Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
I spun on my heels and faced the direction of the white house next door. The scent of leather and myrrh filled my nose, and the tug from earlier reappeared.
Griffin was near.
Dammit . I came out here for peace, and the douchebag showed up here. Maybe he came for a swim. Either way, I had to stay away from him. For some reason, he grated on my nerves by being in close proximity. The fact that I was drawn to his playboy ways pissed me off even more.
No self-respecting girl would want someone like him. And I refused to become another notch in his belt, even if I would love to know how his lips tasted.
That was another reason I didn’t need to be around him. I would never taste his lips. Ever.
Hoping he hadn’t seen me, I turned to go back inside.
"What are you doing out here alone?" he asked as he stepped from the tree line.
I scowled at him. "Minding my own business, unlike you." I wished there was a privacy fence around the pool so I could’ve hidden, but shifters instinctively knew how to swim, so drowning wasn’t a hazard.
“Noted.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and stopped about five feet away from me. He still had on the same clothes from this afternoon, but he looked a little worse for wear. "You kicked that bear shifter's ass. But I wouldn't get too cocky. You probably couldn't do it again."
"Why, because I'm a girl?" Malice dripped from each word.
Griffin chuckled. "The guy wasn't expecting you to fight back, so you had the element of surprise."
What an arrogant bastard. Granted, I already knew that about him from earlier, but his smugness seemed to get worse each time I saw him, and that had been only twice so far. What would happen next time? Maybe he'd try to prove his point by tossing me in front of a car.
"We could fight now." I'd kick his ass, and that would be the end of it.
Hopefully.
"You think you could take me?" He touched his chest with a huge-ass smirk. His eyes flicked to my mouth, and I licked my lips in response.
Agh, I had to stop. I squared my shoulders and lifted my chin. "I know I can." Especially with the moon shining on me, I could kick his ass with my eyes closed.
"You want to shift into our wolves?" He grabbed the hem of his shirt, ready to remove it.
That was a big fat no. If I shifted, he'd probably know what I was. "Nope, I don't need my animal to make you scream like a girl."
"Well, all right then." He charged at me without warning, fighting dirty.
I wasn't surprised. He moved to wrap his arm around my waist, and I spun to the right out of his reach. He ran past me and almost fell since he had planned on my body to stop his momentum.
He huffed and faced me as his hazel eyes glowed. "You were lucky."
"You keep saying that." I couldn't help but antagonize him. His first move told me everything I needed to know about him as a fighter. He was strong, but he relied on his strength to win. Besides that, he had no form, no fighting technique, and bad general awareness of how to move. Maybe Shadow City had gotten spoiled since they had guards. This alpha was focused more on political studies and alliances than maneuvers, though I imagined with the proper training, he could be a force on the battlefield.
Rolling his shoulders, he stretched his neck side to side like that would make a difference.
I leaned back on my feet like I didn't have a care in the world. I enjoyed goading him. My body warmed, but I pretended it was from the brawl and not due to the handsome man standing in front of me.
"For what it's worth, I was trying to go easy on you, but not anymore." He shook his hands out at his sides and wiggled. "It's on." He lunged at me, dropping as he kicked out one of his feet with the intent to make me fall.
Wanting to end this, I let the moon charge through my blood and jumped over his leg. I landed behind him and dropped my elbow so that it touched the back of his neck and shoulder but didn't press down hard. "If I wanted to, I could knock you out. You still think I was only lucky earlier?"
He turned, and his chest brushed my side.
Goosebumps spread all over me as my body sizzled. It has to be the moon , I lied to myself. But the lie was pointless. This strange feeling had to do with the sexy guy right in front of me. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was my fated mate. But a jerk like him couldn’t be that.
His head lowered to mine, and I didn’t want to move. Something coursed between us and made my head fuzzy.
That was what I needed to snap out of whatever spell was captivating us. I took three large steps away from him. The warmth vanished. "What are you doing here?"
"I went for a slow run and was heading back home." He nodded to the white house next door.
His words didn't make sense for a moment. "Wait, you're Killian’s neighbor?"
"Right next door." He gestured to the house with all the beer cans littering the yard. "Did your boyfriend fail to mention that? I’ve lived next door to him for two years now."
