Page 44 of Wolf Hunter

I refuse to move, my back pressed to the wall. “I’ll be fine in a minute, and then we can keep going.” Whether I believe myself or not is another matter.

Reid won’t hear of it, of course. He hauls me up against him and heads for the kitchen, where he sets me down on the countertop. The man lifts me like I’m the size of a mouse. It’s ridiculous the way he makes my insides shake.

“I can do it myself, you know,” I say irritably. “There’s no need for you to carry me around like I’m a child.” Except he feels really damn good. All those muscles and the fluid way he walks… I keep the moan of pleasure to myself.

“I am well aware of the way you walk,” he agrees before heading toward the refrigerator to look for something. “I saw you in action.”

I chuckle and add, “You’ve seen me in action kicking your ass.”

“I wouldn't say—”

“Well, well. Someone is finally allowed out of their gilded cage, I see.”

The voice comes from my right. When I peek over, I find the familiar long haired, wide shouldered shifter from the ceremony slinking around the corner with his dark gaze squarely on me. This time, he still looks like a wild man but a wild man trapped in expensive corduroy pants and a blazer. Like he’s trying to fit into a specific persona and not doing well with it.

I lift a brow, spotting more twigs and things in his lion-like mane. “You talk pretty highly for someone with moss in their hair.”

As expected, the insult has the newcomer’s face darkening. Running his finger through the tangles, he pulls out a tuff of green stuff and chucks it on the counter. Then, he stalks forward with his upper lip curling in a snarl.

“Reid, are you going to let your new pet talk to me like that?” the man asks in a bark of sound.

Reid pushes the fridge door closed with his foot and turns around with bread, meat, and cheese in his arms, along with a head of lettuce. The look on his face says he gets this kind of flack from the man often.

“She’s right, you know,” Reid retorts, which wins him a smile from me. “Tasha, this is Julius, my not so attractive older brother. Julius, be respectful.”

Julius bares his teeth at the both of us and says nothing else. He also doesn’t leave.

Setting the entire armful of food on the counter next to me, Reid grabs plates out of a nearby cabinet. “I thought sandwiches would be good.” He speaks to me and pointedly ignores Julius. “They’re fast and easy. Are you all right with that?”

What does it matter what I want? We’ve come to a tentative truce, but it doesn’t include him actually giving a shit about my likes and dislikes. I suck on my teeth. “You don’t have any lobster?” I joke. “Prime rib? Maybe some caviar or black truffles?”

Julius huffs out a laugh. “I’m starting to seewhyyou wanted to keep this one around.” He moves closer yet. “Not only does she have a body to her, but she’s got a good sense of humor too.”

His hand drops to my knee, and just as I’m about to tell him where he can put the hand once I break it, Reid attacks.

Literallyattacks.

He rounds on Julius with a roar and shoves the other man over the top of the island with such force that it sends both of them falling to the other side. When I scramble over to look, Reid has his hand on the older wolf’s throat. I slide aside with a yelp while the two of them fight, both of their eyes glowing gold with the change, and fur beginning to sprout on Reid’s hand.

Correction, his claws.

The hand holding Julius by the throat now sports three-inch talons with a wicked curve. The tips dig into skin threatening to puncture clean through.

“You don’t touch her,” Reid manages to get out. His voice sounds garbled as he struggles against the shift.

“I wasn’t going to,” Julius declares. “I was just—”

“You keep your hands off!”

Reid keeps Julius pinned on his back and holds him there for a moment longer before finally rearing back. His eyes slowly return to normal as the hair and claws sink back beneath his skin before doing any permanent damage to his brother.

My heart pounds painfully in my chest, my pulse thundering in my ears until I can’t hear the sound of my own breath.

What the fuck was that about?

Such a strong reaction… forme?

Reid hasn’t even managed to make a single sandwich in the time we’ve been here, but he almost skinned his brother alive. So that’s fun.

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