Page 74 of Feral

“I have this under control.”

“Have you? That bitch is still comin’ here to mate Angus, and ya look worse today than yesterday.”

“I’m fine,” Ruben ground out.

“No, yer not. I don’t ken where you got that damn thing, but ya need to get rid of it.”

Ruben snarled.

“I’ll no take orders fromyouor anyone here for that matter!”

“Keep yer voice down, I don’t want Angus hearing ya.”

“That weak excuse for a clan leader? He’s no better than—.”

I could endure a lot of things, but hearing him disparage my brother wasn’t one of them.

I stalked over the gravel toward Ruben and Lizzie, next to Ruben’s car. Lizzie saw me first and put her hand on Ruben’s arm to stop him.

“No better than what?” I asked.

“Nothin’, he’s just upset for me, that’s all,” Lizzie said.

“Is that true?”

Ruben clenched his jaw and shrugged his sister’s hand off his arm.

“We were just leavin’,” he said.

I stepped a little closer until I was within striking distance of Ruben. I was bigger than him, always had been. And there had never been a time when Ruben could take me in a fight. But all the same, there was a gleam in Ruben’s eyes that had me treading a bit more carefully than I usually did.

“Maybe it would be better if ya stuck to the land around yer cottage for the full moon,” I said to him, “or go back to Dublin, just in case.”

He gave me a derisive laugh.

“Why? You afraid I’ll disrupt yer precious handfastin’?”

“Something like that. But also, it might be good not to force your sister to attend somethin’ that will be hard for her.”

“She’s tougher than ya give her credit for.”

“Standing right here, ya bawbags! And I had decided to go back to Dublin before ya marched over here, Fraser, so you can stuff it!”

“That’s quite a bonny lass ya’ve got,” Ruben said.

I bared my teeth at him and closed the distance until we were almost snout to snout. Ruben didn’t flinch. If anything he seemed to welcome the intrusion into his space.

“Ya keep yer words and yer eyes off my mate.”

Ruben also bared his teeth and laughed at me.

“We both know she’s not the sweet little bookworm she appears to be, Fraser. Yer not the type to have a whirlwind romance, not since Silvia rejected ya.”

He was trying to provoke me, though I didn’t ken why. It wasn’t important though because I couldn’t lose control and cause a scene. I needed Ruben to reveal something, to make a mistake. And short of that, I couldn’t afford for him to not be around. If he disappeared, and he did have the artifact with him, chances were that it would disappear with him.

So I took a step back, though every instinct told me to throttle the bastard.

“If ya two are done actin’ like eejits, can we go?” Lizzie demanded. “I have a long drive.”

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