Page 39 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal (Kennedy Rain #4)
I parked in front of a mansion-sized log cabin.
A log mansion? The pack had been headquartered in Nora’s Victorian-style house until they outgrew it.
She’d since sold it to Blake, but it didn’t matter who the primary resident was.
It had never given off this kind of violent vibe, which was unfortunate because the surrounding woods might have made the place look like the setting of some romantic fairy tale.
But that was twisted by the men and women who stood and stared at me when I shut off my engine.
They gave the shadows an eerie and haunted feel.
My logic-built walls reminded me that magic was present and plentiful. I refused to be affected by it, by them, or by him, the asshole alpha who welcomed bloodshed and forced me to kill.
I shoved open my door and stood, only to find Blake right in front of me. He rested his left hand on the top edge of the door and caged me in with his body. “Be respectful. Don’t accuse him of anything or make any threats. Don’t agitate the pack.”
“I know what I’m doing. Please move.”
“You really don’t,” he said quietly, but he stepped aside.
I walked toward Lehr. He sat on top of a wooden picnic table, his people spaced out around him. He didn’t bother to stand or to give any indication at all that I existed, not until I stopped a few paces away. He finished his conversation with one of his wolves, then he unhurriedly looked my way.
Lehr didn’t look like a killer. Casually dressed in athletic pants and a gray shirt, he could have blended in on any college basketball team.
He looked exactly the same as the day I met him, and he’d pass for Nora’s brother more than he would a father or uncle.
But this was the man who’d tracked down and murdered the unsanctioned I’d tried to help.
He resented my ownership of The Rain, the changes I’d started to implement, and the influence I was determined to strip away from him. He resented my existence.
Same here, asshole.
“Ms. Rain.” Lehr’s gaze shifted to my left. “Blake.”
Blake stopped in line with me. I’d expected him to fall in with the pack.
A tendril of anxiety tried to find a crack in my wall. I reinforced it, then focused my attention back on Lehr.
“Patrol the region again.”
Lehr smirked. “Agree to run The Rain as your parents, your grandparents, and all your ancestors always have.”
“You’re not allowed on my property. If you send another list of sanctioned wolves, they will also be banned.
If a werewolf attacks me again, if they threaten or hurt my friends, my employees, or anyone else connected to me, I will support and encourage another alpha to take over what will become your former territory. ”
“Watch yourself, girl. A day closer to the full moon, that arm would be fully healed, and you’d be cowering in the dirt.” Lehr’s gaze flicked toward Blake as if he sensed some insubordination. But Blake hadn’t said anything. He hadn’t moved.
Lehr focused on me again. “You blame me for what happened, but you’re the one who demanded open access to The Rain. I’ve given it to you.”
“You gave strays a chance to hurt her,” Blake said.
Someone tightened a strap around my chest. What was Blake doing?
I didn’t need him to intervene. I hadn’t wanted him here because of this.
Lehr had already threatened to kill him.
I didn’t want to create more friction between the two.
I didn’t want Lehr to call out how often Blake found excuses to talk to me or how my presence affected him enough to remain human while under the influence of a wolfsbane spell.
“Jared has agreed to my terms,” I said, trying to pull Lehr’s attention back to me. “Vampires are booking rooms—”
“You’re standing opposite me.”
Lehr’s words and the way he stared at Blake raised chill bumps on my skin. My heart rate kicked up. Inexplicably, so did a feeling of hope.
What if Blake ignored his alpha?
What if he stayed at my side?
What if I held more power over him than the magical bond linking him to Lehr and the pack?
Could we make us work?
“Am I?” Blake asked. He exaggerated scanning to his left.
Then he scanned to the right, where I stood and where our gazes met.
For a short, breath-catching second, I forgot everything else—the worlds that separated us, the lines we had blurred, and the ones we hadn’t yet crossed.
A thousand more what-ifs filled the space between us until the moment shattered like a porcelain secret.
Feigned surprise replaced the heat in Blake’s eyes.
“Huh,” he said with a shrug. “It looks like you’re right.”
Slowly, casually, he crossed the strip of earth separating me from Lehr and the pack and took up position beside his alpha. When he faced me, his emotions were locked down tight.
I needed to leave. Immediately. Not for my own safety but for Blake’s. Lehr’s eyes were banded in gold, and the pack was stirring, responding to the killing energy radiating from the alpha.
Blake stood much too still and too confident. Too insubordinate.
I backed up a step but kept my shoulders straight and my chin lifted, wearing my own confidence. It didn’t matter that it was a costume. I’d initiated this confrontation, and I was ending it. This had everything to do with me and absolutely nothing to do with Blake.
“Arcuro lost the compound and his life,” I said. My next sentence would secure my role as Lehr’s antagonist. “Your position isn’t as secure as you think.”