years he mourned her, and then he discovered that maybe miracles do happen. That maybe she’s alive. And here you are. What do you say about that?”
I say that he’s full of shit.
Jack Walker bullied my mother. He hurt her. I’m almost positive he did worse things, too, but she’s spent my whole life protecting me from the monster that was my sperm donor. She told me enough to make me understand he was dangerous, then kept her secrets after that.
As a rebellious teen, I pushed. My wolf wanted to protect her, my hormonal human side wanted revenge.
Myrealdad was the one to sit me down and set me straight. Wicked Wolf Walker was dangerous, he was cruel, and if he never discovered that I was his blood, then we’d all be better off.
I scoff over at him. “I don’t know what kind of fairy tale your Alpha told you, but Paul Booker is my father. No one else, especially not some murderer.”
“You tell yourself that. You were young when your mother stole you away from your father. You might not even remember him. You certainly don’t know him. He’s a good wolf, Gem. A good shifter. He deserves your respect.”
He’s pushing me on purpose. If he knows anything at all about Jack Walker, it’s that every single word he just uttered is a lie—and, yet, I can sense that Shane believes it whole-heartedly.
Time for a little reality check.
“One hundred and fourteen.”
“Excuse me?”
“That’s how many Betas the Wicked Wolf has gone through since he’s been Alpha. One fourteen. You prepared to be number one fifteen, Shane?”
“I’m not worried about that. Still, it’s impressive that you know his history,” Shane remarks. “Even down to the number of former Betas who failed him.”
I shrug. “I keep tabs on my enemies.”
Or, at least, my dad does.
Shane smiles. I’m sure he thinks it’s a charming grin, especially when he makes his dimples pop like that. “What about me?”
“Depends,” I shoot back. “You my enemy?”
“I’d rather not think so. I don’t want to hurt you, Gem. Of all the things I plan to do with you, pain will only be involved if that’s something you’re into. But make no mistake: I’ll do what I have to to get what I want.”
Of course. Even though shifter tradition makes it clear that a mate gets to choose—hasto choose—Shane’s another stubborn, selfish male who thinks he can decide for me.
I should challenge him for his arrogance alone. I might still, too, but first I have to figure out how he managed to get this far into Muncie without any of the patrol stopping him.
