I nearly stroked out over his bluntly delivered words. This man knew exactly who I was. Also, that statement made me instantly aware that I’d come face to face with my stalker. The very man who’d threatened to assault me after killing my mate!
A dizzying combo of fear and panic bubbled to the surface of my chest and the blood in my veins seemed to pump double-time with fear-
laced adrenaline.
“Get out of here right now!” I finally managed to force out of my suddenly parched and scratchy throat.
“Sure,” the dark eyed man agreed in a low, rumbly tone, “as soon as youleave with me.”
His gaze dropped down to my androgynous outfit like I was wearing a bikini and not a plain white tee and basic black straight-legged pants like everyone else.
“If you try anything, I’ll scream,” I whisper-warned him, eyeing all the people milling around the coffee shop.
The man snorted. “And say what? A shifter asked you to leave with him and return back home to your pack in Alaska? I don’t think so, Millie. You aren’t that naive. You know what people will say if you claim something like that.”
He discretely made a twirling motion with his hand beside his ear to insinuate they’d think I was crazy.
Of course, he was right. Nobody would believe me if I said shit like that out loud. Still, I wasn’t going anywhere with this unhinged ware. Not now. Not ever.
“I don’t need to say that, I can just tell everyone that you’re threatening me and call the police to have them deal with you,” I challenged.
“You could, but I’d be long gone by the time they ever got here. Besides, you haven’t heard everything I have to say yet. Don’t you want to know about your family, Millie? About your mother? About why she left your no-good thieving father and headed back to her family in Alaska?”
I was curious. There was no denying it. Every nerve in my body was shouting as much. But the fact that this stranger had just called my father a “no-good thief” also made me want to slap that smug look clean off his cruel face.
“Don’t talk about my father like that!” I nearly growled, baring my teeth as I leaned halfway across the counter to make my point.
My sudden anger seemed to amuse the ware. “I see you’ve inherited your mother’s fierceness. I like that, omega. You’re going to need that strength when you’re my mate. It’s hard work leading a pack. But under my tutelage, you’ll pick it up quickly enough.”
I didn’t even realize I was doing it until the sound arose in my throat. A low grumble that could only be described as a warning growl to anyone who experienced it.
“I’ll never be your mate!” I spat back, taking care not to raise my voice so that Jessica or the customers would overhear me. “I already have the only mate I’ll ever want or need.”
This time, the ware on the other side of the counter growled at my statement. “Don’t push me, omega! I can barely contain my wolf as it is. That fool already has enough to answer for. Ethan Conner stole what was mine. You were promised to me before you were even born. You should have been filled withmyknot, not his. I’m going to peel the flesh from his bones and piss on his corpse for what he’s done.”
Well, that certainly seemed rational. Fucking hell, this man was a true deviant of the highest level!
“Ethan or not,” I spat back, “I would never belong to you, asshole! I don’t know what kind of sick place you live in, but it’s the twenty-first century, not the dark ages. Women aren’t property. They make their own decisions and choices. Nobody, man or ware, tells me what to think or do!”
The shifter’s rage was so intense, he was practically vibrating with it now. “You’ve been raised amongst humans, omega,” he choked out, his tone several octaves deeper than before. “You don’t know what you’re saying. But I’m going to teach you all about our ways, mate. I’m going to teach you every night with this,” he grabbed his crotch below the counter andI sneered back at him with revulsion. “Now, are you going to come with me, or do I have to kill that pathetic pack of orphans keeping you from me to convince you that this is your fate?”
“Don’t you dare threaten my family! They have nothing to do with this!” I shouldn’t have allowed him to see how terrified the prospect of losing my family made me. It gave him a power he would only wield for evil.
“I think I’ll start with the young one,” he thoughtfully began, eating up the look of fear in my eyes as he considered his options. “He seems so innocent. So trusting. I bet he won’t even see it coming, which is probably for the best.”
“Stop it!”
“Then I’ll move on to the two toy-boy soldiers. I can’t wait to make those losers squeal with pain.”
“I said, stop it!” I demanded, but the venom had been drained out of my words and now I just sounded scared.
“And after I’ve worked my way through each one of those orphans masquerading as a pack, I’m going to take my time with Conner. I’ve fantasized about all the ways I can make him hurt. You can’t imagine the different ways I can make him suffer, omega. I can be creative when I want to be.”
Furious tears sprang to my eyes and bile in my throat. “If you hurt a single one of them, I’ll kill you!”
The ware smiled darkly. “No, you won’t. You’ll be a good omega and do what you’re told. You’ll take my knot and bite like you were always meant to. After our first child is born, you won’t even remember old-what’s-his-face rotting in an unmarked grave in some distant state.”
Reaching into his pocket, the man extracted a small piece of paper with numbers and a name scrawled on it. “I expect a phone call within twenty-four hours or else I’m going to start following through on what we talked about here today.”
