Page 41 of Midnight of Ashes
“You mean when you’re not shooting fire into my chest?”
There were some curses and mutters around me.
Hal’s jaw tightened. “You should be blaming Easton for that fuckup.”
“We both know that there’s only one person who should be blamed, and I’m looking at him.”
Hal struggled to get his breathing under control. “You don’t know the truth about the men you aligned yourself with. What they’ve done to others.”
“I’m sure whatever it was they did, it was deserved.”
The men behind him growled. But Hal held up a hand to stop them. “Once she’s with us, she’ll see the truth.”
I scoffed. “Don’t hold your breath.”
Hal held out his hand.
I stared at it for a moment before accepting his shake. I tried to tug my hand back quickly, but Hal held firm.
“What do you think, son? Feel anything?” a deep voice said as a hulking man who resembled a wrestler stepped forward.
“You know, I think I might,” Hal said with a sneer.
I jerked my hand free. “There was nothing.”
The tall man behind the bond grinned at me. “We’ll just see about that.”
21
HAYDEN
A chill skittered down my spine at the man’s words. He was older, with gray peppering his hair and beard. But it was the eyes that scared me the most. They were so cold, cruelty swirling in them.
“Now, Dexter. It’s not nice to play the big, bad alpha and scare the poor girl,” Mona said, slipping her arm through mine.
Alpha. The alpha of the Corbett clan. The one who had called for more than one attack on me and my guys. Anger surged somewhere deep, and I had to fight to choke it down.
Dexter sent Mona a sharkish grin. “Can’t help who I am, darlin’.”
Mona made a tsking sound as she led me away.
Even as I got some distance from the hordes, nausea rolled through me. Hal was bad, but his father was even worse.
Nolan stepped into our path. “Now, we meet. Alone.”
My guys’ shifter hearing must’ve been fully activated because they were on us in a flash.
“You’re not taking her anywhere,” Cáel growled, his eyes bleeding completely silver.
Nolan seemed unmoved by the display. “How can we trust that Hayden is telling us the truth when you’re there intimidating her?”
Maddox’s eyes swirled with liquid gold. “We don’t intimidate innocents. Unlike other people we know.”
Nolan stiffened. “Are you making an accusation?”
“You’re the one who assumed that,” Maddox gritted out.
“Watch yourself, Kavanaugh. You’re treading on very thin ice. I’d hate to have to take formal action against you.”
