Silas smirked, running his tongue along his canines. “That would spoil the fun.”
Although I battled the urge to recoil and won, my face must’ve cost me the battle of pretending to like the piece of shit, because his smile slipped.
“Well, it seems like our new friend Marcus would also love to have you there.” Silas noticed my eyes leave his face to scan the room for Marcus. “Oh, he ran out for some fresh air. He didn’t look too good… But he admitted that secret to me before he left, I promise you.”
I nodded tightly. “Then it looks like I’m disappointing both of you, doesn’t it?”
Silas chuckled, his sinister voice reverberating through my entire body. “We’ll see.”
“Sis, can you grab my weed from upstairs, please?” We both turned to Latoya. “It’s in the bathroom, all the way down the hall by the aloe plant.”
I glanced at Silas. He’d focused his terrifying gaze on my sister and did not break it as I removed Marcus’s sweater from around my shoulders and placed it in Latoya’s hands.
She tried to drop her arm, but I hadn’t released my hold on the sweater. She read the apprehension in my eyes and smiled.
“Aloe plant,” she repeated. “You can’t miss it.” So, she wasn’t worried.
As I walked away, Silas spoke again, but his low words were not for me. “We’re heading down to the lake to get dinner started. I hope you’ll have your sister in check by then.”
“Alpha, she doesn’t know me,” Latoya replied in a hushed voice. “She thinks you’re acult leader.” She paused, for what I guessed was Silas’s facial reaction. “How else was she going to explain me abandoning her? I begged her to come because I wanted her to see how much I love it here. How much she’d love it here with me. But I need more time to convince her.”
“You’re family. That means she is, too. Humans need to make a choice, Latoya. And I would prefer if your sister made the right one. But Iprotectmy family… even if it means protecting them from themselves. Remember that.”
I nearly crashed into the damn aloe plant.
I hurried into the massive bathroom and closed the door behind me. As the door shut, the room removed all sounds of thewolves’ shuffling downstairs. I no longer heard them leaving for the lake. I no longer sensed my sister waiting for me.
All I had for company was an eerie silence, and I didn’t like it at all.
Against my better judgment, I cracked open the door.
I rushed to the sink and placed my palms flat on the cold marble vanity top, my pinky grazing the bag of weed.
Did Latoya realize I could still hear them? What the hell did Silas mean byprotectingme? And why the fuck was I acting so scared?
I paced the length of the massive room, trying to calm my nerves and failing. I was feeling too much all at once. Affirmations weren’t gonna cut it. Something had to be wrong with me. It was the only plausible explanation for all my shit.
“Fuck it.” I ran back to the sink and pulled a joint out of the bag. When I placed it between my lips, I slammed down on the counter in frustration. No lighter, idiot.
“Well, hot damn.”
I froze. The drawl coming from behind me was familiar but hard to place.
“If it ain’t the Nubian Goddess.”
I gasped, and air froze in my lungs as I heard the bathroom door close.
Seconds later, a large hand pressed against the small of my back. Damn it, he was fast. But his hand dragged slowly up the length of my spine.
The pit of my stomach dropped, and I had to remind myself tobreathe. I set the breath free but dragged in a few more, trying to steady myself.
“I think you’re mistaking me for someone else,” I whispered, my eyes still glued to the joint in my hand. “But the bathroom’s all yours.”
I turned to leave when his hand left my back and wrapped around my arm.
He pulled me toward him, and my eyes darted up to his face.
Shit.
