Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
I stare at him, my previous arousal turning into a very unpleasant case of coitus interruptus.
The absolute fucking nerve to walk into my life after twenty-three years and start talking to me as if he has known me forever is wild. But what else should I expect from a man who impregnated my mother, left her to die, and allowed me to be raised by the worst people in the world?
“You are the White Wolf,” Cain says. There is respect in his voice.
“That is what I have been called, though not recently,” my father says. He smiles at Cain, and then at me. I think he expects me to run into his arms, hug him tight, call him daddy, and be ever so grateful for his presence. He has that kind of smug aura about him, as if he did us all a favor just by being here.
“Get the fuck out of here.”
“Kira!” Cain snaps my name in shock.
“You don’t get to come here… after all this time, after everything you did.” I turn to Cain. “Weren’t you saying he’s a complete fucking monster? Everybody is afraid of him?”
Next thing I know, my back is against the wall. There is a knife up against my throat. It happened so fast that neither I, nor Cain, had any time to react. This man might be older, but he has the reflexes of a snake.
“I am a complete monster,” he purrs down at me. “And I will not be disrespected by my own pup, so sheathe that tongue, before I cut it out.”
The friendly store clerk energy is gone. There is nothing but malicious murder behind those eyes. He would do it, I think. He would maim me if I dared disrespect him. I should hate him all the more for this, but I feel the dark part of me, the part that has been swimming all my life, settle. I take a deep breath as I calm down for him.
“She’s not accustomed to any of this,” Cain says. “It’s been a very unsettling time for her. Forgive her.”
Ivan laughs, sheathes his blade, and pats my cheek before he lets me go, hard enough for it to almost be a slap, but not quite.
“Girls take time to tame,” he says, turning back to Cain. “I imagine mine would take a lifetime. But I did not come here to argue with my pup. I came here to offer you a new life.”
“What do you mean?” Cain is on guard, as am I.
“You’ve killed your brother. The law is hunting you. The pack is hunting you. For now you are several steps ahead, but we both know it will not stay that way. You need a proper out. A true exit. As my pup’s mate, I wanted to extend the invitation for you both to come to Russia and live with my pack. There is no extradition treaty. We will leave at once.”
Ivan lays out his plan in clipped tones.
I watch Cain struggle with the decision, but I also know this isn’t really a decision. This is another one of those fated points in time where choice is just an illusion. We can keep running. We can use his money to travel to far-off places, but we will always be watching our backs because wolves hunt in packs, and we can easily be picked off. We need protection. We need the White Wolf—and lo-and-behold, just as we hit our point of greatest desperation, he has arrived to strike the final blow in fate’s little plan for us.
“Thank you,” Cain says. “That’s a very generous offer. We accept.”
I narrow my eyes. “We?”
I let the question hang in the air. I never thought I had daddy issues, but now I’m starting to think that’s just because I didn’t have time to indulge them. Now that my father is in the same room as me, I am feeling the very teen urge to yell at him and tell him what a fucking awful person he is. It wouldn’t go well, obviously, but I want to anyway.
“Good, then it is settled. Come.”
Ivan really expects us to just drop everything and go. I suppose we don’t really have anything to actually drop, but still.
“Respect your father,” Cain lectures me under his breath as we follow Ivan to the trap he obviously laid out for us a long time ago… I mean, the car he has waiting outside to take us to safety from the consequences of our actions.
“I don’t, and I won’t.”
“Then you’re going to be spanked like a spoiled little girl,” he warns me. “Ivan is all that stands between us and international law enforcement. I know he wasn’t a present father, but you have to keep a civil tongue in your head.”
“No. I don’t.”
I am being bratty, because I know there’s no option. There’s never been an option.