Until the other night at dinner, I don’t think Killian’s ever really looked at me, but his wolf is completely tuned into everything. I was panicking at first. The keys were in my fist, and my palms were sweating like crazy. The wolf was nudging my other hand. I pet him to distract him. Luckily, that’s what he was going for—pets.
I smile, remembering. That gargantuan killer beast wanted rubs.
Annie was terrified. At one point, I scented piss in the air, but she pulled it together and wriggled up to me. I dropped the keys in the grass, and she crawled right on top of them. I don’t know how she picked them up, but when I finally peeked down, they were gone, and she was hanging out with Liam by the truck.
She might actually be able to pull off the mushroom run.
Maybe things are turning around. I lay low for a while, and my new buddy Killian’s wolf convinces him to ignore me like he used to. This could all be a bad dream, and I can get back to business as usual.
I’m actually feeling pretty good as Annie and I turn onto the path that leads up to our cabin, but then I catch a scent on the breeze. Male sweat and Bengay. My wolf’s hackles rise, and a nervous whine erupts from Annie’s chest.
Striding towards us down the path are Eamon and Lochlan Byrne. Annie shuffles closer to my side.
It’s weird to see them here. No one uses our path but us. There’s nothing except our place and the groundskeeper’s shed at the top. Maybe they’re cutting through after patrol.
I don’t like Lochlan, but I hate Eamon. Once, when I was younger and staying with the Campbells, they had him over for dinner. He was a big deal then. Declan Kelly’s beta. He leered at me all night, and then he said to Dan Campbell, “It’s a pity about her legs, but I guess they’ll spread just fine.”
Eileen hustled me off to the kitchen to help her with the dishes.
The past decade hasn’t been kind to him. His knuckles are gnarled, and the hair on his head has receded, although his mutton chops are as bushy as ever.
Lochlan is his nephew. Eamon raised him. They’re two of a kind. They walk the same, hunched but swaggering, arms swinging. Like wiry, foul-tempered chimpanzees.
As they plow forward, I get no sense that they’re going to make way. Annie dodges into the tall grass, but I’m not that nimble. I’m still in the middle of the path when they come to a stop, inches from me.
My wolf growls, baring her teeth, and my heart thunders. I shrink back. She’s going to get us killed. We’re alone.
I make to step aside, but Eamon grabs my upper arm, digging his fingers into the muscles. His sneer is echoed on Lochlan’s face. Both their noses flare. They must smell Killian.
“Not so fast.” Eamon rakes his eyes down my front, pausing at the white and silver hairs I didn’t manage to brush off. I jerk my arm, but he squeezes tighter, the tips of his claws snicking, ripping my sleeve.
Instinctively, I reach for the place the bond was, but there’s nothing there.
My wolf wants to fight. She’s riding some kind of high from taming Killian’s beast. I tamp down hard. That’s not reality. We’re outranked and outnumbered, and I can taste the malice wafting off these two.
In my periphery, I see Annie skulking away. Both males are focused on me. She’s going to bolt.
Go, girl. I need to distract them.
“What do you want?” I force the words out of my tight throat.
A rumble sounds in Eamon’s chest. “What was I just telling you, Lochlan? When I was beta, bitches didn’t speak unless you asked ‘em a question. Shit’s gotten way too lax around here.”
Lochlan nods in full agreement. From the corner of my eye, I see Annie inching farther up the path.
“If you have a problem, take it up with the alpha.” I brace for a cuff to the side of the head. I’ve seen Eamon deliver those blows to his mate for as long as I can remember. I can hardly breathe; my chest is so tight.
“And if a bitch didn’t learn when to keep her mouth shut, well—” Eamon grins at Lochlan. “Hard to talk with no teeth.”
Lochlan nods again. “Some bottom feeders have gotten real comfortable around here. Attacking their betters.”
He’s talking about Haisley.
“No matter what Killian Kelly does, you can’t change the reality of rank in a wolf pack,” Eamon says.
He extends his claws just enough to prick my skin. Annie has disappeared over the crest of the hill, and I’m sweating bullets, but I can breathe a little better now that she’s safe.
Eamon leans down to whisper in my ear. His sideburns scratch my cheek. “Strength rules. It always has. It always will. And you and your band of rejects aren’t very strong, now, are you?”