"Why would he?" Normally men who had overinflated egos were short by shifter standards, so with Griffin’s height, I wasn't sure what his excuse might be. Maybe small-dick syndrome. My gaze dropped to his crotch, and I could see the outline in his blue jeans.
No small dick. Maybe insecurity then.
"Because I'm his best friend." He scoffed like that should be obvious. "And we’ve been inseparable since I left Shadow City."
"Are you sure?" I tilted my head and shrugged. "Because it seems like you're busier hanging out with Luna and her daddy than trying to be a friend to Killian."
"Aw." He chuckled. "It’s cute that you’re so concerned."
He was enjoying getting under my skin. I wanted to snap back at him, but I'd already said and done too much. I’d come out here to be alone and calm myself. Fighting with him had resulted in the complete opposite.
The time had come for me to take control. I took a few steps toward Killian’s house, determined to leave his ass behind.
"Dove." He sighed and caught up then stepped in front of me. "Give me a moment, please."
Wow, he was being nice…except for blocking me. "You have one minute."
A growl emanated from his chest at my demand, but his eyes softened. "I want to know how you really are."
The concern in his voice caught me off guard. I didn't like him sounding like a nice guy, especially when I got confused vibes from him. There was no evil inside him, which proved that he was a good person, unlike Luna and Dick. Once again, I was thankful for that perk of being a silver wolf—being able to sense someone’s true intent. Hating him wasn't possible, despite him getting under my skin. That was why I needed him to be the douchebag from a few minutes ago. "I'm fine." The awful odor of a lie wafted off me.
"You're trying to lie to me?" He coughed and waved a hand in front of his nose. "Do you think I can't smell it or something?"
Man, I hated that he had me there. "The words came out."
And now I didn't have any of them. The hole in my heart ripped open even more. So far, my lone wolf status hadn’t fractured me mentally, but the restlessness was a sign of that beginning. I needed to figure out my next steps, which should involve finding another pack, but I couldn’t take the risk. At least, not right then. As soon as I joined one, the link would alert them all that I was different than a normal wolf.
Griffin's fingers brushed my arm. "Hey, are you okay? It's like you're somewhere else."
"Yeah, sorry." I would work harder to hold myself together. I couldn't break down, especially in front of him. "And I'll be fine." I internally cringed, waiting for the smell of a lie to reek again, but reassuringly, the air stayed fresh. I did believe that.
Strange.
I hadn't expected to.
"What can I do to make it better?" He inched closer to me. “I want to make things easier for you.”
My body betrayed me, and I leaned toward him. I had to forget about his touch, smell, and proximity. "Tell me what you learned from the bear shifter." There. Even if he did affect me, I’d managed to keep our conversation strictly business.
"Well, that was a clusterfuck." His jaw clenched, and his hand dropped as he looked up at the night sky.
Wow, helpful . "Care to expand on that?"
Griffin met my stare. "I came over to tell Killian what happened, and I heard you two eating dinner together."
I studied him, at a loss. "Why didn't you knock?" He didn't seem like the type who would care if we were eating dinner. He'd barge on in.
"I expected him to be alone," he said tightly. "So I was waiting for you to leave, but here you are in the backyard in your pajamas. Are you staying with him?"
"A reminder, I was the one who was attacked, not him." I gestured to the house. "And how is my staying here any of your damn business?"
"It's not." He lifted his hands. "I was curious. And I wanted to talk only to him because I was trying not to see you."
His words stung, which made me even angrier. He shouldn't have this much of an effect on me. In fact, I should have been ecstatic that he didn't want to see me, but the fact that the air didn't smell told me all I needed to know. "Then why did you start talking to me?" If he didn't want to be around me, then he shouldn't have said anything in the first place. "I was about to go inside, and you wouldn’t have been forced to have this conversation."
"Because I thought about it, and I figured you should know too." He blew out a breath and narrowed his eyes.
Wanting to get back to the actual point, I crossed my arms. "Then tell me—what happened with the bear shifter?"
"There isn't much to tell." Griffin ran a hand through his gelled hair, messing it up.
I grimaced. He was somehow even more breathtaking.
