“So am I!”
Those words are a lash, a whip of reprimand, and Dad visibly flinches. He manages to get himself under control within seconds, as though the lapse never happened.
“Stop trying to play on my sympathies.” A growl rumbles up his throat. “You’re not cursed.”
I spread my arms wide to show him the scratches, the raw places where my skin has already started to flay off. The sheen of sweat from the fever dusts my skin like stardust.
“Yes, I am. I’m moonlockedandmoon-madandI’ve been consorting with a moon-mad wolf.”
Dad refuses to listen. He shakes his head as though the motion will dislodge the thought from it. The truth. “He must be eradicated before he turns fully.”
He speaks about Grayson like an object instead of a person, and an unsavory one at that. My head spins as my stomach churns.
“It’s too late. He’s already turned. You want to see where he bit me?” I thrust out my forearm and the ring of bitemarks only now starting to fade.
I step closer to the gate.
“He turned to protect me from the vampires at the Vanishing Mile. Or didn’t you wonder where I went when Jrue couldn’t track me?”
“Jrue—”
“Is no longer my mate. Officially. I’ll leave you to deal with the logistics of that mess. But it was never going to work out. Not when I can’t shift. His family was going to find out no matter how fast you tried to push the bond ceremony.”
My blood goes cold at his expression, one I’ve never seen him make before.
I purse my lips. “Or did you figure they’d be fine as long as we were mated and you finally got the alpha you wanted? Even if it wasn’t your own child?”
A group gathers behind Dad, filling the street, staring between me and Grayson and the vampires holding a now unconscious hunter. His sharp breathing echoes mine in another eerie similarity, and when I glance behind me again, his head lolls to his chest.
Good. I hope they made it hurt.
“Keep your voice down,” Dad hisses.
I spread my arms, raise them. “I’m done hiding. Everyone knows there’s something different about me. They’ve seen it my entire life and they’ve been too afraid of you to say something about it. This isn’t about Grayson.”
It’s about me and it always has been.
“Mandi. Step away from him and we’ll fix this.” Dad is keenly aware of the audience we’ve gathered. “It’s not too late. We’ll come up with a plan for your exile…”
I ignore his outstretched hand. “You already almost killed him once.”
“And I’d do it again.”
Our rage clashes and crackles in the air like the first wave of energy before a lightning strike.
“You’ve always cared more about your reputation than me. You’ve always worried about what the pack will think of you rather than my happiness. You talk about killing someone I care about like it’s as easy as planning what to have for dinner, but if he goes down, then I do too.”
What then?
Dad’s throat works, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he musters up something to say to salvage my parting shot.
There are too many ears, with their keen sense of hearing, to memorize his words.
“Leave the hunter here.” I scoff and turn away from my father, daring him to grab me. To stop me.
He does neither.
“They’ll figure out something to do with him?”