“I did not,” Max argued. “I wanted to try to make peace with a pack who’d rather stab us in the back. Why? Because your father is a narcissistic ass who can’t accept that he doesn’t control everything around him.”
“Oh, you just figured that out?”
“Why are you such a bitch?”
“Why are you?” she snapped back.
Ohhhh, it’s getting real in here.Paz leaned close.
So did Kraft, entertained by the argument. He could feel the energy between them, a flammable hatred that could so easily be turned into another kind of flame that burned. Like when he argued with Riley, the tension combusting into kisses that seared his soul...or would have if he had one.
“That artifact is a link not just to the Crimson Claw pack, but to all lycans, Antonia,” Max argued, his eyes glowing. “And you stole it only to give it tosorcerers?They’re not pack, not lycan. Why would you do that?”
“I didn’t do it, you ass. I gave it to my father.”
Riley and Ivan burst into the house and quickly locked the door, resealing the ward.
Riley glanced up, saw Antonia, and launched herself at the female.
Everyone froze.
Antonia growled, but Riley wasn’t having it. She struck the female with her knee and knocked her into the wall, the blow cracking ribs. Antonia bounced off the wall and tried to punch back, but Riley was too fast for her.
In seconds, Riley had Antonia pinned to the floor under her boot.
“That is so hot,” Kraft said with a grin.
Ivan and Max stared at him, eyes narrowed.
“What? It is.”
“You bitch.” Riley put weight over her leg holding Antonia down, and the Wildridge lycan flinched.
“Get off. That fuckinghurts.”
“I’m not going to baby you, witch-wolf. Where the hell is that artifact?”
Kraft swore he could see a hint of fur on Riley’s hands. Though most lycans were either direwolf or human, the strongest of their kind could use fangs and claws in human form. Riley had been doing that since he’d met her. But he’d expect nothing less of a berserker.
Antonia hadn’t showed claws or fangs. A weaker dire, perhaps, though she was the daughter of the current alpha. And as far as Kraft knew, power and magic ran in lycan bloodlines.
Max paused. “What did you call her?”
“Witch-wolf,” Riley answered.
“Seriously?” Ivan studied Antonia with surprise. “But she’s so pretty and nice.”
“Ivan,” Max snapped. “Focus.”
“I’m missing something here,” Kraft said. “But you know what? I don’t care. The female was giving us answers, Riley. You’re interrupting.”
“I’minterrupting?” Her voice rose.
She looked even prettier than she had when pounding Antonia into the wall. But Kraft kept his expression placid, not wanting Riley to see how much he liked her. How much he constantly thought about her. How his feelings for her were like nothing he’d ever experienced.
“I put my ass on the line not five minutes ago, arguing with her fat-lipped mother and conceited brother.”
Max paused. “Fat-lipped?”
