Page 17 of Crossed Fates

Not happening, Saph. Not ever happening.

If she were here, she’d just be grinning in that loony way of hers before losing herself to another premonition.

“Something entertaining?” Alaric asked, his gaze still locked on me in the way a hunter eyed his prey.

“Just thinking about a friend of mine,” I replied. “She’s the reason I’m familiar with packs in this territory.” Because it’d been a wolf who had kidnapped her. Fortunately, it hadn’t been one from Silver Lake. That would have been awkward.

“And have you been to Silver Lake before?” he pressed.

I considered how to answer that. Technically, yes, but not in this world, so… “No.”

“Yet you know where we’re going.”

“I have a reasonably good sense of direction,” I returned. “Are you going to backseat-drive the whole way, Alaric? Because that’s going to get old very fast.” He wasn’t actually trying to correct me at all, but I wanted to change the subject away from how I knew our destination.

Because he was right.

It’d been a slip on my part.

While Silver Lake might be a notable pack name in the region, the directions on how to find it might not be as well known. Or maybe they were and he was just testing me. Either way, I should have asked for directions in the beginning just to avoid all this nonsense. But I’d been so consumed by his scent that I hadn’t considered much beyond trying to drive without climbing into his lap and demanding he take me into oblivion.

“Secrets only intrigue me more,” Alaric finally said after a beat. “However, I’ll let you keep your lies for now. Just know that I don’t take kindly to duplicity, so if you try to hurt me or my pack, mate or not, I will kill you.”

The serious quality of his words told me he meant them.

“Wouldn’t that hurt you almost as much as it would hurt me?” I wondered out loud. The true mates in my world, at least the ones who had fully bonded, often didn’t survive when their other half died. Perhaps it didn’t work that way for Bitten wolves?

“It would, yes,” he replied, his gaze finally leaving my face. “But protecting myself and my pack is worth the pain of losing a mate.”

I considered that, my brow furrowing. His statement reminded me of Nathan. He would sacrifice everything for his pack, too. Because he was the Silver Lake Alpha.

Alaric had alpha written all over him, but not in the same way as Nathan.

The former struck me as a lone wolf, while the latter was very much a leader. Nathan would never live in the city, because Silver Lake was his heart. But Alaric’s condo confirmed he didn’t reside up north. His space was too well lived-in for it to be a temporary home, suggesting he didn’t stay with his pack often. Which meant he couldn’t be a true alpha.

However, as we drove, I felt his aggression mounting. Like his wolf wantedout.

His focus had completely left me and gone to the windows, his vigilance making me uneasy. “Are you expecting something?” I asked. “Or someone?”

He didn’t reply, his behavior seeming to be more animalistic than humanlike as he rolled down the window to sniff the air. His palm went to his chest, his fingers massaging the muscle there in a rhythmic caress that nearly distracted me from the road ahead because I pictured him doing that to my breast.

Goddamn it.

My thighs clenched, his pheromones hitting me hard in the nostrils and drowning me in lust.

Definitely. A. Bad. Idea,I chanted to myself, my lips parting as I forced myself to breathe through my mouth.

“You’re tempting my wolf.” The low growl in his voice only heated my blood further.

“Trust me, it’s not intentional,” I managed to reply, my throat dry from his intoxicating aroma. God, no one had ever tempted me like this before. He had to be an alpha. Or at least close to one. Because damn, I actually wanted to get on my knees for him, and that wasn’t like me at all.

I was an enforcer by nature. I’d even trained to become one until Nathan had introduced me to his black ops agency. Then my entire world had changed in a matter of years.

I bowed to no one.

Yet a dark part of me wanted to bow forhim.

What the hell?