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Chapter Eleven
Charlie
The three men standing in front of me were making my head spin. Levi, Johnny and Kane Duke—werewolves I’d never met before today—and yet all three, I knew in my gut, I’d been intimate with, if only in my dreams. And that felt…well, weird and satisfying, all at the same time.
“You better start talking quickly or I’m walking out of that door.” I pointed behind me, trying to come off as in charge, when what I really felt was out of the loop. Control over my beast was slipping by the second. “And leaving you three with your dicks in your hands, looking clueless.”
Johnny snorted then downed the rest of his drink. I noticed the bandage on his hand and felt the slight tug of guilt. I’d bitten him. He’d deserved it for trying to pet me, but still…ouch.
“You’re at the Duke compound. We rescued—”
“Sorry… You what?” My hold on her slipped even more, and my werebeast came out enough to bulk me so I matched their heights. It was a partial shift on the cusp of becoming something more. I yanked the leash and tried to pin her down. As much as I liked the element of surprise, I was too tired to battle her for control right now.
Johnny’s mouth dropped open. Kane gave me a once over that was full of heat, as if he found this version of me sexy. I was a monster, capable of grotesque transformations. What woman could alter her body the way I could? Not a normal one, that was a fact. I wasn’t even sure the female werewolves could do what I do. I was a freak.
“Well, if you could do that all along, maybe you should have bulked up in Sal’s office,” Kane snapped, suddenly acting as if he hadn’t just size me up like a piece of meat.
“That wouldn’t have helped her once they got that collar on,” Levi said matter-of-factly. “It had some kind of containment spell weaved into it. There were deep tracks of it along her throat.”
The memory of that torture device had me rubbing my neck and wincing. “Once they put that thing on me, I couldn’t shift. I couldn’t do anything.” Then I looked at Levi with new appreciation. If he could detect witch magic, he was a special kind of wolf.
Still an asshole, though, just like his brothers.
“That should never have happened.” Johnny’s expression looked pained, like he could feel the residual effects of the silver on my skin in the same way I could.
“You didn’t have to endure it,” I grunted, unwilling to let his sympathy get to me.
“We didn’t plan for things to go down that way. It’s not like Sal gave me a heads-up about the collar. If he had, it would have saved us the shitshow that Johnny started.” Kane nodded toward his brother, and I realized he wasn’t actually angry with me. He was pissed at his brother for interfering.
“From my viewpoint of the whole situation, I walked into a shitshow of your creation,” I countered.
“My creation?” Kane growled. “I was there to save you! You have no idea—"
“No, that’s right, I had no idea what I was walking into.” I huffed, my werebeast slipping out a little more—my fangs dropping, claws extending, hair sprouting along my arms and probably my face. I hated when I got like this, overcome with emotion, and my werebeast took full advantage. She was pushing against her cage, rattling the bars, close to exploding out. “I had no idea that Kane Duke had laid down money to buy me from my stepbrother like I was some kind of whore.”
“I did try to warn you,” Johnny said quietly.
I whipped my head his way, my werebeast licking her chops, ready to eat him.
He lifted his hands, as if he’d submit. “No offense, Charlie, but I offered you an out on the way over, and you declined, repeatedly.”
My brain stuttered on what he was saying. He’d offered me an out? “You think asking me to be a den mother is ample warning for what I walked into?” My words were garbled, my tongue thick, fangs in the way. I took a step toward him, my clawed finger pointed his way. “You think that’s the best way to give me a heads-up that my own family is set on selling me to your clan?”
Johnny had sense enough to hang his head, looking to collect his shame from the floor.
“Who are you people? Why are you involved in this?” I crossed my thick, furry arms, doing everything in my power to keep my beast at bay. I was sure I looked comical—huge, furry, part human, part wolf, full of attitude. I couldn’t keep my human mannerisms from coming through and crossing my arms helped me latch down the muscle spasms that rippled through my body. “What is it you think you’ve bought?”
Kane looked away from me then, his eyes on everything but me, in fact.
Levi stepped forward, moving around my hulking body to stand in front of me. “We have a proposition for you.”
“A proposition?” Kane huffed. “Like I didn’t just pay a small fortune.”
Somehow his words, mixed with the look of contrition on Johnny’s face and the hopeful expression on Levi’s, hit my beast. She shook her head, snorted to herself like these three were lost causes, then slunk back to her dark space. It gave me time to relax enough so I could shift to my normal, less-dominating self. I didn’t think I was in danger here, and apparently, she agreed, because for the first time in forever, she let me coax her down and out of sight with little trouble. I shuddered through the shift, my muscles deflating back to normal, my fangs and claws sliding back into their resting places.
“How much did you pay?” I shifted my gaze to Kane, willing him to look at me again. “How much am I worth?”
Kane fidgeted with his suit, adjusting his tie before yanking it completely off then tossing it onto the chair beside him. He was either uncomfortable because he didn’t want to answer to a woman or because he was upset about the money he’d laid down on me when it was clear I wasn’t a good investment. He moved toward the window, maybe hoping he wouldn’t have to answer if he stared at the moon for long enough.
