Page 256 of Secret Shifters Next Door

ENEMY PANTHER NEXT DOOR

BLAYNE AND AVA

He’s a powerful panther shifter who needs my rejection…

Returning home to help my sick father and finding out that I’m fated to Blayne Walker must be the universe’s idea of a cruel joke.

Especially because the stubborn panther shifter with the hard look in his blue eyes is the reason I left Lily Valley in the first place. Not only did I used to date Blayne’s twin brother, but he also blames me and my family for Sean’s death.The only thing Blayne and I can agree on is fighting our fate. I don’t want to be bound to a cursed shifter who hates me, while he would rather endure the pain of rejection and let go of his chance to continue his rare bloodline.

But when hunters come looking for Blayne and he discovers I’m in danger too, his protective panther isn’t ready to give up on me yet…

PROLOGUE

BLAYNE

10 years ago

Frustration and anger. Those were the only two emotions I felt as I stared at my brother Liam while he dressed. Water was still dripping off his hair from the shower he’d just taken. The intensity of my stare must have given me away because he knew I was standing there without bothering to look up at me.

“We aren’t having this talk again. I told you earlier, this is happening,” he said, still not looking at me as he tied the laces of his boots.

I stepped into his room and leveled a finger at him. “We’re not done with anything, bro. I can’t let you do this.”

Liam finally raised his head, resting his hands on his thighs. “Blayne, we’ve been fighting about this for almost an hour. Nothing you say is gonna change anything. I’m going on this run. If you knew how much money this was gonna make us, you’d be thinking twice about all this.”

Hissing out a breath, I said, “Money isn’t everything. Especially when you have to do something as dangerous as this to get it.”

Liam got up and walked over to grab his jacket, then shoved his arms through the sleeves. “You say that, but if you saw the fucking stacks of dough I’ll be bringing home, you’d change your tune.”

“For fuck’s sake!” I barked. “It always comes back to money with you. Jesus H. Christ, can’t we have a single conversation about anything that doesn’t revolve around money?”

With a shake of his head, my brother gave me a rueful smile as he pushed past me into the hallway. He stepped over to a painting on the wall and slid it aside, revealing a built-in safe.

I blinked in surprise. “What the fuck is that?”

Liam punched in a code and opened the door. My stomach dropped when I looked over his shoulder and saw the contents of the safe—several stacks of bills held together with rubber bands and two pistols along with a couple of boxes of ammunition. He pulled out one of the guns and tucked it into his waistband before closing and relocking the safe.

He turned to look at me with a raised eyebrow. “Are we done here or what?”

I ran a hand through my hair, my panic increasing. The idea of my brother going on another of these drug runs with a gun seemed to make things more real. Realanddangerous.

“Listen…” I said. “I don’t know if you enjoy this…this…gangster lifestyle or whatever, but you don’t have to do this. You can be like other people and get a normal job. One that won’t require you to shove a goddamned gun in your jeans.”

Liam’s eyes turned hard and cold. His lips peeled back in disgust as he waved his hands around the room, gesturing to everything at once. “Do you think we could afford this house if I wasn’t doing this?” He yanked on his Louis Vuitton leather jacket. “Could we afford these clothes, pay for your college tuition, buy those fucking cars outside if I was flipping burgers or scrubbing toilets or something? Huh? Could we? No. Wecouldn’t. Fuck, Blayne, we’d be in a one-bedroom trailer out in the middle of nowhere if I wasn’t doing this.”

He always brought that up, which only served to infuriate me more. I shoved at his chest, not hard, but hard enough to get my point across. “Stop throwing that in my face. It’s not your responsibility to put me through school. Don’t act like you’re some sort of saint because you’re paying my college tuition.”

“It is my responsibility,” he said, pounding a fist against his chest. “I’m the oldest. It’s my duty.”

Rolling my eyes, I huffed out a humorless laugh. “Liam, you are seven freaking minutes older than me. Stop trying to be thebig brother.”

Liam stared at me, the fire in his eyes slowly fading until the only thing left was sadness and agony. It froze me to the spot. He stepped toward me and wrapped a hand around the back of my neck, pulling my head toward his and pressing his forehead into mine.

“Brother, I promised myself I would always take care of you. After those hunters killed Mom and Dad, I told myself I would do anything I could in order to make sure you had all you needed.”

My anger leaked out, replaced with a hollow sadness that settled heavily on my chest. “I need my brother, Liam. That’s it. I don’t care if we’re in a shack with a damned outhouse. Family is what I need. Not money, school, andthings.”

Liam pulled away and shook his head sadly. “I know you don’t like it, but it’s the best a loser like me can do. It’s the only way I can better myself.” He stepped away and started to turn. “And I have to be a better man for Ava.”

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