Page 104 of Blade

The dangerous idiot’s face went so red it made me question his blood pressure but it let me move a few more feet without drawing anyone else’s attention. He might’ve gotten more unhinged with the teasing but his men thought it was hilarious. The wolf shifter even rolled his eyes.

How had Euston collected them?

I knew better than to ask and draw more attention to myself, though. Henley was deliberately poking his brother, so I ignored how wrong it was to move away from my mate and slowly shifted toward the passenger side of the truck.

The shifter finally noticed me, but his boss had probably told him Henley was their focus because he dismissed me too quickly.

What did he think I was?

I shouldn’t have hit the radar as human but did the wolf think cat shifters were weak?

I’d thought the unreasonable competition between our peoples would have been a thing of the past but maybe not. Either way, I used it in my favor as Henley’s utter calm fucked with his brother even more.

“What’s Mom going to say about all this?” Shaking his head, Henley frowned as the lightning struck the ground again, but he seemed to have decided not to act as if he’d noticed it at all. “She’s going to be even more pissed than she was when you got that waitress knocked up in Oklahoma.”

Really?

Several of the men blinked, startled at that revelation, and it had me sliding them more confidently into some kind of shiftercategory. Even the most isolated groups took children very seriously, but the way Euston snorted said he might not know that. “She was a slut. There was no way the brat was mine.”

The way Henley’s eyes went round again made his thoughts on that clear. “You’re using monsters to threaten me, Ewie. It doesn’t matter how mad she is about me going off on my own, this is going to make her insane.”

As illogical as it all was, I could see that and Euston’s wince said he knew it too.

Oh, his henchmen loved that reaction.

It seemed that being scared of their mother was a universal feeling they could all relate to, but it didn’t make them respect their boss.

“Oh, you seem to be doing more than hanging out with the rug, though, aren’t you?” Still ignoring me, Euston smirked at Henley and flicked his finger again.

That time some of the energy seemed to hit Henley but he just gritted his teeth as he shivered. My own heart nearly stopped even if his hadn’t, and I stopped moving without thinking about it. How much energy could a human handle?

What the fuck had he been hit with?

“They’re both going to love that.” Something about the evil-looking spark in his eyes said he was going to thoroughly enjoy being the one to tell their parents about me. “You always were the weak link.”

“Give me a break. What are you doing besides tormenting me with threats of tattling to our parents?” Henley threw up his arms in an overdramatic gesture and stepped toward his brother just aggressively enough to get another jolt. “Fuck.”

No.

No.

Clamping down on my panther, I barely controlled my shift and my fingers ached as my claws tried to spring out. Somethingdrew the wolf’s gaze to me again but then he immediately dismissed me. What had he been told?

That Henley was my mate should’ve been obvious to all of them no matter what they were, and threatening anyone’s mate never ended well. The only thing that kept me in this form was seventy years of control. It might’ve stunted everything else but my panther was much more in tune with my human side than it’d ever been before.

Could I shift quickly enough to get them before the lightning got Henley?

I wanted to say yes but I’d put too much room between us to be sure I could clear the hood of the truck in enough time.

“It’s not tattling if I was sent to find you.” Euston shrugged. “I’m just being helpful in an unexpected way.”

Henley’s parents wanted him?

“All they had to do was fucking email me.” Rolling his eyes got another zap but it also distracted the crowd enough that I made it another few feet. “It would’ve saved everyone the effort. I’m not going back.”

As far as I could tell they seemed to think I was hiding behind the truck, so I forced myself to slouch to reinforce the idea. My panther hated that more than he had anything else so far and my entire body ached as he tried to burst out. But my human brain overruled the instinct side of me.

“You shouldneverhave blocked them to begin with.” Looking actually hostile about that, Euston had Henley zapped again.