“What are you reading?” I asked, trying to peek at the words on the page.
Willow jolted and closed the book with a thud. “None of your business,” she replied with flushed cheeks, irritation and guilt written all over her face.
Curious, I pretended to be nonchalant and shrugged. “Gee, Wills, I was just asking. No need to get all worked up about it.”
She glared at me and was about to reopen the book, but in her moment of distraction, I stole the book from her hand and stepped back, grinning smugly.
“What the hell, Drew?!” she yelled, struggling to get off the hammock. “Give it back!”
It was amusing, seeing her try to get off the hammock without it throwing her down on the muddy ground, but I was more interested in her book. Its title,The Alpha’s Bride, was especially intriguing.
Prying it open, I landed on a random page and read. It was a scene between a woman, whom I realized was abducted from the context, and the love interest who’d rescued her. The perfect damsel-in-distress situation to show the heroic fits of the male lead.
The wordswerewolfandAlphajumped to my eyes, but before I could read any further, Willow finally reached me and tore the book from my hands. “Don’t ever touch my books again!” she said angrily, her gray eyes glaring daggers at me.
“Then don’t act so suspicious when I ask what you’re reading,” I said, sticking my tongue out at her. I might’ve been the older one between the two of us, but sometimes I acted far more childish than my mature sister.
“I’m not joking, Drew,” she said, and I could finally see she was dead serious. “If you touch my books one more time without permission, I will never forgive you.”
After that, I remembered I’d apologized to appease her but didn’t really take her threat seriously. Because a few months later, I had stolen a book from her room, a book she refused to let me borrow—a book I needed for a book report too—and when she found out, she was true to her word.
Until the day she cried for me to help her, which I failed to do.
Before we could make up, she was already gone.
A touch on my cheek made me tense as I returned to the present. I blinked, realized a warm, large hand was cupping my cheek, and turned my head to see Lucien leaning forward, his arctic-blue eyes concerned. The car had stopped moving too.
“Hey,” he said softly when his gaze met mine. “Are you okay? You seemed ...”
He let his voice trail off, but I knew what I seemed like. I probably had the same look on my face, reflecting the same feelings, as I always did when I was triggered into remembering a memory I’d tucked away for far too long.
Despair. Misery. Helplessness.
I sucked in a deep breath, my chest heavy, before I spoke. “I’m okay now.”
He searched my eyes, and his thumb caressed my cheek, which made a bolt of electricity shoot down from his touch to places it had no business reaching. “All right,” he said slowly, not entirely convinced, as he withdrew his hand. The moment his touch was gone, my body instinctually leaned forward, following it, missing it already, and I had to force it back so I didn’t look so desperate for his warmth.
Our gazes were still locked, and something passed in his eyes, an inexplicable glint I couldn’t quite decipher. But then, his eyes lowered a little, and if he wasn’t a gorgeous man way out of my league, I would’ve thought they lingered on my lips before he turned to face the road, taking off from the shoulder where he’d stopped.
My heart, which had stopped throughout the whole interaction, too, began beating again.
Chapter 10
A Wolf’s Philosophy
There were ten profiles in total. The logs were also about these pack members’ movements during the past two months.
Throughout the entire ride, I read everything out loud to Lucien as he kept on driving south on I-5. He hadn’t said yet where we were headed, but I was far too preoccupied by the new information I procured to ask.
According to Lucien, werewolf packs operated as a mix of feudal and capitalistic systems. There was the Alpha, who was the leader of the pack and who called the shots, and the Betas, who were like his private council of advisors. The rest of the pack members held jobs that had to contribute to either the pack’s finances, like taxes, or the pack members’ well-being in general.
In all the profiles I read, Mack Page was the only Beta, while the others had different jobs. It piqued my curiosity, and when I finished reading everything out loud for Lucien, I said, “This is the list of suspects, right?”
“Yes,” Lucien replied as he suddenly took an exit from the interstate onto a highway bound for San Diego. “All ten are suspected of trying to kill me.”
I nodded. “Right. So, how come there’s a Beta, who’s part of the pack leadership, on the list?” I asked, frowning. “Are you on bad termswith your pack’s Alpha? Which reminds me ...” I turned to stare at him. “Whatisyour job in the pack?”
Lucien’s lips stretched into a thin smile. “Will you believe me if I tell you I am the Alpha?”