My stomach flips, and I nearly puke.Of course it isn’t the Slaughters in charge of the lycan drug. Acheron Wilder has been pulling everyone’s strings since before most of us were even born.
“It’s been handled,” Merrick assures, rising to his full height, the promise of murder radiating off of him as Sebastian’s hand settles on my shoulder, guarding my back.
Cocking his head, a predatory glint appears in Ash’s umber eyes. “I’d hate for such a setback to happen again, especially one with such dangerous ramifications when your daughter’s nearby.” With a wicked smirk, he looks between the three of them, letting the unspoken threat hang in the air before disregarding them completely. “Tell me, Sabrina, how are you settling in? People that will trip over themselves to take care of you and ensure your happiness; is it everything you’d hoped it would be?”
My stomach turns to lead, hearing too much of my mother’s sentiments in his words. Yet I force a relaxed smile to my face that I don’t remotely feel, drawing on the lessons I picked up on from Emmy and Slade.
“Better.” Looking him dead in the eye, I don’t flinch. “There’s no way I could be disappointed since I expect nothing from anyone that lives here. So if you came to try and convince me that I’m never going to amount to anything beyond a burdensome wretch, I’m afraid you’re about twenty years too late.”
Sebastian’s fingers tighten on my shoulder in silent warning, but there’s no point. I refuse to give the man in front of me the satisfaction of knowing that he gets to me, to fuel his ego as he intimidates another person into submission.
“How cruel has the world outside of our borders been to you to create such a cynic?” He clucks his tongue in mock sympathy. “I’m surprised that fire wasn’t snuffed out by the humans; a terrible lot they are. No honor.”
An incredulous sound slips out before I can catch it, so I lean into it instead of backpedaling. “Coming from the guy that had my father killed, I’d say honor’s lacking everywhere this day and age.”
He cants his head, assessing me with a critical eye before coolly declaring, “There’s plenty of honor to be found in saving one of our own from the people that hunted us to the brink of extinction.”
Without missing a beat, I spin his admission back on him. “So you knew where she was, yet you didn’t bring her home, left her to fend for herself amongst the same people you condemn? One might argue you didn’t want to save Annika, you just couldn’t stand the thought of her being happy with someone else.Especiallya human.”
A dark shadow flashes across his umber eyes, but he maintains a chipper lilt to his voice, acting unaffected. “A novel combination; quick wit, but also one hell of an active imagination.”
Hunter keeps his tone in check, but interjects, “If you knew about Annika’s human husband, you had to know about Sabrina as well. Why didn’t you say anything? Not only to the Slaughters that you knew where their mate was all of this time, but to us so we could bring the two of them home when we were right there?”
He doesn’t take his demonic eyes off of my face or lower his voice, getting a thrill out of taunting us all in one fell swoop. “Everyone on this mountain is afraid to leave because they know I’d hunt them down if they left without my permission. And yet, no one has ever once asked me if I knew where Annika was all this time, afraid to piss me off by reminding me that someone escaped from under my thumb. Irony at its finest.”
Despite the ominous rumbles surrounding me, Ash extends a hand, tracing my clenched jaw line with the pad of his finger. “I didn’t ask you to bring her home because a creature as lovely as this is better observed in the wild.”
Chapter 16
Sabrina
––––––––
“We should leave.” Hunterslams the door to the cabin behind us, raking a shaky hand through his hair.
“And then what? I’m not about to blame you guys for dragging me into this pissing contest, because after the shit he was saying, it’s clear Ash was watching me my entire fucking life, getting his sick kicks by watching me suffer. You were afraid of him before I ever came into the picture, and that’s not about to suddenly change if we leave.”
