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He was up and moving even before I said my name. He moved quickly for a man so injured. I didn’t know where the knife came from, but it flashed toward me. But I had been running with wolves for going on three years, and I wasn’t the man I used to be.
He brought the knife down toward me as I brought my forearm up under his wrist. It knocked the trajectory of the knife up and over my shoulder. I b
ackhanded him across the face and then reached back, grabbing his wrist and twisting it just before the point of breaking. He grunted as the knife clattered to the floor behind me. I shoved him back onto the bed.
His chest was heaving as he stared at me with wide eyes.
“That was rude,” I told him mildly.
“I had no part in what happened to you,” he said, sounding panicked. “I had already been shunned by my clan beforehand.”
“Why were you shunned?”
“Because I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t—I couldn’t kill.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “A hunter who can’t kill is useless. My father couldn’t stand the sight of me. He turned to my brother Daniel instead. And then there was always my sister. She….”
“Who is your sister?” Then, “Oh, Jesus—”
“Meredith King. Elijah.”
I wrapped my hand under his chin, fingers and thumb digging into his cheeks. Blood and sweat made my grip slick, but I held on tight. My teeth were bared as I bent so close to his face that our noses brushed. “I could kill you right now and no one would stop me. Your family killed mine. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t break your neck right here.”
“I don’t have a family,” he said, voice breaking. “And it doesn’t matter. Not anymore. If he found me once, he could find me again. If it’s not you, then it will be him. Or those kids out there. I haven’t had a thing to do with my family in decades, but I am still a King. I can never escape that.”
I squeezed tighter. It would be so easy. All I would have to do was twist my hand to the right, and his neck would pop and—
“Gordo.”
I closed my eyes.
“Gordo, let him go.”
“You don’t know who he is. What his family has done.”
There was a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t. But this isn’t who you are.”
I laughed bitterly. “You don’t know the first thing about me.”
The grip on my shoulder tightened. “I am your Alpha. I know you better than you think.”
“Goddamn you,” I breathed, letting King’s face slip from my grasp. He gasped, shoulders shaking as I fell back on my ass.
Joe Bennett stood above me. His brothers were at the door behind him, watching. Waiting.
The Alpha bent over the hunter.
King’s eyes were wide.
Joe’s were red.
“Do you know who I am?” Joe asked quietly.
King didn’t speak. He only nodded.
“Good. My witch has helped you. I will do you the favor of letting you live. But only because I ask for a favor in return.”
“What?”
“Oxnard Matheson. Green Creek. You go there. And you tell him I said ‘not yet.’”
