Page 25 of Corbin (Wild Wolf Pack from the world of Gallize Shifters #2)

Corbin had to quit lying to himself. He’d initially followed Givenchy to this building to figure out if she was involved in anything illegal, struggling to see her as a murderer.

Now that he’d found her destination, he had to admit her scent had driven him harder than catching her in a crime. Having found her again, he needed his questions answered before he tumbled off a steep ledge.

What did she do when he offered her help?

Immediately started threatening to call in someone to deal with him.

That sounded familiar as hell.

All his good intentions just got stomped on.

He’d tried to keep his emotions locked down, but they’d been incarcerated for too long.

“That’s your default, isn’t it? Call in the cops or some goons to drag away anyone who doesn’t bow down to you.

” He was on a roll and couldn’t hold back the bitterness of years he’d paid for attempting to make friends with this woman.

For a moment earlier on the sidewalk, his weary heart had sputtered to life when she looked at him like he might be her savior.

What a fool he’d been. How could his damned heart still hold out hope for this female?

“Bow down to me?” She sounded as if he’d insulted her. “You’re acting suspicious and trying to sound like you’re a friend. What do you expect me to do?”

“I’m not the one acting suspicious, princess. I’m supposed to follow clients. You’re the one out in the middle of nowhere at night on foot. What the hell are you up to out here?”

Hands on her hips, she bit out her words. “I don’t have to explain myself to anyone! You act like I-I’m guilty of having my own plans and not publishing them in the news.”

He heard panic. Why? Who was she here to meet?

Quieting her voice, she said, “Look, go back to the apartment building and wait for me. I’ll talk to you once I get there if you’re willing to answer my questions.”

His deep voice had a gritty sound when he was riled. “ You have questions? Well, you bet I do, too, princess.”

“Stop calling me that. You’re angry for no reason, and you create things out of thin air about me. You don’t know me.”

Water ran off the brim of his ball cap when he tipped his face down closer to hers. He vibrated with the need to shake her for making him crazy again. But he’d never harmed or threatened a female.

With his jaw tight from holding his tongue after years of punishment by the Romanian mafia, he struggled to figure out how to make her understand his disappointment and hurt.

“I’m not making things up. I do know you, or at least I thought I knew a sweet girl in high school.

A girl who lived with no friends like me.

I thought that girl was the only one for me. Someone special.”

Her lips parted as she took in every word. Her eyes lit up at his admission of how much she’d meant to him.

Now for the whole truth.

“But that young woman existed only in my dreams because the one I thought I knew screwed me over badly for many long years. I’m only now recovering.”

Water drizzled down her stunned face. “What? I have no ... idea what you’re referencing.”

She couldn’t be serious. He scoffed, “Oh, I guess you’ve screwed over so many males you can’t keep us straight.” Sure, that was rough sounding, but being captured that night and handed to a monster as a teen had destroyed a chunk of his humanity.

His words must have finally struck a chord with Givenchy.

“That’s bullshit,” she shouted in his face then backed up. “I have never screwed over anyone, male or female. Ever.”

Huffing a cold laugh, he said, “You really have changed. You can’t even admit your actions when faced with the truth.”

“You’re confused or off your meds.” She shoved her hands up in the air in a frustrated move. “I am not whoever you had a falling out with in your past.”

He shook his head. “I trusted you with my life. I trusted you with all my being and—”

A muffled scream interrupted his tirade.

She swung her head left. He mirrored her action, now looking at a door of the warehouse he hadn’t seen before.

Corbin stepped back into his original role today of investigating security guard deaths. “What’s going on in there?”

“None of your business. I have to get inside. Get out of here.” She started for the door.

He rushed ahead, blocking her. Even now, he couldn’t convince himself she was a killer, but he did believe she had gotten involved in something bad. “Better to tell me the truth now before the cops show up.”

Long fingers grabbed his shoulders, digging in, then she shoved him aside.

Hell, that never happened. For a female shifter to push him anywhere, adrenaline must have flooded her body.

She tore inside the building.

The door had been left unlocked the whole time.

He lunged forward, pulling the door open before she could lock him out. The hard yank knocked her back, but he caught an arm and kept her on her feet. She snatched her arm free and came at him.

Another scream pierced the air. It sounded worse than the first one.

He put a hand up and snarled at her, “If someone is being tortured or dying, tell me now. I might be able to save him and help you.”

“Tortured? Dying? I can’t deal with you.” She turned and raced down the dark hall then up the metal stairs that had low-voltage lighting.

Yet another horrific scream followed.

He pounded up right behind her.

At the top of the stairs, she turned and ran down a long corridor that divided the building on this level.

He stayed on her heels. If she stopped, he’d run her over.

Holding up a hand in his direction, she hissed, “Stop or you’ll terrify her.”

Her? That word exploded in his head. He didn’t move.

She banged on the metal door, every motion more fearful than deadly. “It’s me, Eirene. Let me in.”

The door swung into the room hard and slammed against the wall.

A frantic thirtyish female with black hair askew cried out, “Hurry. She’s been in labor for hours. I don’t want to lose her and the baby.”