Page 16 of Broken-Hearted

I slap his hand away. “No.”

“I’m trying to help.” His expression is innocent.

My eyes narrow. “You’re looking for an excuse to put your hands on me, Blackshaw.”

And you know what? He doesn’t even deny it. He just flashes me a grin. “How’s the ankle?”

“What ankle?”

“The ankle you twisted or sprained a minute ago.”

Oh.Thatankle.

“Surprisingly okay. Good thing we’re fast healers, huh?”

He doesn’t look like he isn’t buying any of my lies, and I can’t even blame him for it. My lying game since I arrived in Rosenwood has been weak. I’m usually more convincing.

He snorts. “If you were in trouble, I could help you.”

“I’m good.” I turn away to buckle my seatbelt. “Can we leave now?”

When he doesn’t respond, I look at him.

He’s still crouched beside my open door. His expression is faintly amused, but his eyes are serious.

For the briefest moment, I have the strangest sensation that something is wrong with him. I had a similar feeling when I was small and I practically bullied Martha into letting me show her something in the forest near our home, knowing she wouldn’t want to.

Martha always liked to stay close to the pack. I would disappear into the forest to play with anything and everyone, and always needed to be dragged home when it was dark.

But that particular day, I knew with every fiber in my being that going home would be a mistake.

And I was right, because when Martha eventually had enough of me dragging her on a run she hadn’t wanted to go on, we returned to a dead pack.

I think about what would have happened if we’d gone home when our neighboring pack was still busy killing our family. Would they have let us live, or would they have slaughtered us as well?

“Clara?”

I blink.

Nathan is scrutinizing me closely.

“Yeah?”

“You were staring.”

“Was I? Sorry.” I finish buckling my seat belt.

But he doesn’t move. “I have a packmate. Well… an old packmate since she left Hardin. Regan.”

I recall the auburn and green eyed Luna in Dawley. “Yeah, I met her. She seemed nice.”

“She’s an omega. Did she ever tell you that?”

Alarm bells ricochet in my head as I feign indifference. “Sure. Why?”

His eyes narrow. “She sometimes used to look at me like that. I always thought it had something to do with the fact she’s an omega.”

“Weird.”

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