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She rubbed the space between her eyes. “I had to get out of town for a while, so I came to Ohio because of the high concentration of shifters. I refused to be around the wolves, but the tigers seemed safe enough.”
“You don’t think I’m dangerous?” he asked.
Her gaze darkened slightly, the scent of her arousal spiking. She leaned forward slowly, looking for all the world like a seductress. She cupped his manhood, his erection hardening further as she gave him a gentle squeeze.
“You don’tfeeldangerous.”
He wrapped his hand around her wrist and pulled her hand free, even though it was genuinely the last thing he wanted to do.
“You shouldn’t tease a tiger.”
“Sorry,” she said with a grin.
“I don’t think you are, actually.”
He liked that she was teasing him. It meant her scent had changed to the sweetness of her arousal, not the acrid smell of despair and fear.
He wanted to research her sister’s death. There was something off about her story, even though she clearly believed what she’d been told. If a shifter killed a human, no matter the reason, the human authorities would definitely have gotten involved. It seemed unlikely that they would let the male go, leaving his punishment strictly to his alpha.
“Tell me about your sister,” he said.
She smiled. “Her name was Kerry, and she was just two years younger than me. She would have been twenty-six this year. I lost her five years ago. We were the best of friends when she wasn’t stealing my makeup or not returning clothes she borrowed.”
“You’re twenty-eight?”
“Yeah, why?”
“You just look really young.”
“Good genes, I guess.”
He hummed but didn’t say anything to that response. She looked young for twenty-eight. Hell, she looked like she was still a teenager. Sure there were humans who had youthful faces, but she should definitely look like she had some age to her face at least.
One more thing that didn’t quite add up with her. He inhaled quietly and sorted through the scents coming from her. She smelled good, of course, because truemates were always attracted to each other’s scent. And she smelled human. But he couldn’t shake the sense that he didn’t have the whole story.
Ashley was an enigma.
As she talked animatedly about her sister, Romeo mused on her sister’s death. He’d need someone with access to the California shifter database, as well as the human authorities, who would have had to file a report whether they charged the wolf or not. He at least had a time frame and name: Kerry Talbot, five years ago.
Maybe Ashley was telling the entire truth about her journalistic endeavors, and the lies he was sensing were from her keeping the truth of her sister’s death a secret. One way or another, he’d get to the bottom of things.
He wasn’t about to have a truemate who lied to him.
ChapterEleven
Ashley wiped at the few tears that had spilled over her cheeks as she talked about her sister’s death and her frustration with the outcome of her family’s dealings with the pack. Romeo was an incredibly good listener. He seemed to be hanging on her every word.
It was a relief to share everything with someone. She hadn’t told anyone the whole story since she’d told Brent and he’d helped her get vengeance on the male who killed her sister.
She hadn’t told Romeothatpart though. As far as he knew, she’d been unable to get satisfaction from the alpha and the male was still running around California.
“And your parents?” he asked.
“What about them?”
“You said they accepted the alpha’s apology and you didn’t. It sounds like they thought things had been explained well enough to let go of their anger, but not you.”
The warm and fuzzy feelings she’d been developing evaporated.
