Page 28 of Rogue Games

“Hmm.” I look to the heavens, praying for patience. Questioning her is a waste of my time, she won’t tell me anything.

“Well, if you weren’t stealing from me, then what were you doing snooping around in the pitch black?”

She glares at me mutinously, and I find myself marvelling at how this woman has the audacity to be annoyed when she’s the one who was caught red-handed.

“Just exploring.” Jamie’s sultry voice rolls through my mind and travels straight to my gut. She’s being purposefully obtuse and plain disrespectful.

When I say nothing, Jamie’s pretty face falls. She was spoiling for a fight, but I’m not going to give her one.

“How about instead of acting like I’m in the wrong here, you pretend to be sorry and apologise for getting caught ransacking my pack’s private property?”

Jamie flushes and averts her gaze, the reminder of her wrongdoing enough to quell her fire, if only for a moment.

“I apologise. I’ll replace anything I broke.”

I wave away her offer with a shake of my head, a few damaged hardware store flashlights are the least of my concerns.

“Don’t push your luck, Jamie. That’s not the point, and you know it. I’d be well within my rights to dump you over the border, and it wouldn’t cost me a wink of sleep.”

The words come out harsh and strangled. I’m hoping that she thinks it’s barely contained rage and not lust rising inside me, like a phoenix rising from the dusty ashes of my heart.

“Oh, well we couldn’t have that, Alpha.” I wait, letting the awkward silence stretch on for as long as she can bear before she sighs and looks away. “I was being nosy. I saw the door and wanted to see what was behind it.”

The truth. At last.

“And what business of yours is what I keep behind a locked door, inside my own packhouse?”

She twitches, seeming to believe it is her business, but she’s clever enough to stay silent.

“Looking for ghosts, I guess,” she whispers, quiet, maybe even slightly sad, but not one bit meek. A look of determination crosses her face briefly before she hides it away.

Ghosts.

Maggie, my stepmum and the pack healer, always talks about ghosts of the past. Mainly how my father’s spectre still hangs over me and my brother, and how he’ll continue to ruin our lives until we can let go of the past. As if it’s that easy.

As I watch Jamie, a memory, a thought, something I should know tickles the back of my mind, but the harder I reach for it, the further it slips from my grasp.

“You’ll find no ghosts here. And you’ll stop whatever it is you’re up to, immediately, if you want to stick around.”

We stare at each other like rivals sizing one another up before a big fight. The tension in the room is so thick you could cut it with a knife. For a moment, I worry she’s about to say she doesn’t want to stick around, that she’s quitting the games. Just the mere thought of her leaving has my adrenaline pumping.

“Fine,” she concedes, and I scoff. I’ve heard that before. She has no intention of stopping, so it’s up to me to figure out what she’s doing here.

Pushing to my feet, I stop right beside her chair on my way to the door. With great effort, I keep my eyes forward and avoid looking at her face. I want to present an aloof attitude; one I know will rub her up the wrong way. “Consider this your official warning, Jamie. Next time you even breathe the wrong way, I’ll take great pleasure in punishing you myself.”

The scent of her arousal perfumes the air and I growl, my need for her growing. She’s dangerous to my self-control.

“And not in a fun way.” I need to stay away from her, which will be easier if she believes I’m the ass everyone says I am. The look of indignation on her face tells me I got it spot on.

14

JAMIE

“You’ll do no such thing,” I seethe, choosing to be pissed off, rather than admit his threat has my libido going into overdrive. My wolf is happy for him to punish us anytime he wants.

Dean steps in close and looms over me, those stormy eyes peering right into my soul as his mouth-watering scent erodes my self-control. Desperate to put some distance between us before I do something stupid, I start toward the door.

“Oh, I will. If you hurt my pack, I will.”

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