He looked at her expectantly. “What’s wrong with that?”
“There’s nothing wrong with it. I’m ready to accept my obligations and fulfill my duties to my pack. But it’s hard for me to live my life when I’m confined by such strict rules.”
“I try not to play by others’ rules,” he said.
She rolled her eyes. “And we’ve seen what sort of trouble it gets you in. If I step out of line, I can be severely punished, and because I’m a powerful female, there are loads of males who wouldn’t hesitate to kill or defeat me in order to usurp my position. I live with the constant knowledge that someday my pinkie toe may barely cross over some line and I’ll end up as someone’s bitch. I don’t want to be a domesticated girl.”
“Sounds like a shitty position to be in.”
She thought of all her duties. “In some ways, yes. In others, no. It depends. I know I should do what I want and not allow anyone to dictate to me, but it’s hard, in my position. I wish I could be like you.”
“Why the hell would you want to be like me?”
“You don’t let anyone intimidate you. I don’t scare easily, but I’m not immune to fear like you are.”
He let out a short huff. “I wasn’t always this way.”
“Maybe, but you are now.”
Jace’s jaw clenched as if he were fighting not to grind his teeth. “I swear to myself every day that I’ll never give in. I refuse to be like my bastard of a father. But each morning I look in the mirror and I see him staring back at me, and there are so many things that take me back to that place. I let him haunt me, and I can’t help it. I still choke at the smell of cigars.” He twisted so she could see his forearm. A series of perfectly circular scars marred the inside of his arm. Bile burned at the back of Frankie’s throat at the thought of someone hurting a child. “Don’t be like me. You can’t allow them to get the best of you. Don’t let yourself be abused.”
“Jace, you can’t blame yourself for what happened to you, and you can’t be angry over frightening memories. All the pain you felt was real. It would’ve been too much for anyone to handle, and you were just a kid. That sort of pain leaves scars that go way deeper than the surface. And you don’t need to spend so much of your energy fighting not to be like him. You may have a lot of anger, but it’s easy to see that you’re a good person.” She placed a hand on his arm.
He stared blankly at the wall. It took a moment before he responded. “And what does that say about me? I have to fight every day not to be some crazy, abusive drunk, not to treat people like shit and kill the innocent. And half the time I’m barely succeeding. Lord knows I drown myself in liquor, even if my damn supernatural metabolism burns up the alcohol so quickly that I’m rarely drunk. What does that say about my character?”
“That you’re a good man. Because, despite any temptation, you keep trying to do the right thing.”
He held up the flask. “This is going to hurt a little.” He tipped the container over and allowed the whiskey to pour across her burns. The wounds screamed with pain as the alcohol sanitized them.
His hand fell back to his side. “I’ve never told anyone that before.”
She smiled through the pain. “I’m glad you told
“Do you want me to put a bandage on this?” he said.
“No, if I can shift it will heal quickly. I’ll wait until you’re asleep. I know you don’t like—”
“No, don’t bother. I may hunt criminal shifters, but...well, I wouldn’t hunt
Her heart jumped, and she mentally scolded herself as she asked, “What makes me different from any other werewolf?”
“You’re useful. I need inside information. If the killer really is a rogue, I’ll need to cooperate with your pack, at least temporarily.”
“Oh.”
She glanced down at her hands and gritted her teeth. Damn, she was an idiot. What sort of answer had she expected?
“I’m going to shift. I’ll be right back.” She rushed into the bathroom and shut the door behind her, a little harder than she intended.
Pushing her spine against the wood, she slid down to the ceramic tiling. What was wrong with her? What the hell would give her the idea that Jace might actually be interested in her once the power of their hormones was taken out of the equation? And why was she interested in him? She was a werewolf—his worst enemy. The only thing he would remember about their time together was the fact that he’d fucked a wolf. He’d kidnapped her, had her in his control, and that was all that mattered. She was nothing but a piece of leverage that allowed him to say “Take this, fur-faces. I banged one of your bitches.” Destined mate, her ass.
Burying her face in her hands, she thought about making a run for it. If she bolted now and caught Jace off guard, she could make it to the stairs. Her body shook from the adrenaline buzzing through her veins. No. She couldn’t run. She needed his help to find the rogue.
She let out a long sigh. Damn. Why had she told him about the precariousness of her position? She’d never told anyone that, not even Alejandro. She’d blown her chances on that score, too. She’d never wanted to marry Alejandro, but running away hadn’t solved anything. And as a result, here she was, sitting in the bathroom of an overly done-up penthouse pining for a werewolf hunter who couldn’t care less.
The word echoed in her ears. That was all she was to him. Useful. That was what she got for having sex on an animalistic whim, then letting her dumb-ass brain try to rationalize her actions with delusions of romance and destined mates. Use
She pulled her cell phone out of the pocket of her jeans. Flipping it open, she stared at the screen. Alejandro’s name flashed next to a missed call message. She pressed a few buttons and the blank slate for a text message popped up. She started typing.
Alejandro, I’m okay. No need 2 worry. Will explain everything l8r. Sorry I missed our
She stopped typing in the middle of her sentence, staring at the words until she finally hit the delete button. The sound of plastic cracking snapped her mind back in place, and she realized she’d thrown the phone at the bathroom wall.
“Damn it.”
She crawled toward the broken pieces. It was fixable, but she would need a whole lot of glue and possibly duct tape. But that wasn’t the real issue. What mattered was whether she was really going to run from this. From him. She stripped off her clothes and laid them next to the bathtub. The feeling of the cold tile against her naked flesh sent shivers up her spine. Crouching on her knees, she clenched her teeth. She wanted to scream, but the only real release was to shift.
JACE SAT ON the edge of the bed with his head buried in his hands. What the hell had he gotten himself into? She was a werewolf
A small crash resonated from the bathroom, like the sound of cracking plastic. Damn. He walked to the door and leaned his ear against the wood. No sound. He knocked and waited for a response. Nothing.
Worried, he knocked harder. “Francesca?”
Muffled by the closed door, nails scratched over the wood in an eerie response.
“All right, I’m coming in.” Jace opened the door and immediately stumbled back.
Francesca’s clothes lay scattered across the floor, her lacy panties hooked on the rear paw of a large ebony wolf. The eyes staring at him were all too familiar, like molten liquid gold. The wolf cocked its head to the side, and its ears perked up.
No,
