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“Oh,” he says. “Your Raf’s friend from the neighborhood.”

The disdainful emphasis Derek places on the word “neighborhood” makes my insides clench with a defensiveness I haven’t felt since junior high. Yeah, my family didn’t have a ton of money growing up, and we lived in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood that my white classmates would refer to as the “bad part of town.”

The people on my street weren’t bad. They were just poor — especially Jake’s family.

These last few years, housing prices have shot up so much that Denver’s poor can’t afford to live there anymore. They’ve opened a Starbucks and a Whole Foods three blocks from my house, but Derek’s implication still makes me bristle.

Was healwaysthis stuck up?

“I don’t live there anymore, but yeah,” says Jake.

Derek lets out a short chuckle and offers his hand. “I’mDerek, by the way. Elena’s boyfriend. Maybe she’s told you about me.”

“Ex-boyfriend,” I mutter at the same time Jake says, “Nope. Doesn’t ring a bell.”

I canhearthe smirk in his voice as he shakes Derek’s hand. Derek’s nostrils flare in irritation, and I sense the conversation is about to go south.

“It was nice running into you,” I say to Derek, hoping he’ll take the hint. “We should grab a drink and catch up later on this weekend. Who knows when we’ll get another chance?”

Hopefully, never.

Beneath the steady throb of the music, I hear a low growl from the wolf behind me.

“Why wait?” says Derek, his smile turning predatory. His gaze flickers to Jake again before settling back on me. “There’s no time like the present. Let me buy you a drink.”

I hesitate. I only said what I said to be polite. There’s nothing more awkward than “catching up” with an ex, and I have absolutely no intention of grabbing that drink. I was hoping he’d forget in all the wedding craziness, but I can’t exactly refuse now that he’s putting me on the spot.

“Maybe a dance?” Derek coaxes, turning on that charming smile that’s allowed him to be so successful in sales.

“We’re actually in the middle of something,” Jake butts in, and I feel a rare swoop of gratitude for the overprotective, infuriating, andconfusingshifter who’s digging his fingers into my side.

“Yeah,” Derek chokes. “I sawexactlywhat you were in the middle of.”

“Then you should know it’s not a good time,” says Jake coolly.

The air crackles with a wolfish energy that makes me shrink back against Jake’s chest. I’m not sure ifallhumans can sense when two wolves are about to erupt into violence, but I can. Call it a special skill I developed growing up among shifters.

“Actually, I think it’s a perfect time,” says Derek, sneering as he looks Jake up and down. “Wouldn’t want word getting back to Rafael that his old pal from the ’hood is making his sister look like a whore in public.”

The words hit me like a punch to the stomach, and I feel Jake’s body turn to stone.

“What — the —fuck?” I blurt before Jake even has a chance to get all hot and bothered. My whole body thrums with rage, and I feel a familiar jab in my temple that lets me know I have a migraine coming on. “You wanna rewind and try that again?”

“Sorry, babe. But that’s how you look.” He shrugs and tosses Jake a withering stare. “That’s what happens when you hang out with trash. They makeyoulook like trash.”

“Jake isnottrash,” I growl, my hands shaking with fury. Hell, my whole body is shaking. I don’t remember the last time I was this angry, and the intensity of the feeling scares me.

But Derek apparently doesn’t know when to shut his damn mouth. “You wouldn’t fuckme, but you’ll fuckhimon the dance floor in front of everyone?” He chokes out a breath of humorless laughter. “Typical.”

I bristle. I wasn’t fucking Jake. I might havewantedto, but we were just dancing.

“Isthiswho you’ve been saving yourself for?” Derekdemands. “Some piece of shit who wants to make you look like a slut?”

My mouth falls open in shock and fury. That’s when Jake tackles him.

I don’t even feel Jake move behind me. His body becomes a blur as he dives past me, and I feel the vibration of Derek’s head hit the floor.

Jake’s fist flies out and connects with Derek’s mouth. Blood splatters the floor, and somebody screams.