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“You guys aren’t real brothers, right?” Their ages and looks made that hard to believe.

“In all the ways that matter,” Derek clipped.

Yup, definitely keeping secrets.

“Why don’t you tell us about your scar?” Cruz was staring at the slice over my collarbone. “It’s rare.”

I smirked. “Sure. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

CHAPTER 8

Cruz

This woman was going to wreck me.

Not just because I now knew how her breast felt in my hand and I’d have to watch her seduce our target over the coming weeks.

No, she was completely unexpected. None of us could have prepared for someone like her. A woman like her.

All the female wolves we’d met were natural nurturers. They were submissive. Half the time, they pretended to be weak things just to make the men around them feel tougher. They were taught to believe they were meant to serve the men while creating and raising more wolves.

Before we got all the details about this mission, I assumed they would send us a beautiful woman we’d have to watch and protect constantly. A soft, sweet wolf to lure in the target for us to take out.

Instead, we got a weapon.A brunette goddess of war and death.

One with a history that might match our own.

Since shifters healed themselves after their abilities manifest, it’s rare to see one with scars. They have to come from childhood, and with the way the Pack usually protects its young, it’s a rare sight.

But she wasn’t doing anything to hide the puckered skin under her shoulder. It was the one physical flaw she had. At least the only one not covered by her bikini, and that left very few possibilities.

My brothers and I had our fair share of scars, physical and mental. I lifted my arm out of the water and rotated my wrist to show her the back of my forearm, where three almost perfect circles formed a sloppy triangle.

She quietly gasped, but I caught it.

“Cigarettes?” she guessed.

I didn’t confirm; she knew. So I turned around to show my back where there were several nearly straight lines.

“Belt?”

I nodded as I faced her. “Your turn.”

She glanced at Derek, who watched us from the deep end. “I fell out of a tree,”

“That might be true, but that’s not where you got the scar.” I dipped my head. “I showed you my truth.”

She pursed her lips, her eyes flicking to Derek again. “The first time I tried to run away, I was thirteen. A guard caught me. He didn’t recognize me and assumed I was a threat. He held me until my dad arrived and claimed me.”

“He held you at knifepoint?” Derek pushed through the water toward us.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “He was taking his job very seriously.”

“You were a still kid. You wouldn’t have even shifted yet. What threat could you possibly have posed?” He crossed his arms.

She didn’t answer. When she moved to swim away, he grabbed her elbow. “You don’t have to tell us anything. We all know that, but if we’re going to be a team for the foreseeable future, we should learn to trust each other.”

Her eyes stayed on his fingers where he grasped her. She could pull away. She could even use the position to her advantage and pin him and go all stabby with her claws.