Page 86 of Roaring Flames

What if…?

What if…?

The police are still investigating it, which confuses me. If it was an accident, why would they be involved? Unless…

That’s one prospect that is too horrible to even consider.

“My… My foster parents told me some things the other day. Things that change everything,” I blurt out at last.

The crevice between Christian’s eyes deepens.

“What type of things?” he asks cautiously, leaning back in his chair.

“My mother was a witch, apparently, and my fathers were wolf shifters. Wolf shifters who are…who…” I can’t find the words. I really don’t know how to describe the shit show that has become my life.

Shock flickers across Christian’s face, chased away quickly by confusion. “But you’re human.”

“I don’t understand it either. I don’t understand any of it.” My eyes begin to burn with tears. I blink them away as fast as I can before Christian can see them. “And that’s not all.”

“Is this about my idiotic brother and his idiotic friends?” Christian asks warily.

“No.” Quickly, I recap what happened when I left the theater a week ago.

The men. The beast. I try to skim over some of the more…intimate details of that encounter, but I can tell I don’t do a good job of it when Christian’s eyes glaze over in anger.

He grinds his teeth together and places a fist on the table. “Those men hurt you?”

The words come out as almost a growl.

I snort. “They tried.”

My words only seem to exacerbate Christian’s anger. Fur bristles on his arms, and his teeth elongate, turning into sharp points. I should feel fear being face-to-face with a creature like Christian Montgomery—a monster so innately lethal I can feel the savage brutality emanating off of him in waves. But I’m not afraid.

I’m…aroused.

What is wrong with me?

I ignore my instinctive reaction—and pray to any god that is listening that Christian isn’t able to sense what his protective display is doing to me—and say, “I’m fine. I promise. They didn’t hurt me.”

Christian takes a deep breath, his broad chest shuddering with the movement, and lowers his gaze to the top of the desk. At first, I don’t understand what he’s looking at so intently, but then I realize it’s a crack bisecting the wood. He focuses on that one crack, on the way it curves around his papers, and works to modulate his breathing.

While he attempts to get himself under control, I do the exact same thing but for an entirely different reason.

What are you doing, Izzy? He’s your vice principal! This is wrong. You can’t be lusting after him like this. He’s probably your only source of information. He would be disgusted if he could hear your thoughts.

But he’s only a couple of years older than you,a sly voice in my head whispers, her voice a seductive purr.You’re eighteen. It’s not illegal.

Shut up.

Make me.

He could lose his job!

If he acts on it…the voice continues.There’s nothing wrong with admiring from a distance.

I internally shush both voices and return my attention to Christian. He has finally gotten himself under control and is staring directly at me with a quizzical expression on his face.

I shift uncomfortably. “What?”

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