Page 67 of Wolf's Rejected Mate

“I’m going to give you a choice,” I told her tersely. “A choice that your friends didn’t get. You can either answer my questions and live, or try to run like you’re planning and end up like them.”

I gestured vaguely at her fallen counterparts. To my left, Draven panted, his breaths preparing to exhale another blast of fire, but I warned him to be still with my eyes, and he stayed in position, just waiting for my signal.

The wolf’s tongue lolled out of her mouth, and she once more lowered her head, showing me submission.

“I’m not going to ask you again,” I told her coldly. “I’m offering you this chance because you’re the last one standing.”

And she was a wolf… and a woman. But I wouldn’t admit that aloud in front of my men. If Ash’s guards were put off by my decision not to kill her, I didn’t feel it. They were well trained. They did as they were told.

She whimpered again and looked from Silver, to Draven, to Jake, and then to me, carefully avoiding eying the pools of blood forming all around us.

“Last chance,” I said.

“I’m just following orders,” she rasped silently.

My eyes narrowed. “Whose orders?”

She refused to meet my eyes. “My superior’s.”

Annoyed, I stepped toward her, and she cowered.

“Who’s your superior?”

She glanced toward the mangled horse carcass at my feet, and I exhaled.

“You’re part of the Verity Gang?”

She nodded.

“What’s your name?”

Again, she hesitated, but when I closed the last small stretch of the distance between us, she answered.

“Lora.”

“Do you know who I am, Lora?”

Beside me, Silver released a screech, and I realized that the kitchen fire was spreading.

“Take care of that,” I instructed the others.

Silver instantly shifted back into his human form to find a fire extinguisher, but Draven and Jake remained at my side.

“Do you?” I pressed. “Do you know who I am?”

She shook her head, and anger surged through me again. It was a problem I hadn’t even considered before. Pario City had forgotten me.

“You will,” I promised curtly. I eyed her, unsure of what to do with her. She had attacked with the others and deserved the same fate.

But I had other plans for her.

“You’ll go to Orson,” I informed her. “And give him a message for me.”

Lora’s black head rose worriedly, the fear returning.

“You tell my old friend that I got his message and consider this war started. Daddy’s home, and I’m coming to take what’s mine.”

She panted nervously, and I grinned sardonically.

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