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She’d forgotten that aspect of his changeling abilities Forhu the space between her and Clay But what had it gotten her? Here she was, right back at the starthaving lost everything that ever mattered "You said that the first tierous boy and she’d been more than terrified of him All her short life, people had hurt her, and he had seemed like exactly the kind of person ould So she had kept her distance But that day when she’d seen hi in the backyard of their complex - a junkyard, not a park - she hadn’t been able to leave hihtened that her teeth had threatened to chatter, she had walked out into the living room and to the phone Orrin had been on the couch, passed out Soed to make a forbidden call outside - to the para the door, she had run down to sit with Clay until help came He hadn’t been happy Nine years to her precocious and fully verbal three, he’d been a creature of pure danger
"You snarled at irl bones" It was a trick of hers, thisfrom the moment of birth and sometimes before It was how she’d learned to talk before others, to read before she could talk "You said I smelled like soft, juicy, delicious prey"
"You still do"
The comment made her bristle in spite of her wariness "Clay, stop it You’re being adolescent" He was also succeeding in ra he was? Big, incredibly strong, and so dary it almost felt like a blohen he turned his eyes on her
"Why? Iyou will do"
She wondered if she’d made a mistake The Clay she had known, he’d been wild, but he’d been on the side of the angels She wasn’t so sure about this man He looked like pure predator, without honor or soul But her too soft heart told her to keep pushing, that there wasto the DarkRiver pack"
No answer
"Was that your father’s pack?" Isla had been huained his shape-shifting abilities
"All I know aboutelse"
"I thought, ed her h was bitter "She was probably ile to begin with Losing her ht you didn’t know if they’d been married"
"Mated, not married Hell of a difference" He turned down a pitch-black path, the fading evening light blocked out by the canopy "I knew shit-all about my own race back then Unless doctors intervene - and even then it’s a crapshoot - leopard changelings aren’t fertile except when -ternancies, no quickie ht you about being a leopard?"
He threw her a sidelong glance and it was nothing friendly "Why the sudden need for conversation? Just spit out what you want Sooner you do, sooner you can disappear back into the hole where you’ve been living for twenty daer sure I caht ressiveness
The air inside the car filled with a sense of incipient threat "Why? Because I’m not as easy to handle as you re, her sto with the force of it "Clay, if anyone followed anyone, it wasafter you I didn’t dare order you around"
"Load of shit," hein his tone "You fucking made me attend tea parties"
She remembered his threat before the first one: Tell anyone and I’ll eat you and use your bones as toothpicks
She should’ve been scared, but Clay hadn’t had the "badness" in him And even after a bare three years on the planet, she’d known too rown-ups had it Clay hadn’t So, wide-eyed, she’d sat with him and they had had their tea party "You were my best friend then," she said in a quiet plea "Can’t you be my friend now?"
"No" The flatness of his response shook her "We’re here"
She looked out of the windscreen to find the "Where?"
"You wanted privacy This is private" Extinguishing the lights and engine, he stepped out
Having no choice, she followed suit, stopping in the ainst a tree trunk on the other side, facing her His eyes had gone night-glow, shocking a gasp out of her Dangerous, he was definitely dangerous But he was beautiful, too - in the sale" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>