Page 33 of Half Wolf Mate

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

I stood outside an old warehouse, shrouded in darkness. It was like a scene out of a horror movie, and common sense screamed at me not to set foot in Adam’s creepy building…lair was more like it.

It took me four days to build the courage to outright ask him for help. He’d come into the diner every night after his confrontation with Cole. He asked me more about Benjamin, and I finally convinced him I didn’t know the man. I failed to tell Adam I discovered Benjamin lived in my apartment building. I just didn’t trust Adam yet. Not that I trusted Benjamin or wanted to protect him. I just wanted to know what was going on between them before I said a word.

Adam told me to come to this address, and now I was having second thoughts. I should have given Macy an idea about where I was heading when I requested to leave early tonight. Of course, she would have called me crazy for wanting to come to a place like this alone.

“Well, if Adam and his pack don’t kill me, the hunters will.” Anyway, I took it; it was a lose-lose situation, so why not go into the spooky building? “What has my life become?” Taking a deep breath, I advanced into the empty parking lot.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? A little traitor, perhaps?”

I stopped in my tracks at the sound of the familiar voice. Dread made me groan out loud. Slowly turning around, I glowered at Cole’s beta. Even though I was a little afraid of him, there was no way I’d show it.

“Demon…I mean, Damian, fancy seeing you here. Are you stalking me, too?”

His expression remained impassive. He was such a cold bastard. It was hard to believe he and the warm, funny Violet were related. “Actually, I’m stalking our enemy,” he said. “And here you are, in the enemy’s territory. I wonder what that means.”

Damn it. I just kept digging my way deeper into the hole of suspicion. “I’m not your enemy,” I said, knowing full well he wouldn’t listen.

“Right. You’re in league with hunters, and now I find you running to Adam Blackwell.” He took slow steps toward me, and it took all my self-control not to turn and run like hell. “What are you doing? Playing double agent?”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. This isn’t a spy flick, for goodness’ sake,” I huffed, rolling my eyes.

A low chuckle echoed from a dark corner, and I whipped around, searching for the source. Alex emerged into the dim light offered by the half-moon. Another man who I didn’t remember seeing at the Moon Guardians compound also stepped out.

Damian sent Alex a warning scowl, and he shrugged. “What? A threat to us or not, you have to admit, she’s entertaining.” Alex smirked at me.

I directed my beseeching gaze at Alex because he seemed more reasonable than Damian. “I’m not a threat to your pack, I swear.”

Alex shrugged. “I don’t know, little human. The evidence is piling up against you.”

“Can you not call me little human?”

“Pardon me, little half-breed.”

I harrumphed, and his lips curled into that wicked smile again. Maybe in another life, Alex and I could be friends because he seemed like a laid-back guy with a sense of humor. Not as rigid as the Beta.

“I can explain why I’m here.” I glared at Damian, my fury and frustration rising. “That is if you’d get your head out of your ass and just listen to me. How can you be as hard-headed as your Alpha? You two must make a terrible team.”

Again, Alex laughed. Even the strange guy smiled, eliciting another lethal look from Damian. I no longer cared how scary his scowl was. I was so tired of not being heard.

“Save your explanation for the Alpha,” Damian said.

“You mean, Adam? I bet if I scream, he’ll come out. He’ll discover that you guys have been lurking around his place.”

Anger gleamed in Damian’s eyes. “Go ahead and do that, Sydney. I’ve been itching for a fight with those guys. We’ll kill them and maybe kill you after.”

“Damian,” Alex said. “She’s still Alpha Cole’s mate.”

“He rejected her.” Damian held me in a cold stare. “He won’t care if I eliminate a possible threat to our pack.”

That reminder made my bravado crumble. It was hard to even spew my usual sarcasm at Damian. I just stood there and embraced the pain caused by the emotional wound Cole had inflicted.

“If I don’t scream and get Adam’s attention, what happens instead?” My gaze was locked on Damian’s, and I think I saw surprise flicker in his eyes.

After looking me up and down as if sizing me up, something like approval gleamed in his eyes. “I take you to Cole, and you can explain to him what you’re doing here,” he said.

“All the good that will do me,” I muttered. “Fine, take me prisoner and drag me to your Alpha, so he can accuse me of things I’m not guilty of again.”

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