I sighed and returned my attention to the hot shifter standing next to me. “My father owns a strip club just outside of New City named Jazzies. That’s where I mainly grew up. Strippers taught me how to swim, how to dance, how to sing, and even how to read and write when my father failed to put me into school. I was essentially a ghost child in the system.
“When I got older, I started to teach myself from books I found online. There’s only so much of the strip club life I could take. I stayed at home more, found even more books to read and learn from. When it was time for me to go to New City University, my father had other plans for me. He wanted me to handle the books for him exclusively. I was put under house arrest by my own father for two years so I wouldn’t run away.”
I sucked in a lungful of oxygen. “During those years I never saw anyone but my father. No one. I was locked inside my own home and not allowed out. But I eventually broke out, and my father never came searching for me. I think he was afraid to venture too far into New City. He had panic attacks anytime there were more customers than normal in his own business, so I’m pretty sure he couldn’t handle strangers everywhere on busy streets in the heart of the city.”
Wolfe’s head tilted. “How does this pertain to a fake marriage?”
He was good, but I could see it in his eyes.
The wolf-man already understood.
“I started at New City University, only to find out about the marriage law. My father had never told me about it. I didn’t want to be trapped again by another man. Fuck that. No way. I wasn’t having it. So I used my own self-taught knowledge to fake my own marriage, and nobody was the wiser. I went to college, obtained my degree…and started working from home. Apparently, some of that shit sticks with you when you grow up. I’m most comfortable around things, places, and people I’m familiar with thanks to my upbringing.”
Wolfe lifted my free hand, the hand with my fake wedding band on it, and gently slid the ring off my finger. He spied a trashcan in the corner and tossed it in. The wolf-man shook his head in my angry face, and stated quietly, “You don’t have to wear that cheap thing anymore.”
“What in the world do you mean?” I shouted. “I need that! Not everyone is as well protected as you. If I get in trouble with the law, I can’t finagle my way out of it.”
“Calm down, Noelle. You aren’t going to be in any trouble with the law. I put a death certificate into the system for your fake husband. In the law’s eyes now, you are a widow.”
My mouth bobbed up and down. “How did you manage that? A marriage certificate was hard to come by, but a death certificate? That’s impossible.”
He winked one golden eye at me. “I told you I was the best. It’s all fixed. You’re safe and “single” now.”
A thought, a thought, a thought edged nearer.
I grabbed it and evaluated my findings. It made sense.
“Oh.” I must have been riding a turtle I was so slow. “That’s why you did it.”
Innocent eyes stared into mine with just the right amount of confusion in their depths. “What are you talking about?”
“You like me, and you want to date me. But it wouldn’t look good if you were hanging around with a married woman.” I shrugged a shoulder and took a bite of my cupcake. “That was good thinking. I’ll go on a date with you once my legs aren’t so sore. I won’t be doing much for a while.”
Wolfe stared down at me, his head cocked in suspicion.
Theron muttered, “Wolfe, you seriously have no game. I thought you’d eventually grow out of the awkward stage and learn how to talk to a woman, but you never did. I have no idea how you managed to fuck so many—”
“Not the time, Theron!” Wolfe barked over his shoulder, cutting off the king’s unthinking words. Those golden eyes returned to mine. He hedged, “So…what do you like to do for fun?”
My chin trembled so badly, my stomach pinched from trying to keep my laughter buried down in my chest. Theron was right. The wolf-man had little game. I leaned forward, and whispered, “Why don’t we discuss this when we’re not surrounded by a bunch of dead bodies?”
Wolfe’s regard took in all the chamber doors. “I could see how this could be a mood killer.”
“Not for you, huh?”
“Not at all.” His nose twitched. “It does smell awful, though. A shifter’s nose isn’t always a good thing.”
I tapped on his hand still holding the cupcake. “Put that by your nose. It’ll all be better.”
Surprisingly, he did what I said.
He never ate the damned thing.
He merely kept it up to his nose like a mask.
* * *
“Everyone, stay back,” Theron ordered, stepping away from the metal table where the seer’s body lay. “He’s waking up.”
