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“She’s bonded to my dad. That’s why not.”
His canines punch out. It’s the slightest loss of control before he purses his lips, hiding them from my sight. When he smiles again, his teeth are blunt and gleaming and infinitely more terrifying.
I can handle fangs. But the predator trying to pretend he’s harmless? Yeah fucking right.
“And, like I told you, all it will take is one touch from my pet.” Reaching to the middle of the table, he picks up the plate of donuts he hadn’t touched yet, holding it out to me. “Dessert?”
I have to swallow the answer I really want to give him. He might have concealed his true nature as easily as he lost control, but I know what I saw. And I know better than to try to trigger him again, especially now that I know how he expects to get me to behave.
He might have pegged me correctly. Threaten my mom? Yeah. To save her from having to look at that smarmy, cruel face ever again, I’ll be Good Girl Gem. I’ll be whatever it takes to get these twenty-five days to pass as quickly as possible so that I can get the hell out of here.
Hell if I’ll be Ruby, the doting daughter, though.
“Suit yourself.”
And with one vicious bite, he tears the donut in half with canines that are suddenly longer than they were before.
Yeah, yeah. Message received.
* * *
I haveto give myself credit. I made it through the rest of dinner only imagining gutting him in my head without actually doing it. Then, when Christian returns to walk me and Elizabeth back to the cabin, I keep a tight hold on my wolf’s leash. No one knows that I’m bordering on the edge of going feral.
Once we’re inside and Christian is gone again, I drop the damn leash.
Flexing my fingers, my claws shoot out. I have the points prickling the side of her throat, palm curved around the hollow, before Elizabeth had any idea that I was about to attack.
I don’t know what the hell she is, but I know what she’s not. She’s not an alpha, so I at least have one advantage. When the Wicked Wolf used his dominance against her, she immediately obeyed. I’m not above doing the same.
“Tell me,” I command, voice throbbing with the power of my alpha wolf. “Tell me who you are.”
She barely dares to swallow. Her silver eyes begin to glow, a pleading look filling them, but that doesn’t sway me.
I squeeze. “He called you his pet. What are you?”
“I’ll tell you,” she squeaks out. “I swear to the Luna, just let me go. Please! Don’t hurt me!”
One chance. I’ll give her one chance.
I release my claws, taking a few purposeful steps away from her.
Her fingers are trembling as she strokes her neck, probing the tiny nicks I left in her skin.
The way I see it, she got off lucky. If she really is Walker’s ‘pet’, if she works with him and is willing to do something that will hurt my mom, she got off very lucky.
She won’t get that lucky again.
“I’m waiting.”
“Okay. I don’t know what it’s really called, but my mom always said our line was Luna-touched.”
I blink, my wolf as puzzled as I am. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“Not really,” Elizabeth confesses. “As far as I know, we’re the only shifters who have this strange kind of gift. Everyone in my family who has it was born with these.” With her pointer finger, she gestures at her silver eyes. “It manifests differently in each of us. I always thought the way I covered up a shifter’s scent just by touching them was all I could do… but I discovered a couple of years ago that I was wrong. Sometimes, when I touch a mated supe, I can break their bond instantly.”
“What?” It slips out without me meaning to. “That’s not possible!”
“Oh, but it is. I wish it wasn’t, but it is. If a mated pair isn’t happy in their mating, if there’s even an ounce of hesitation between either of them, all I have to do is brush their hand and poof. The bond’s gone, and it takes an awful lot to get the Luna to bless the same mating all over again.” She glances away from me. “And that’s even if she’s willing.”
