Page 89 of Fatality

I might be terrified but I'm not going down without a fight.

“Collecting my DNA, troublemaker?” He bends lower, almost folding himself in half until we're eye level. “Smart.”

His fingers tighten slightly.

“Why?” I cough through gritted teeth. “Because I bruised your fragile little alpha ego?”

He clicks his tongue and tightens his grip another fraction.

“You see, people like you...” He snarls the words. “Spoiled little Uppers who think the world owes them everything, they piss me off.”

His eyes narrow.

“But what pisses me off even more,” His breath is close to my cheeks “is that an Upper actually managed to hurt me while I was trying to help.”

I twist against his grip, trying to break free.

“You crashed into us! And you expected me to say,” I cough. “Thank you? You're even dumber than I thought.”

I claw at one of his fingers, trying to loosen the pressure around my throat.

Instead, his grip tightens.

And because I'm apparently too fucking stubborn to keep my mouth shut.

“You're pathetic,” I rasp between coughs, managing a defiant smirk “You keep telling everyone you're confident huh? When really, you're just a man whose muscles are bigger than his brain.”

A beat.

“And his dick.”

I see the change in his eyes.

Not amusement, something darker, something that instantly makes me regret taunting him.

The grin remains on my face for half a second too long before my survival instincts finally catch up.

My stomach drops.

He is here to kill me.

Not eventually, not after a fight.

Right now.

His hand is already around my throat, he could snap my neck in an instant and leave my body here for Liam, Jules, and Charlie to find.

The realization crashes into me with brutal force.

For the first time since I started running my mouth, I understand exactly how vulnerable I am.

Alone, barefoot and half-dressed and trapped within arm's reach of a man who broke into my home without hesitation.

My pulse stutters.

Maybe provoking him wasn't my brightest idea.

“You've got more bite than the others of your kind,” His face is utterly serious. “But don’t mistake who I am, I don’t make empty threats.”