Lucas was a young wolf, a few months shy of twenty. Before the atrocity in the Den, he’d never witnessed slaughter, never smelled the bite of stolen life. He watched his family destroy itself that night—spilled blood desecrating the sanctity of the cave as fire threatened to consume it all.
He’d frozen, trapped by the encroaching flames. And Joanna risked her life to save him.
After I’d demanded she take cover.
Then Leo used her distraction to his advantage… almost killing her.
I marched toward Joanna, my anger threatening to boil over. “You love reminding me you’re not a member of my pack, Joanna? Well, guess what,”—I stabbed a finger in Lucas’s direction—“he is. So, when I tell him to do something, he fucking does it. Just like, when I forbid him from doing something—”
Joanna raised an open palm in the air, halting my rant. “I get it now.” She turned to Lucas, and her voice softened. “This isn’t about you,” she informed him. “Tell Grace I said hey.”
Lucas wasted no time, bolting without a glance back.
I grabbed Joanna’s hand and pulled her toward my office. She fought as I dragged her behind me, using all thecurses under the Moon. But once she realized she was drawing attention to us, she quieted.
I swung her into the room and slammed the door behind us, locking it quickly. The sound of her gun leaving its holster cut through the air, and I knew she had it aimed at my head without my having to turn.
I snorted with amusement, though my anger had yet to subside. “Put that away unless you intend to use it, Sullivan,” I scolded.
“Drag me around like that again, and trust me, I will.”
I whipped around… and regretted it immediately.
Joanna stood with her shoulders back and her chin high. Fury burned in her beautiful brown eyes. Her tight grip on the gun was confident and sure.
Any rational werewolf would’ve been worried…
Instead of aching to be engulfed in her flames.
Instead of wanting that firm grip around the base of his cock.
I frowned, shaking my head to clear away the agonizing distraction. I took my time approaching her, stopping only once the barrel of the gun rested against my forehead. “It’s a bad idea,” I mumbled.
“I think it’d be an honor to play a part in Maya skipping beta and rising to alpha.”
I shoved the gun away from my face. “Joanna, unless we’re trying to provoke one another, werewolves aren’t known for stealing from each other.”
Her eyebrows rose as she scanned my face. After a pause, she sighed and holstered her gun. “And what does that mean, Marcus?”
“That means you’ll never be as safe as you are right now—with my scent on every inch of your fucking body.”
Her jaw dropped, and the rousing sound of her racing heart made my pants a little tighter. She cleared her throat. “That may be true, but Toya is right. We don’t know how those wolves will react to ourcomplication, and I don’t intend to fuck around and find out.”
My wolf growled. “Toya?Really?” I snapped.
Joanna shrugged, staggering to the couch and dropping with a deep sigh.
“She tells you one sad story, and that’s it? She’s forgiven?”
Joanna propped her arm against the back of the couch and turned to face me. “Say my name, Marcus.”
I paused. “What?”
“Say my name,” she repeated.
I rolled my eyes and stormed over to my desk. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“There it is.” She tilted her head with an arrogant grin on her face. “You’re whining about how I address my sister when, even after your tongue has diligently explored‘every inch’of my ‘fucking body,’”—she used air quotes for emphasis—“you refuse to address me the way I’ve asked you to, a million times.”