But I refused to be distracted. No good would come from it. "Well then, this should be a very short conversation," I snapped. One minute, I was trying to be nice to him, and the next, I was angry. My emotions had become a yo-yo, and I didn't know why.
"Remember how that guy who works for Dick—Harold—was taking the bear shifter to the Shadow City jail?" he asked.
"Yup." Maybe if I was brief, he would get to the point faster.
"The bear shifter somehow knocked him unconscious and got away." He clenched his hands into fists. "Which means we have no leads to whether he was the only person in on the attack or if it was a calculated move organized by others. Either way, the asshole is somewhere out here again."
"Wasn't he cuffed?" Surely the guy wouldn't have put the bear in the back of a car unrestrained.
Griffin laughed without humor. "Actually, he wasn’t. Harold tied him up with a rope, but the bear shifter pretended to be unconscious and bit through it. He attacked Harold, making him drive off the bridge that leads to Shadow City."
"A bridge?" I hadn't seen more than downtown Shadow Ridge and the university, so I had no clue how many ways there were to enter Shadow City.
He waved his hand in a circular motion. "The river surrounds a large island that Shadow City is built on. The bridge leads to the gate to enter. Witches have spelled the city so that the Tennessee River around it appears narrower than it really is, which is why there isn’t a lot of river traffic through here." He rolled his eyes. "Luckily, Harold came to before the car filled with water, but the bear shifter was already gone. His scent was untraceable. I’m sorry you got thrown into this mess. He attacked you because you were with me. They’re trying to scare me so I’ll try to shut the borders again."
"Then why were you out here alone?" If the bear could be anywhere, it made sense that he might try to attack me again, but we didn’t know if I was the target or the most convenient wolf body at the time.
"You were too." Griffin pointed at me. "So, I think that's a little hypocritical."
"I thought he was in jail." In all fairness, if I’d known he’d escaped, my first instinct would have been to track his ass down. But I needed to stay put for a little while longer. I didn’t need my hunters finding me, much as I didn’t want anyone else suffering an attack. "What's your excuse?"
"My excuse isn't a good one." He closed the distance between us again, and he was so close his minty breath hit my face.
My breathing quickened, almost matching the racing beat of my heart. "I didn't ask if it was a good one. I asked what it was."
"I wanted to make sure that the bear didn't come looking for you. I was going to ask Killian where you lived. When I realized you were here, I was planning to follow you home." He sighed as if what he said next pained him to admit. "Seeing you hurt like that earlier almost made me go insane."
His words threatened to tear down my walls, but this couldn't happen. Whatever this was. "I'm with Killian." It helped that we’d agreed to be exclusive, so this wasn’t a lie. Besides, Killian had helped me, and I couldn't let my inconvenient reaction to some hot guy screw up my relationship with the only friend I had.
"Yeah, I'm well aware." A vein between his brows bulged. "Thanks for the reminder."
"What the hell is your problem?" I didn't know what was happening between us. Lust? Would having sex with him get rid of this energy? Absolutely not. No way would my first time be with some playboy who got his rocks off by talking about his cream and where he liked it placed.
"Nothing," he said a little too loudly. "Nothing at all. I mean, I'm ready for him to get over his feelings for you and kick your ass to the curb."
"Says the douchebag who hit on me in front of the girl who's trying to manipulate him into settling down." If he wanted to hurt me, I could return the favor.
"She is not." He scoffed. "Don't be crazy."
Oh, hell no. He had a death wish. I stomped my foot, channeling Luna. "Griffin," I whined and pouted, sticking my bottom lip out as far as it would go. "You left me." I straightened, not able to keep up the charade, and patted my chest and rolled my eyes. "You're right. My bad. She totally isn't trying to manipulate you."
"Jealousy is a good look on you." He wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me hard against his chest. "In fact, it's sexy. Maybe I should rile you up more often."
The tug strengthened to where it felt like two magnets were pulling toward each other.
My body warmed in ways it never had before, and I didn't even try to move away.
“You are attracted to me too.” He dipped his head, and the world around us disappeared, the connection between us too strong to be ignored. His lips aimed for mine as my rationale left me. I couldn’t remember why this was a bad idea.
The back door jingled and opened. "Dove?" Killian called.