He’s toying with me.
With that realization, I skidded to a halt, clutched the old radio to my chest, and yanked the bottle of mace out of my back pocket. Arm extended, I pointed it up at the black shadow on the roof. “Stay back, Jaxson!”
He leapt overhead, rebounded off the wall, and landed square in front of me with a low growl.
I pointed the mace directly at his glowing honey eyes. “I mean it, I—"
The bottle flew from my hand. I shook my wrist in shock. He’d struck the mace out of my grip so fast that I’d barely seen his arm move.
Jaxson let out a deep, animalistic growl. His hands were claws, and his body quaked with restrained power. “Don’t you ever bring that stuff onto pack land ever again.”
There was something almost feral in his voice.
I pressed my back against the bricks. My heart pounded so hard in my chest that it was about to rip its way out.
Two other werewolves rushed into the alley, but he stopped them with a flick of his clawed hand as he took another step forward. “How dare you break into my shop, LaSalle? I thought it might take longer before your family corrupted you, but it hasn’t even been a day. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, it seems.”
His signature—I knew it for what it was now—overwhelmed me, like he was letting it all out. Pine and moss and smoke and snow and the sound of running water. I couldn’t resist breathing it in. All of it. It called to me like a drug. The werewolf before me was terrifying and intoxicating, like the urge to jump at the edge of a cliff. But I was too scared to go over. I could barely find my voice. “Please—”
Jaxson met my petrified gaze with his honey-colored eyes. They seemed to be drinking me in, reading every thought in my head. He loomed over me, chest heaving, though I was sure he hadn’t broken a sweat chasing me down.
Finally, he gave me a half smile and brushed the side of my masked cheek with a claw. I didn’t move a millimeter as it dragged over my skin, but my heart felt like it was going to explode out of my body.
When he withdrew his hand, it was human again. I let out a fraction of the breath pent up in my lungs.
“Don’t worry, Savannah. You’re safe.” Then he grabbed my mask by the snout and pulled it up over my head. “And I must say, I quite like you as a wolf.”
The rich, silvery tone of his voice made goosebumps rise on my skin. His amber eyes flicked to my heaving breast and back. I could almost smell…his desire?
Impossible. He hated me. This was so screwed up.
Jaxson was close enough that I could almost taste him. Part of me wanted to, and heat pooled in my belly.
What’s wrong with you, Savy?
My phone rang in my pocket. I squeezed it through my jeans to silence it and fixed Jaxson with my best Don’t screw with me look. “You need to back off.”
Amusement flashed through his eyes, but his features were still hardened. He leaned in and softly whispered. “Why? I
caught you. You’re not very fast.”
I bared my teeth, suddenly and inexplicably offended. It wasn’t like I was an Olympian, but I had plenty of giddy-up and high school trophies to prove I was fast enough. He was just stupid fast.
Casey had said I needed to hold my ground, so I raised my chin. “I do not like being toyed with.”
“But you’re such a pretty toy,” he growled, low and rough.
Anger shot through my veins like ice water. I reared back and slapped the Dockside alpha as hard as I could. Electricity cracked through my arm, and my fingers went numb from the cold.
Jaxson staggered back a single step. His pupils dilated, and his claws erupted from his hands. He touched his cheek, where the faint streaks from my nails were beginning to turn pink.
Did I just slap the Dockside alpha?
I looked at his claws. I’d seen ones just like them nearly rip the guts out of a man and hurl him onto the hood of my car. But it was too late. Jaxson was on his back foot, and I couldn’t back down.
So I stepped up, moving so close that we were only an inch apart. He was tall, so I had to crane my neck back to stare him down, but I wasn’t going to let this slide. “I am not a toy, Jaxson. You don’t get to boss me around, and you don’t get to dangle me as bait.”
Jaxson