Page 29 of Snowed in with the Vampire Prince

I nodded, unsurprised.

“I’m sorry,” I said, unable to stop myself from feeling the stab of sympathy at how raw his voice sounded, even though I could have still cheerfully set him on fire for having separated me from Pierce. I turned and studied him for a long moment. The Alpha’s piercing blue eyes were filled with pain. I added, “It sounds like it still hurts.”

He nodded, swallowing once. “I wish it hadn’t gone this way. You must think we’re terrible monsters.”

The way he said it pissed me off. Like he hadn’t had a choice in the matter.

“Look, I want to make it clear that I don’t give a solitary flying fuck that you’re a werewolf,” I said, my voice getting colder and steelier with each syllable. “That’s fine. But you walked into my camp and bit me last night. You could have at least tried to get my consent first, but you didn’t. And now you’re keeping me here against my will so you can force me to join your pack. Your behavior seems pretty monstrous to me, yeah.”

“You’ve got a mouth on you,” the Alpha replied after a long moment of silence. I expected anger at my outburst, but he sounded almost amused. “I’m much more impulsive in my animal form. More instinctual. But you’re right. I should have asked first.”

I stared at him. “Why? Why did you choose me? Why are you doing this?”

“I saw you at the lake,” he replied as though that explained anything at all.

But I remembered the prickling unease I’d felt earlier after releasing useless, wrenching sobs into the sand. The sense that someone else was watching me.

“That was you,” I said slowly, putting it together. “You saw me scattering my father’s ashes.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. I assumed he meant that he was sorry for my loss and that he wasn’t apologizing for being a creeper. Or for kidnapping me. He added, “Were you two close?”

I shrugged but didn’t reply. I didn’t want him to be kind to me now. Not when he locked me away in his cabin and held me here against my will. Not when Pierce was somewhere out there, separated from me, still at the mercy of the warlock’s spell. It was too confusing. I wanted to be angry with him. It was easier.

“Is it going to stop you from turning me into a werewolf if I tell you no right now? If I tell you I don’t want to be a wolf?”

“My name is Jeremy,” the Alpha said, dodging my question and not even being subtle about it. “I chose you last night because I saw the loneliness in you, and the wolf in me acted. It sometimes knows things that I do not. But I promise you will never be alone again once you join us. This is a gift we are giving you.”

He even dared to give me an imploring look, like he was trying to make me understand his side of things.

Naturally, it didn’t soften me to him. Instead, it gave me exactly what I needed. Namely, it made me angry.

“Well, I’m saying no to your gift,” I told him flatly, crossing my arms. “I don’t want it. So, if you do this to me, you’re going to be doing it against my will. You can dress it up however you want, but what you’re doing is wrong, and we both know it.”

“You’re only saying that because you’re still drunk on the vampire’s blood. He fed from you. He confused you. We’re protecting you from him.”

I laughed at him. I had never been less confused about anyone in my entire life. I knew now, with crystalline clarity, that Pierce had stolen my heart. But the mention of my vampire sent another stab of pain bursting through me. Again, I saw the anguish in his amber eyes as I went with the wolves and left him behind, abandoning him just like his parents had.

The walls that I was throwing up between him and me collapsed for an instant.

James! James, are you okay? Where are you?

Pierce’s voice immediately echoed in my mind. I felt a swell of instinctive relief that he was okay. And I knew he sensed I was, if not okay, then at least unharmed. But the twisted metal feeling in my chest got worse and worse, like it might cleave me in two at any moment.

Twice, the wolf pack had trounced him. I wasn’t going to let there be a third time.

I threw the wall back up between us without responding. And I ignored the agony in my chest. It wasn’t going to help me now. I pushed the feelings away, taking a deep breath.

“I’m not confused, and I’m sick of people telling me that I am,” I replied at last. I still felt fully ready to clobber the Alpha over his head with the nearest heavy object. “I’m livid. If you do this to me against my will, I’m going to hate you, I swear it. Maybe you’re into that, but I’m not. Let me go.”

“Look, I’m not a bad guy. I run a bar further down the mountain. I give white water rapid tours in the peak season. I volunteer at the food bank. I care about my pack. And I could care about you, too,” Jeremy said, locking eyes with me. “I swear I would.”

“Really? Because from where I’m standing, you’re someone who likes to kidnap strangers and force them to become fucking werewolves.” I paused, feeling my hands curl into fists reflexively. “Yeah, you’re a real gem. And you still can’t even really tell me why. And don’t even think about giving me that bullshit about how the ‘wolf knows’ or how sad I seemed. Give me something true.”

I glared at him, putting every ounce of my fury into it. He just looked back at me calmly. And he didn’t even have the common decency to get angry with me in return.

“You look like him,” Jeremy admitted, naked emotion creeping into his voice. “I saw it last night when you defended the vampire. You’re just like him in the way that you carry yourself. And in your facial expressions. And most of all, in your eyes. They’re just the same as his were. You’re a mirror image of my mate in all the ways that matter. And I can’t let you go—it would be like losing him all over again. If you need to hate me, do it. But you’re going to be mine as soon as the moon rises.”

Chapter 15

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