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“Then why?”
That was a damn good question. Why was I staying? Something about Liv intrigued me, drew me in, and not knowing what kind of being she was killed me. I liked being in charge. I liked knowing. I had to know what she was.
“What did you see earlier?” I asked.
Liv frowned. “You keep asking me questions I can’t answer, Colter.”
I loved the way my name sounded on her tongue.
“I’m just trying to figure out who I’m working with.”
“Is that all?” she asked and folded her arms over her chest. “Seems to me there’s more to it. Do you know something I don’t?”
“Nothing you’ll be able to handle, sweetheart,” I said with a grin.
She rolled her eyes and picked up a tablet so she could start working. I watched her a second longer. She was beautiful. I’d been with a lot of women in my life, but none of them had been quite like her. She had an ethereal beauty; her skin was pale and smooth, like porcelain.
I wanted to touch it.
I wanted to taste it.
I wanted to do a lot of things to her.
That was what made her dangerous. She was mesmerizing, and women didn’t mesmerize me. She was hypnotizing, and women didn’t draw me in. They weren’t to be trusted. They were in my life for one thing, and one thing only.
Liv was trouble, no matter which way I looked at it. The sooner I could figure out what she was, the sooner I could get rid of this ridiculous obsession I had with her, and then I could move on with my life.
I forced myself to get up and order dinner, or I would stare at her all night.
8
COLTER
“I’m on my way to the lab,” I said to Lazlo on the phone. “What are you doing for marketing?”
“I’ve been asking around, since we can’t go through normal channels. I still think we should go through the clinic, maybe contact old patients who have suffered the same before.”
I nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good.”
“I’m on it,” Lazlo said.
I ended the call before I walked to the Wonderprise building. The doorman couldn’t yank the door open for me fast enough, and all the receptionists stopped what they were doing and stared. They bowed their heads in respect when I made eye contact with them.
Everyone here respected me, or feared me. I preferred the latter—when someone feared me, they wouldn’t think about fucking with me. I couldn’t do much with respect, but fear was what got the job done.
My dad had known all about that. He’d always gotten the game right, until he’d been stupid enough to let my stepmom into the picture. Yeah, that bitch hadn’t known anything about respect. It had all been a game to her, and she'd killed him by the time my dad had realized what was going on. Too little too late. Jackass.
I had no love lost for my dad. The guy was a piece of shit from the top shelf. He’d allowed a woman to take over, to rule him, to break down everything he’d built. It hadn’t only taken away from him, it had taken away from me, too. Including the respect I’d once had for him.
A boy should have had a father to look up to. Mine hadn’t been that man. It didn’t matter, though; he was gone now.
And so was his awful wife. When she’d killed him, I killed her. What goes around, comes around. Plain and simple.
That was what instilled fear in my pack—shows of force and aggression and giving my people what they needed at the same time, so they stayed humble. I didn’t need some kind of revolt on my hands.
The vampires were a new game I was trying to play. Shifters didn’t usually mix with vampires. We liked to keep things easy and stay in our lanes.
I was alpha in the city, and all the shifters answered to me, but if I could get the vampires to fall in line, that could change everything. Every overlord needed minions and henchmen, right?
