Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Fire, he thought. Casey was like fire. Untamed. Fierce. Intense. Uncontrollable. And Eli wanted her. Suddenly, the thought of blowing off steam in her bed held far more appeal than blowing it off in that ring.
As his wolf watched her melt into the crowd, he urged Eli to hunt her down. Well, he’d get his wish.
Eli deeply suspected he wasn’t the only one who’d be following her. It had been obvious to him that she’d initially held back during the fight with the fox, and he hadn’t understood why. Then he’d seen the looks she exchanged with Ignacio Rodriguez, and he’d suspected the bastard had told her to throw the fight—it was something the cougar had done before with others.
Really, it surprised him that Ignacio had dared to tangle with her. No one picked a fight with a mink. Why? Because an entire pack would seek vengeance for the harm of just one of their own, and since a single pack could contain hundreds and there was literally no way to mink-proof your territory … yeah, it was just best for all if they were left well alone.
One would think that mink shifters were weak while in their animal form, given how small they were. Not at all. Like their animal counterparts, they were ferocious, bloodthirsty predators who were remarkably strong. Hell, they could carry prey up to four times their own body weight—sometimes more. And they had a stare that even he found disturbing.
Eli thought of them as ninjas. Stealthy. Cunning. Moved with blinding speed. Killed quickly and quietly. If a mink was stalking you, you’d never know it.
Those sleek little furballs hunted for sport and killed for the mere thrill of it, leaving behind mangled, beheaded carcasses. Carcasses they usually macabrely piled on top of one another. Because why wouldn’t you?
Alphas constantly sought alliances with mink packs. It was pointless. Minks rarely agreed to alliances, refusing to be “used” as armies. Plus, they didn’t do war. They either settled the matter on a one-to-one basis—usually by pitting their best fighter against that of their enemy—or they descended on their foe’s pack in the dead of night, decimating its number in a matter of minutes. It depended on just how badly you’d pissed them off.
Eli had to wonder what kind of leverage the cougar had over Casey that he felt comfortable fucking with her. There was really only one way to find out.
Inside the restrooms, Casey quickly cleaned the blood from her skin and checked the state of her wounds. Some were ugly looking, but they’d heal by themselves within the hour; she didn’t need the help of a healer.
Once she’d retrieved her purse and jacket from the metal locker she’d hired for the evening, she slipped out the back door into the cool night. It didn’t come as a surprise to find Ignacio and his four cronies gathered in the parking lot. She stopped a few feet away from them, keeping her expression carefully blank.
As usual, Ignacio’s dark, shoulder-length hair was slicked back into a ponytail. Even as he stood there looking every inch a fucking CEO in his tailored suit and gleaming black shoes, his predatory nature was perfectly apparent. There was a distinct darkness about Ignacio.
She’d met some seriously cold people in her life, but this male … he was a whole other level of callous. Those black, dead, reptilian eyes could give even the bravest person a soul-shattering chill—especially when he fixed that malignant stare on you as intensely as he was fixing it on Casey.
It was crazy that he could ooze charm and draw people in even as he possessed that cobra look. She wouldn’t go as far as to call him inherently evil or anything, but he sure seemed to lack that certain something that made a person … well, a person.
Ignacio Rodriguez could be a cruel son of a bitch. And he was evidence that “cruel” wasn’t always curt, gruff, and aggressive. Cruel could be polite. Cruel could be softly spoken. Could have a mate. Could smile and laugh and act understanding—though the latter was mostly to toy with you. But it was always ready to strike, and it would strike hard.
Right then, she had the feeling that Ignacio was done acting “understanding” toward her cause. Would he hurt her? Maybe, since he knew she couldn’t go to her Alpha for help without revealing why Ignacio was on the scene. His usual MO, though, was to target the relatives of those who’d wronged him. The only close family she had was Miles.
His typical forms of retaliation often went along the lines of giving people what he called an “acid shower” or stripping them naked and leaving them in a metal cage for days. Hell, he’d even once poured molten silver into someone’s eyes.