“After things went bad between Calvin and the Tupilaqs,” Ethan continued, “Calvin decided to start over again in another state with your mother.”
That was a lot of information to process. “Did my mom know about the dispute and why the Tupilaqs were angry with him?”
“Yes,” Ethan replied, a frown marring his handsome face. “Your mother had been raised in the pack. She didn’t want anything to do with them after she left Alaska with your dad. In fact, the feud had been so ugly, your parents kept their whereabouts a secret from nearly everyone they knew to stop them from ever learning of your existence.”
“That worked well, didn’t it,” I snarked, angry and hurt that I’d been lied to all of these years.
“I might have disagreed with Calvin’s decisions,” Ethan said then, “but I never disagreed with his intentions. You and Jenny were his first and most important priorities in life.”
My mother, Jenny, clearly didn’t agree. Maybe she’d left over the feud. Maybe she’d left over something else entirely. Whatever the reason, it didn’t explain why she’d abandoned me, her innocent, young daughter, when she’d run back home to Alaska.
Guilt and shame washed over me then. My dad had stayed when my mother had bailed. The man had literally given his life to save me from blood-thirsty wolves. I shouldn’t be so judgmental of his methods or motives. His ware-shifter secret was a big one, and not easily explained. I’m not sure what I would have done in his position. It was hypocritical and sanctimonious of me to even assume my choices would have been superior to his
“Do you think Garrett was a part of the pack that killed my father?” I asked, trying to make sense of a crazy situation, the rules of which I had no idea.
Ethan looked uncomfortable, and his chest rose and fell as though he’d taken a deep, bolstering breath. “No, I don’t think so.”
This time, it was my turn to frown. “Why would he attack me if he wasn’t from the Tupilaq pack?”
“Millie,” Ethan spoke carefully, his blue eyes reaching into the very depths of my soul, “wares can tell their own kind from humans in a multitude of ways.”
His implication shocked me. “I’m not a ware!” I denied, with a vehement shake of my head. “I think I’d know if I turned into an animal on the full moon, Ethan!”
Hands tightening on the wheel in frustration, Ethan said through gritted teeth, “We aren’t werewolves, Millie. We’re shifters. We have control over our shifts. The moon has nothing to do with it, and we don’t turn into some wolfman hybrid.”
“Wedon’t turn into anything,” I angrily argued, unreasonably enraged. “I’m not a shifter. Surely, I would know by now if I was.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Ethan persisted. “The ware gene is very strong, Millie, stronger than human genes. Even if you’d had one parent who was a shifter, you’re more likely to be ware than not. With both parents being ware, it would practically be unheard of to be born human. I’ve never even heard of it happening before.”
I shrugged and looked out the window at the speeding lights going by. “I don’t care how it’s supposed to work. I’m obviously not a shifter.”
“Why do you think that creep Garrett was following you, Millie? Do you think he was just trying to sell you an extendedwarranty on your car?” Ethan spat out in absolute frustration.
“Beats me! Who knows why rapists attack their victims,” I dismissed with a lot of frustration of my own.
Pinching the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb, Ethan sighed dramatically. “He could smell you, Millie. That’s why Garrett followed you into that alleyway tonight.”
“I beg your pardon?” I said, a blush setting my cheeks on fire. Was he insinuating I smelled bad?
“Female wares have a special scent that male wares can detect from miles away. Especially when they are… fertile,” Ethan delicately explained.
If my face wasn’t already flaming red, it was now. “That’s absurd!”
“That’s the truth,” Ethan bluntly returned. “Male shifters become very excited when they’re near a fertile female. That’s why Garrett lost control in the alley. Your scent, it’s… well… it’s incomparable to anything else in this world. To say the least, it can drive a ware mad with need.”
“You seem to be doing just fine,” I groused, pissed off that I should inspire that kind of lust from an unwanted source like Garrett, where Ethan, the one I wanted to lust after me, was seemingly unphased.
His steely blue gaze found mine when he said, “It’s not easier for me, Millie. You have noideahow you’re affecting me right now. I canfeelyou in my blood. Taste you on my tongue. If you weren’t my best friend’s daughter…” he didn’t finish his statement and just let it hang there tensely between us.
Electricity blitzed through my body. Was Ethan saying what I thought he was? That he was turned on by me? That he lusted after me in a way that I’d been lusting after him for years? I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but if there was a chance, I’d be willing to take it just to feel those large, calloused hands all over me just once.
We drove in tangible silence for a bit before I noticed we’d missed the exit for my apartment. “That was my exit,” I anxiously informed Ethan.
“I know,” he returned, making no attempts to rectify the gaffe.
“You can get off this next exit,” I told him, wanting nothing more than to get home and take a long, hot shower so that I could cleanse my skin of the filth of this night.
When Ethan once again blew by the next exit, I gave him a hot glare.
