With the rest of the house distracted or sleeping, I walk outside, shutting the door behind me. A slight chill sends goosebumps over my arm.
“Mandi! There you are.”
The male voice comes from the left and when I turn, Jrue is there. Smiling. Perfect.
Ice isn’t the right term for it. Not when it burns so much, my intuition now a harsh roar in my head. It only grows louder onhis approach. I blink my eyes wide, something harsh grating at my nerves.
He stops at the edge of the porch with his hands in his pockets and his features set to charm.
Panic never felt like this. “What are you doing here?” I whisper.
“I tracked you.” He says it simply. “And I’m here to bring you home.”
Chapter
Nineteen
Jrue is the only thing that is clear. He hesitates before reaching for me, his fingers brushing against my arm without taking hold.
“You don’t look happy, Mandi.”
His statement is almost too quiet to hear and I cut him a glare as the rest of my vision goes wavy, disjointed. Surreal and impossible.
Jrue tracked me here. He knows, without a doubt by their scents, who is inside the house.
“How long have you been outside?” My voice holds firm.
It’s the smallest shred of silver lining I’ve got.
“Long enough to know you came here with him.”
A swell of frustration grows in the wake of these opening moves and the cat-and-mouse game wolves like to play.
I chew on my inside cheek with a vengeance when Jrue sniffs, his posture deceptively relaxed.
“You came alone?”
“I had scouts with me, but they took another direction. I took this one. I know you better than you think I do.”
He touches me again and my expression darkens. “No, you don’t.”
“I saw you walk inside with him. You were talking. It was a pretty exciting conversation, from the parts I made out. And you two were distracted. So distracted you didn’t scent my arrival.”
My muscles tighten around the sound of his reprimand.
“What did you hear, then?”
He takes a few steps closer and says, “Why all the questions? The only one you should have for me is asking when we leave. But you don’t really seem interested in coming home. You’d rather spend your time with riffraff and outlaws and fucking witches.”
I pull back at that and my spine knots, holds, as pain splinters through me.
His tone hasn’t changed, but something in his eyes has finally given way, an ember of something I never thought I’d see on his face. Distrust.
And worse. Disgust.
There isn’t a hair out of place. Jrue is the perfect would-be alpha, the perfect successor to lead the Ironwood pack.
Pristine and controlled, powerful without being boastful. I’d always admired those qualities in him.