Page 114 of Conner's Luna

"A feral wolf... Every person he sees is his enemy. If you were gone from our lives then someone needed to pay for that loss. He wanted blood on his teeth and flesh in his belly."

"Did youkillsomeone?" I practically shout at him.

His steady green gaze holds mine. "No."

"Did you try to kill someone?" I ask suspiciously.

"Not yet."

"Who are you going to kill, Conner Ted Grim?"

He kisses me again, smiling. "No one, Bailey. Well, maybe the assholes who are killing girls."

I mentally shrug. Call me a horrible person, but my heart doesn't break for serial murderers.

"Why Ted?"

"Bundy and Kaczynski," I reply.

He laughs again, then runs his nose down my cheek, to my neck, and softly kisses the skin there. Another deep inhale, and something hard presses against my throat. "Bailey," he rumbles.

"Get the fuck off my daughter."

Conner's snarl mixes with my embarrassed shriek of surprise. Conner spins around faster than I can blink. My own reaction of clumsily trying to pull up the thin hospital sheet with my unresponsive hands is much slower. OK, Bailey. Don't be embarrassed. You are a grown woman. Don't blush because Dad just caught you playing kissy-face with your brand-new mostly boyfriend while in the hospital being treated for an animal attack.

"Dad," I mutter. "You remember Conner?"

"I remember seeing him the last time you were in the hospital," Dad hurls out with parent-laden fury. He enters the hospital and eyes Conner with a look that promises death and mayhem.

"Sir, I-" Conner begins to say.

"You need to leave," Dad says with an ice-cold tone I've heard him use only once before when I was asked to the senior prom as a sophomore. I never heard from Will again.

"No," Conner's immediate denial is just as brutal as Dad's demand.

"Um, guys," I start to say, just as Conner's Dad enters the room. I hold my breath, waiting for the scariest-man-in-the-world to face off with my very human dad, but once again I'm surprised.

"Mr. Washington. I hope Bailey feels better soon. The nurse told me she is clear for discharge," the Grim says in a carefully controlled voice. "Conner, let's go."

"Dad, no!" Conner protests.

"Leave my daughter alone," Dad says to him.

"Dad-"

"Bailey, we'll talk later," Dad snaps. I fall silent, bewildered at how angry Dad is. An awful thought occurs to me. Does Dadknow? Is he angry because my mostly-boyfriend is a wolf-person? How? How would my software engineer father have even the slightest clue about wolf-people?

"Conner. We also need to talk," Conner's dad says grimly. "About the case."

The helpless rage that washes over Conner's face is painful. "I'll talk to you later, OK?" I whisper to him. He looks at me as if he wants nothing more than to crawl into the hospital bed next to me, but nods and turns to follow his dad out of the room.

"Bailey," Dad's voice pulls my eyes back to him. He shuts the door a little too hard and I wince. "Do you know what he is?"

"I just found out," I say. "How doyouknow?"

"Because," Dad spits out, "I was in the army with that kid's uncle. Half my unit wasn't human, Bailey. He recognized me then I put two and two together and realized he and his son have the same green eyes as that Devil fuc-... that boy's uncle."

I must look like an owl. "Are we human?" I ask my dad and watch him go pale. He walks to my side and takes a peek at my bandaged shoulder, then smoothes my hair back just like Conner had been earlier. "Bailey... we're going home, then we're calling yourAbuela."

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