Instead, Roy fixed him with a look of contempt. “Fucking sad-ass loser. I’ve got half a mind to bust out of these chains and rip your jugular out just so she can find someone who deserves her.”
“Excuse me?” Austin said, astonished. “I’m sorry, Dr. Phil, let me get this straight – you’re giving relationship advice now?”
“Quit trying to pretend you’re anything like a good mate, when you’re nothing but a whiny little coward. ‘Oh, boo hoo, I don’t want to see the future!’ You know how many times and how many ways you told that girl she’s not worth fighting for?”
So Roy had been awake when they’d thought he was out.
“Thanks for weighing in, when you don’t know shit about what’s happening,” Austin snapped. “I don’t see the future. I see monsters and nightmares. And I fight the visions until I practically puke and pass out. There’s nothing to be done about it.”
“Shit on a stick, just when I think you can’t get any fucking dumber,” Roy spat at him. “When you fight the visions, it warps them. Visions are a gift, you ungrateful sack of turds. You know how many people would love to see the future? Seers sit there and study for years, learning to call up visions. Ass-face.”
“How the fuck would you know?” Austin barked at him. Savannah started, then sat up.Damn it.
“Sorry,” he called out to her.
“S’allright,” she mumbled. She yawned, stretched, and opened the car door, sliding out.
“My mate was a Seer,” Roy said coldly. “And yes, she saw that she was going to die of cancer. Didn’t tell me about it until the end, though. But she saw it coming.”
Before Austin could say anything, he realized that Cliff and Grant had gone silent. A car was pulling into the parking lot – a car full of members of the Hidden Hills Pack.
It was the Elders. Interfering little bitches, so old they farted dust, and obsessed with pack honor and pack law. Their appearance couldn’t be good news.
“Stay put,” he snapped at Roy.
“Blow me.”
“I’ll watch him,” Savannah said wearily. “I’ll shout if he tries to escape.”
Rusty strolled up, holding a cup of coffee. “I got it,” he said to her. “I’ll watch him. Stand by your man.”
Austin glanced uneasily at the car, then linked his arm through Savannah’s and walked over to his brothers.
The Elders piled out of the car and stalked over, scowling.
He kept expecting to hear Rusty shout for help, but he heard nothing.
The Elders were giving him an odd look. Oscar, Phineas, Sylvester and Minnie, who’d stood against Cliff during the Alpha Trials a couple of years ago, were looking especially sour. They’d never liked him, but now there was open hatred on their faces.
Back at you,Austin thought contemptuously. None of them had lifted a paw when his father was kicking his ass.
Their hostility didn’t really make sense, though. Austin avoided the pack completely. He wasn’t a problem for them, because he never set paw on the family property.
Herbert, Maurice and Juliette, who’d backed Cliff during the Alpha Trials, stood off by themselves and looked at him with pity.
What the hell?
“Cliff, did you get any of our text messages?” Oscar, the oldest, demanded.
“I did not,” Cliff said coolly. “Sorry. Reception sucks balls out here.”
“Hmmph,” Minnie snorted, her face curdling as if she’d just gulped sour milk.
“Something in your throat? Surely you’re not calling your Alpha a liar?” Grant growled at her. A minute ago they’d been fighting, but facing a common enemy, now the two brothers were putting on a united front.
“No matter. We’re here now,” Oscar said icily. “We got an urgent message from Jason Washborn. Do you know what he said?”
“I can’t imagine,” Cliff said, his expression bored. “But I’m sure you’ll tell me.”
