Page 9 of Defeated

His expression doesn’t change beyond a subtle eyelash flutter, yet he couldn’t have missed my trembling as I slowly back away.

Colton is silent. Maybe he’s processing the reason I’m a wolf and in his apartment. Either way, he proves he wasn’t born yesterday when he says, “I’m going to be a little while before I get there. Penny, my mate, needed to do something important, but we’ll be on our way soon. You can trust Chris.”

Trust.

I take a long second to absorb the word, even roll it around in my mouth. If I’d been human, I’d have laughed.

Colton proved he wasn’t like other shifters by stepping in to help me. Chris hasn’t proven a thing to me other than he knows Colton.

“Zoe?” Chris takes a step toward me, his brow furrowing as I continue my slow retreat.

Whirling around, I duck through the narrow door gap. I burst out of the apartment, fly down the porch steps, and out onto the street, the sound of my name following me out.

I sprint away, faster than I’ve ever run in my life, but I can’t outrun the thing I nearly did.

Stupid. You are so stupid.

I’m back at the alley, flinging myself behind the dumpster as I struggle to concentrate so I can shift.

But I can’t focus.

Can’t concentrate.

Laughter fills my head, echoes so loud I can’t drown it out.

“She was like a dead fish, just lying there. I had to stop halfway through to make sure she was still there.” The laughter continues, grows louder as I stand in the pack farmhouse hallway, my eagerness to take the breakfast I made for my mate deflating like a balloon the morning after a party.

I’m backing away, ready to return to the kitchen, so Harlan won’t know I heard, when the door swings open, and he’s there.

Still handsome. Dark-haired with light green eyes, a firm jaw, and the face all the girls in the pack go crazy for.

Harlan is with his usual crowd in the den. They’re the important, the attractive, the best of Pack Burton, including our alpha, Harlan’s oldest friend.

No one believed a bond would snap between Harlan and me on the day shortly after my first shift at eighteen. He lived in the limelight. I existed in the shadows, the outer fringes of our pack, where I was content to stay.

Until one day he looked at me and I looked at him, and we both said, “Mate.”

I stand frozen in the hallway on the morning after we first slept together, and I don’t know what to do.

Should I pretend I didn’t hear or act outraged that I did?

“You brought me breakfast.” There’s no reading his expression as his eyes flick to the plate of eggs, bacon, and sausage in my hand. It had felt like a nice thing to do for my new mate after he left me in bed and skipped breakfast to meet with our alpha.

I nod. “You left so early, and I didn’t think you’d eaten.”

He’s serious, dressed all in black, the way he always does before he goes out on nightly patrols. “Well, you shouldn’t have. Just because we’ll be fucking from now on doesn’t mean I want anything to do with you during the day. In bed, with the lights off and your legs open, is all I need from you.” His disgust is palpable. Even if I was blind, I couldn’t miss it. “Got it?”

Is that all he thinks we are? Just people who fuck?

We’re mates. That means something. It’s a bond that’s special to me and to most other shifters. Clearly, it means nothing to him.

“But I?—”

“Zoe,” Harlan’s voice is like a weapon, slicing into me. “Whatever you have to say will only waste my time. From you, I want quiet.”

I nod again, lip quivering, and my eyes burning as I back up. The plate in my hand wobbles.

I swing away.

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