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I’ll say one thing about the ice princess—she has good instincts. She’s right to balk at this. I’m wrecked over it.
“I’m sorry, Pearls.” I swing her up into my arms. She kicks her feet and hits me with her taped hands, but she’s no match for me.
“Abe, no! Put me down! Take me home!” She attempts to turn her body and twist out of my arms. The scent of her fear makes my wolf snarl with the need to defend her.
“You’re not—” Her words die when the door swings open, and a slender kid in a 1920’s blue velvet smoking jacket opens the door.
He looks like he can't be older than Lauren and I, but I’m not deceived. Based on his fashion choices he’s probably over 100 years.
“Thomas?” I ask. The scent of the undead makes my skin crawl. I’ve never seen a leech in person before.
It’s scary as fuck.
The vampire barely spares me a glance, but he takes a slow lecherous perusal of Lauren’s body, lingering on the soft exposed flesh beneath her breasts. I can’t believe I didn’t give her a different shirt to wear. What in the fuck is wrong with me?
I lower her feet to the ground, whip my shirt off, and pull it over her head and shoulders. With her wrists bound in front of her, the sleeves hang empty like she’s an armless mannequin. I keep my body angled, so the leech can’t see the pistol in the waistband of my jeans. The bullets in it are made of silver.
“A wolf pup and a mortal teen on my doorstep. How uninteresting.” His gaze snaps to me like a weapon. Of course, it is a weapon. “Take off your sunglasses, wolf child.”
“No.” I say it firmly. I’m wearing mirrored sunglasses. He shouldn’t be able to catch my gaze through these and glamour me into doing what he wants.
I don’t say No, sir, like I would if he were a wolf elder. I’m just here for a transaction. I can’t trust this leech. But I don’t want to antagonize him–he’s dangerous and only out for himself and his kind. The sooner I complete business and get out of here, the better.
My hand itches to reach for my weapon, but I don’t. I need to stay cool.
The vampire gives me a chilling smile. “Where is the money?”
I fork over the two thousand bucks I took from my dad’s floor safe. That’s how much Austin’s contact said it would be. I’ll have to figure out a way to pay it back before my dad finds out.
Lauren must remember she was trying to escape because she turns to run. I catch her around the waist and spin her back to face Thomas.
The moment he catches her eye, she goes slack in my arms. I don’t release her. My heart pounds against her back.
Thomas catches her chin and lifts it. “Did you see a shifter, love?”
Lauren pants, her ribs widening against my chest with each inhale. Her body seems to be immobile, like she’s playing freeze tag and becoming a statue.
I try to soothe her by stroking my thumb in a slow circle over the bare skin at her waist. Before we came, I had this fantasy I would ask the vampire to plant happy thoughts in her, to help her feel better about her mom, but now I realize that was idiocy. I don’t trust this guy to do anything extra. The second he wipes the wolf memory, we’re out of here.
“I see… you were on a cliff. The wolf pup saved you.”
Goosebumps stand out on my arms listening to him root through her mind. This is so fucked up. I clear my throat. “Yeah. Tell her it was the human me who saved her, and then we went to the library to study. And then for a drive.”
The leech ignores me. “Lover boy has been watching you. Understandable.” He leans forward to sniff her neck. Now I’m panting from adrenaline, too. This guy fucking creeps me out.
“You have a unique scent for a human. There’s something…different about you.”
I catch the glint of his elongated fangs, and I yank her backward, out of striking distance.
Fuck! Was he going to bite her? I need to get the hell out of here as soon as this is taken care of.
“Give her to me,” he snaps, like he’s pissed I just took away his dinner.
I lift my upper lip in a snarl. My canines get long, too, asshole. “No.” I make the syllable as hard and forbidding as I know how, throwing every ounce of alpha command into it that I can muster.
Once again, he’s amused by my defiance. Like I’m some terrible two who just learned to say no.
Before I know what’s happening, he grabs my sunglasses from my face at lightning speed, tossing them into the Texas Ranger bush flanking the door.
