Page 5 of Echo Of A Wolf

One I’d love to knock off.

“She’s my sister,” he continued, his gaze never wavering from mine.

“And?” I deadpanned, not giving a shit about who she was to him.

She’d accused me of stealing her coffee. She thought I was a fucking thief.

Me.

“You should watch yourself,” Xander seethed, his head cocking to the side like a fucking psycho as a smirk twisted his lips. “You don’t want me as an enemy.”

This dude had never given me the heebie-jeebies as much as he did right now.

Even so, I took another step closer to him, knowing it would inflame the situation further and not giving a damn. Tension radiated off Xander, but I enjoyed it. I wanted him to hit me. I wanted his scrawny ass to take the first swing so I had more than enough of a reason to retaliate and nail him good.

Astrid stepped out of the coffee shop in the next instant, and my wolf grew restless. He paced back and forth, causing me to tense at the sight of her too.

Suddenly, it felt as though I was outnumbered.

My wolf’s senses went into overdrive, and I knew it was time to get out of here. I released a growl toward them both as a warning and then turned to stalk away. While part of me wanted them to follow after me—to give me a reason to unleash my beast and tear into them both right here and now—a larger part of me didn’t feel like fighting today.

I’d done enough of that as Lucius’s pawn.

However, even as I distanced myself from the two of them, my guard remained up. My wolf was flipping out and my heart beat way too fast inside my chest.

What the hell was going on?

With my hands clenched tight at my sides, I pressed forward, not glancing back once. I didn’t have an explanation for what I felt in the moment, but there was one thing I knew for certain—that wouldn’t be the last time my path crossed with either of them.

Xander seemed to have a random vendetta toward me burning through his beady little eyes, and for all I knew Astrid had the same.

So much for wanting to enjoy a peaceful cup of good coffee on my only day off this week.

Fuck.

3

ASTRID

Did Dean just growl at me?

I stared after him, unbelieving how rude his reaction to the sight of me was. My raven ruffled her feathers, feeling more disturbed by the hostility he’d shown us than I did.

Aggression toward Xander I understood—after all, Xander had been Lucius’s second-in-command and everyone seemed to loathe him for it—but me? All I wanted was to give him his freaking coffee.

Clearly, the man was unhinged.

My lips pressed into a thin line while I stared after him. He didn’t turn back once, which meant he never noticed the coffee. My gaze shifted to Xander.

“What was that about?” I asked.

Better yet—where had Xander even come from? I hadn’t noticed him inside the coffee shop, but the place had been busy. Obviously, I mean, I hadn’t even noticed Dean standing next to me while waiting for his coffee.

“He needs to watch himself,” Xander seethed, anger radiating off him as he stared at Dean’s retreating form.

“He does seem to have anger issues.” I took a sip of my coffee, feeling like the same could be said about me, though.

Shoot, maybe even all of us.

---