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“Am I your prisoner?”
“You are required to stay with me at this time.”
She tipped her glass. “My God, your words are stilted, practiced, Stone. That means I’m your prisoner.”
“That means I must protect you at all costs. The wolf you encountered tonight may strike again.”
“I am certain he will.”
“How?” I growled, gripping the edge of the counter. When she hesitated, I fought to keep my anger at bay. “Tell me how, Vanessa.”
“Because he also claims I’m his mate.”
I bristled more than I should have, my grip on the bottle threatening to crush the glass. “He told you that?” Gregor and I had been right.
“No, that’s the interesting thing, Stone. He didn’t use words, but I knew exactly what he was thinking.”
“That’s not possible.” She’d been able to read his mind or was she just assuming given the wolf’s aggressive actions?
“Just like any of this is possible? I woke up this morning not realizing I was going to fall into my nightmares. Werewolves are real?” she asked, laughing. “Wait, no, you’re not an actual werewolf, are you? You’re just some hybrid creature, or so I’ve been told.”
“By whom?”
“Does it matter?” she challenged. “Does any of this actually matter? When am I going to wake up?”
I took several deep breaths, calculating what I was going to say. “Why are you in Denver, Vanessa? Do not lie to me. You fell into the world of the Wolfen, but that’s not why you came back.”
“As I told you before, it’s none of your business.”
“Tell me!” I smashed the bottle down before I could stop my actions, hissing. “I need the truth in order to keep you safe.”
“I…” she faltered, looking away.
I took a chance, the only thing that made any sense. “Does this have something to do with your father?”
She narrowed her eyes, shaking from her own anger. “How would you know that? I never said a word about him.”
“I read your mind, although you blocked the majority of your thoughts extremely well. You are quite powerful in your own right.” Which also disturbed the hell out of me.
“Powerful? I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, Stone, other than pretending that if I find any information about my father I won’t be crushed by the truth. Maybe he didn’t want me. Maybe he was the horrible person my mother told me he’d become.” Her entire face twisted as she glared at me, finally pushing away both of the drinks and running her hand through her hair. “I’m sorry. I’m not making any sense. If you want to know the truth, yes, that’s why I came here, to find my father. I made this search more important than everything else in my life.”
I softened, stripping the anger from my voice. “What have you found?”
“Absolute crap. It’s like he either didn’t exist or doesn’t want to be found.”
“That’s why you’re working for that asshole and why you were at the company tonight. Isn’t it?”
“You want another truth? I found proof my father lived and worked in Denver for the first time in my entire life. He was employed by Montenegro for at least a while, although someone went to great lengths to make it seem like he hadn’t.”
I had no idea what to say. “What are you talking about?”
She grumbled as she reached into her back pocket, thrusting a piece of folded paper in my direction. “A long time ago, I found a simple note with my father’s name, alongside the Montenegro Corporation and a single word. Wolfen. There were a couple of love letters to prove my mother had been involved with him. Other than the fact my father was a horrible criminal, that’s all I was told about him. Nothing more. As you might imagine, an attorney with a curious mind might find the lack of information intolerable.”
As I took the paper from her hands, I was floored at the lengths she’d gone to in order to seek him out. There had to be more to the story than she was telling me. “Why is it so important for you?”
“You mean other than the obvious? Because I know my entire life has been a lie. Because I haven’t felt whole since I was a small child. Because other than my mother, I have no family. How would you feel if your mother told you that your father was some kind of horrible criminal?” She shook from her anger, her hands clenching into fists. “Have you heard of his name before?”
I unfolded the paper, glancing at the name. “Unfortunately, I don’t know him.”
