She’d thought he might go all the way until he turned into a real honest-to-goodness wolf with four paws and a tail. Becker had implied that some of the guys could do that. But before that could happen, Xander had stepped in and slammed Max against a concrete wall so hard it had cracked some of the blocks. Max’s claws and fangs had immediately retracted, and Xander had let him go, as if it was no big deal.
She’d seen enough to know that this shifting thing was really important. She also knew she was screwed because she couldn’t do it.
She’d successfully covered up that fact since she’d arrived, using her smaller size, natural speed, and greater agility to make up for what the others could do when they shifted. But when those lights had gone out, her speed and agility hadn’t helped her one bit. She’d looked around and seen all the glowing eyes and known she was in trouble. They could all see while she couldn’t. She could make out basic shapes and outlines, but she sure as hell didn’t have enough clarity to move like she’d been before the lights had gone off.
She’d tried to force her eyes to change so she could see in the dark like them, but she just got a headache. None of the guys had ever met a female werewolf before. What if it turned out that female werewolves couldn’t shift like the males did? She didn’t give a crap about the claws and the fangs. She didn’t need those to be a good SWAT officer. But what if she could never see in the dark like they did?
With her heart beating like mad, she’d wanted to stop the training, to admit it was something she couldn’t do. But her pride wouldn’t let her. So instead, she’d used the only talents she seemed to have developed—she’d closed her eyes and used her nose and intuition to figure out where walls, doors, obstacles, and targets were. Even though she’d moved slower than before, it had worked. Until she’d shot Becker in the head with orange paint.
The memory made her cringe.
Khaki knew she could use her nose to navigate, given time. But she wasn’t going to be able to fool Xander and the other guys forever.
She was still thinking about how horrible that moment was going to be when she pulled into her assigned space in front of her apartment and saw Jeremy standing there holding a bouquet of roses.
Khaki stomped on the brakes and got out of the car, slamming the door behind her. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Her stomach churned. She’d moved halfway across the country to get away from this jackass and he’d followed her?
Jeremy held out the roses but didn’t answer. Was he crazy? Were roses the in thing this season to buy a woman after you’d harassed her to the breaking point?
“I don’t want your damn flowers,” she said. “I want to know what you’re doing here.”
His jaw tightened, and she half expected him to toss the flowers on the ground and grab her instead. But he didn’t.
“I came to say I’m sorry,” he said slowly, as if the words were a steel wire attached to his testicles that tightened as he spoke.
“Yeah?” She folded her arms and glared at him. “Well, you should have saved your money because I’m not interested.”
The muscle near the side of his eye jumped like it always did when he was trying to control his temper. There had been a time when she would have backed down from a fight with him, but not anymore.
“Khaki, please. Don’t give up on us.”
“Us?” She snorted. “There is no us. There never was. There was just you. I was simply the woman you thought looked good standing at your side. And when you decided I wasn’t playing my part like I was supposed to, you made it your mission to destroy my life.”
Jeremy’s upper lip curled, but instead of lashing out, he gave her a cool smile. “Khaki, sweetheart, that can all be behind us. Come home with me. I’ll take you back and we can act like this never happened.”
Take her back? Khaki’s vision blurred as anger swept through her. Who the hell did this jerk think he was?
“I’m not going anywhere with you!” She knew she was shouting, but she didn’t care. Jeremy had chased her out of her home in Washington. He wouldn’t chase her from this one. “My life is here now and it doesn’t include you.”
He glanced down at her uniform and sneered. “Your life is here? In SWAT? Please. What the hell made someone think you would ever be qualified to do that kind of work?”
She opened her mouth to tell him that he didn’t have a clue what she could and couldn’t do because he’d never taken the time to find out, but Jeremy’s harsh laugh cut her off.
“Oh, let me guess,” he said. “The big knuckle-dragger Carpenter saw you with at the diner is SWAT, isn’t he? Where did you meet him? Did he put you on the team so he’d have you nearby whenever he needed to knock off a piece? What’d you have to do to get the job, send him naked pictures of yourself, or was there phone sex involved too?”
Khaki thought she’d been angry before, but that was nothing compared to how furious she was now. Her whole body was practically vibrating with rage. Before she knew it, she’d ripped the flowers out of his hand and shoved him backward—hard. He had no idea how badly she wanted to tear him to shreds. Her fingers flexed as she imagined how good it would feel to dig her nails into him. Her teeth ached at the thought of sinking into that scrawny throat of his. If he hadn’t been too cheap to buy a vase to go with those dumb-ass flowers, she could have beat him with it.
Maybe it was because she had something worth protecting now, or maybe it was that she simply didn’t want to get Jeremy’s blood all over the sidewalk in front of her apartment, but either way, she resisted the urge to do any of those things.
“You need to get the hell out of here,” she growled. Really growled. “Or that little takedown move I showed you back at the station in Lakefront will seem like a love pat compared to what I’ll do to you now.”
For a minute, Jeremy looked like he might test her. But then his true cowardly nature took over and he backed away.
“I don’t know what I ever saw in you, you crazy bitch,” he ground out. “But trust me, you’re going to be sorry you let me get away.”
Khaki suppressed another growl. “More likely I’ll be sorry I didn’t kick your ass when I had the chance,” she muttered as he got in his rental car and drove off with a squeal of rubber.
