Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 131137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 656(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 656(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
“Forgive me if I’m not quivering with fear, Logan.” Seeing the surprise on the human’s face, Nick smiled. But it wasn’t a nice smile. “You don’t remember me? Because I sure remember you,” he rumbled.
The human cocked his head, studying Nick intensely. Then his eyes widened. Wariness crept into his expression, and the fear in his scent intensified.
“That’s right,” said Nick, his voice thick with anger. “I also remember how you get your kicks, just like I remember defending myself from you a number of times. Funny isn’t it that you say you hate our kind, but you sure enjoyed sexually abusing the shifters in that place?”
“What’s he talking about?” one of the humans asked Logan.
“I’m talking about the time that your leader worked as a guard in a shifter juvenile prison. Logan has a thing for young boys. I fought him off a number of times. Yeah…those aren’t good memories for me.” Nick gave Logan a pointed look. “So that presents you with a problem.”
“Are you threatening me?” Logan swallowed hard.
“I’m merely pointing out the facts.” Nick shrugged. “Trying to take me on always ended badly for you in the past. You simply might want to take that into consideration. It’s a smart man who learns from his mistakes. Speaking of mistakes…how’s your shoulder? Many people say that once you have an injury to the shoulder, it’s never the same again. That true?” On one of the occasions that the sick prick had tried to touch him, Nick had dislocated his shoulder.
Logan’s bitter expression confirmed that Nick was right. “How can what happened be abuse when you’re not people, you’re animals?”
Nick raised a brow. “So it’s bestiality that gives you your kicks? Wow.”
After a tense silence, Logan backed up a little. “I’ll be watching you, Axton. You’ll slip up, and I’ll be waiting.”
“Sure you will.” Nick’s expression warned him to move away. Logan wisely retreated, along with the others. Only when the humans had driven away did Nick move his eyes from the white van. Striding over to the SUV, he saw a scowling Derren lowering his window. “I take it you recognized Logan.” Nick’s words were barely understandable while anger was still bubbling inside him.
Gritting his teeth, Derren nodded. “All I wanted right then was to jump out of the SUV and rip his throat out.”
Nick sighed heavily. “I have more self-control than most people, but I nearly killed the bastard myself.”
“You were right not to,” said Derren. “There are too many witnesses. His time will come.”
“You know him?” Shaya asked Nick and Derren.
Forcing down his anger as best he could, Nick opened the rear passenger door. He didn’t move to let her pass, though. “Unfortunately, yes. You okay?” He knew his voice was still strained with anger, but he couldn’t soften it yet. He inhaled deeply, taking Shaya’s scent inside his lungs and using it to calm him. But the only thing that could totally calm him right then was the feel of her, and that wasn’t something he could indulge in.
Shaya nodded, wanting to know how he knew the human but conscious that his wolf was extremely tense right now. Revisiting what just happened would make things worse. “Fine.”
“Derren’s going to give you a ride home.” Nick didn’t trust himself alone with her while he was this wound up. The impulse to kiss her and hold her was too strong to ignore, especially when she would provide the calm he so needed.
The overprotectiveness got her back up. Making her even more pissed, Shaya found that she actually wanted to be with Nick and wanted to comfort him. It was instinctive—he was her mate, and something was clearly paining him. But that instinct made her want to slap herself. “He doesn’t need to—”
Nick ignored her. “Kent, do you need a ride home?”
“No, thanks,” he replied as he hopped out of the other side of the vehicle. “I have my MINI Cooper.”
Nick gave him a brief nod and then returned his attention to Shaya. “I’ll see you in the—”
Frustrated, Shaya went to get out of the SUV, but then she froze at the low warning growl that rumbled out of him.
“I can’t be around you right now, Shay. And I think you know why. But if you really insist on Derren not taking you home, I’ll do it myself regardless. The problem is I can’t guarantee I won’t touch you.” There was no way he’d let her walk home on such a cold evening. No mate would. When she opened her mouth to object again, he gave her a look that said he’d argue with her all night if he had to. Eventually she sighed and slumped in her seat. “Good girl. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Go squat and piss up a tree, asshole.”
He almost smiled at that. “Right.”