Joanna held the knife out for Malik, now that the threat was out of sight. She shoved her hands into her pockets and shrugged her shoulders. “Sometime tonight.”
Her answer burned like molten silver. “Is there anything you need from me?”
She shook her head. “I found a few strands of your hair on my pillow.”
Malik spun his knife, loathing burning in his eyes.
If I provoked him well enough to attack me, I could kill him and claim self-defense. And Joanna would understand; she despised him… which is why I still couldn’t believe he was with her, standing among my pack.
“Alpha.”
Fuck, Maya.Do not interfere,I warned.
But my gamma appeared by Malik’s side, removing her gloves. “I think a hunter should wait in the car with the rogue.” She faced Malik—an unspoken hint.
My wolf growled at Maya’s disobedience, but I said nothing as my gaze followed the dead man walking who cursed his way to the car.
“I’m sorry I interrupted,” Maya said, holding my glare. “But I’ll let you two—”
“It’s okay, Maya,” Joanna cut in. “I should leave now, anyway.”
Maya briefly studied Joanna’s face. Then my gamma did something neither I nor Joanna expected: she leaned in and hugged the hunter. The hug was one-handed, with an awkward pause going in and an even more awkward release.
“Good luck,” Maya whispered. She left for the building without another word, glancing back only to see if Jerome was behind her.
Jerome patted Joanna on the back as he walked past us.
Once Joanna’s face recovered from the shock, I inched closer to her. “We should talk.”
She shook her head. Her small step back failed to go unnoticed. “I’ll text you the address from the safe house.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “That’s it then? That’s the entire plan?”
“The plan is not to get caught. Drink. Mingle. Flirt with a werewolf who will make the time fly by.”
“Joanna.”
“Tomorrow, we don’t know each other, Blackwood. Until the three of us are safely out of that house, I’m a clueless human, and you are nothing more than my sister’s friend, interested in joining a revolution.”
“Now look who’s underestimating herself,” I declared, taking another step forward. “Thinking it’d be easy for me to ignore the fact we’re in the same fucking house.” My hand around her wrist stopped her from moving back again. I reached up, cupping her cheek.
She hesitated before brushing her lips against my palm. “I never said it would be easy.”
I closed the space between us, pulling her into my chest and dropping my head until my lips pressed against hers.
They were so soft and warm, and always what stopped my mind from racing when I thought about how wrong this all was—but how damn right it felt. Even my headache from earlier was gone.
The car horn blared. Joanna flinched, but I held her tightly, deepening the kiss, allowing her to melt in my arms until a small moan slipped from her parted mouth. One I greedily devoured.
The car screamed again, this time relentlessly. The asshole refused to take his hand off the horn until Joanna pulled away from me.
“See you later, Marcus,” she said quickly, rushing to the car.
I should’ve called after her. Instead, I watched her walk away.
Joanna hopped into the front passenger seat of the car, where Malik glowered at her, his mouth moving despite his clenched teeth.
If I’d listened closely and caught him berating her, I would’ve killed him. So, I turned away, peeling off my shirt to go for a run and clear my head…
