Page 4 of Twisted Desire
Three
Yeah. He had fucked up, but that was a good thing. Cam being pissed off at him would only help him to keep his distance. Mentally, he pulled up his barriers and locked them into place, not wanting to hear a single thought of hers. Even as she marched away, he had a hard time pulling his eyes off that perfect ass of hers.
Who was he kidding, even being in the same fucking building with her was harder than he had thought it would be.
“You’re not going to be able to resist the mating urge. It’s stronger than both of us combined,” his wolf warned.
“I will resist it and so will you. We will not drag her into our fucked up world. Look at her. She is vibrant and alive. She’s nothing like us. We would ruin her.”
And that was the crux of the problem. Ethan did not want to, would not ruin Cam. That’s all his presence could possibly bring to her.
“Maybe if we dealt with our issues—paid off our debts, we could be who she needs us to be.”
Ethan thought about his wolf’s suggestions. As far as the issues went—those bitches were bone deep. It would be like asking him to give up oxygen.
Impossible.
And their so called debts? Ethan nearly snorted at the term. It wasn’t as if he owed anyone money. Oh, no. He had blood debts that had to be paid. And everyone knew there was only one way out of those. If he claimed Camryn as his mate, she would die when he did or shortly thereafter.
Completing the mating ritual with Cam would be her death sentence.
“Ethan, good to see you again,” Calder said as he slid into the empty seat across from him.
“Calder.” Ethan inclined his head. “What can I do for you?”
Calder waited until after the waitress had taken their orders before he began. “I can see the darkness in you and it troubles me. Even more so because of your connection to Cam.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ethan’s reply was short and sweet. He saw the look of disappointment flash across Calder’s face, but he really couldn’t bring himself to care. His problems were his own.
Ethan squirmed in his seat, the tiny hairs on his arms and at the back of his neck stood on end as the Alpha’s amber eyes changed to a solid black. He had no idea how or why Calder’s eyes did that, but it was creepy as fuck.
“So rather than ask for help, you’d choose to die a martyr for a cause you have no stake in?”
Ethan’s mouth flew open to protest what the Alpha had said before it snapped shut. “I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Deny, deny, deny.
That had been his motto for years, and he was sticking to it.
“The lives you’ve taken for money, you used to support yourself and your brother after your parents’ death were all forfeit to begin with. They were the worst of the worst and condemned to die, but now they want you to take an innocent’s life.”
Ethan’s eyes widened. He had told no one about what his job entailed—not even Wade. He knew damn well that his employer wouldn’t have said a word. Complete and total secrecy had been the only way. Calder shouldn’t have known about any of it. Shouldn’t have known anything about the people he had been hired to kill, or the innocent life that hung over his head like a guillotine. Yet, here they were.
Their plates were delivered just as Ethan had moronically decided to demand that Calder tell him where he had gotten his info.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” his wolf warned.
“Why is that?”Did his wolf know something about the Alpha that Ethan didn’t?
“I sense more power in him than we’ve ever come up against. He has the support of his entire pack. It would be unwise to issue any type of challenge to him. Verbal or otherwise.”
The whole conversation—none of it—sat right with Ethan.
“Thanks, Ginger.” Calder smiled at the waitress and asked for a refill on his Coke.
When Calder glanced back at Ethan, he noticed the Alpha’s eyes no longer looked like puddles of black ink. They had transformed back to their normal, vibrant amber.
“Was there something you wanted to say?”
