Satisfied, Nick nodded. She grumbled something about paranoid dominant males as she slid into the passenger seat. Now that she was in the safety of the car, he shot the rebels a challenging stare, but they didn’t respond. So what the hell did they want? Shoving aside the issue for now, he hopped inside the car.

Noticing Derren in the side mirror making his way from the motor home to his SUV, Shaya asked, “Did he sleep there last night?”

Pulling out onto the road, Nick nodded. “I told him he could use the comfort of my home to get a good night’s rest if he promised to go back to California this morning.”

“You know he won’t go, don’t you?”

Nick sighed. “Derren does what Derren wants to do. He’s always been like that.”

“He doesn’t like me.” She cringed at how petulant she sounded.

“He can’t make that assessment—he doesn’t know you.”

“Neither do you.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, baby. I know that you love dancing, drink mainly cocktails, have more stilettos than is reasonable, you don’t like mushrooms or anchovies, and you enjoy listening to music and sketching clothes.”

Startled, words failed her. He’d always ignored her, sometimes even looked right through her, so how could he know anything? “But…but how? You asked Taryn?”

“I told you the first night I came here that I’d missed watching you. I might not have spoken to you whenever I went to Phoenix Pack territory, but I was always paying attention to every single thing you did.”

And that got to her, soothed her wolf’s damaged ego. He was supposed to be an ass so she could continue rejecting him.

“I know you thought I didn’t give a shit.” He briefly massaged her nape. “That’s my fault. Derren used to poke fun at me for how much and how hard I watched you.”

Shaya tried to hold back from asking, but the matter had been playing on her mind since Derren had mentioned it. “He said he owes you his life. Is that true?”

“He owes me nothing. Maybe when he finds his mate, he’ll finally stop following me around.” Derren deserved that kind of happiness, but Nick wasn’t sure if his friend would even recognize his mate while his loyalty was so completely and unnecessarily devoted to Nick.

Part of the reason that Derren was so grateful to him for being alive was that he had been completely determined to track down and kill the person responsible for him being locked up—it had been the only thing keeping Derren going while he was in juvie. Having heard his story, Nick had been able to understand why. That was why he had helped Derren track the bastard down—a bastard who was now very much dead. The problem was that it had made Derren feel even further indebted to Nick. Dumb a**hole.

She should leave it alone, Shaya knew. She should act disinterested. But as she was way too curious for that, she lasted only a few minutes before blurting out, “How did you save his life? In a pack war or something?”

Nick inhaled deeply, hesitating to speak. He really didn’t want to tell her about his past, but he was already keeping so much from her. Telling her at least some things would be fair. Plus, being tight-lipped would lessen his chances of her letting him in. “When we were in juvie—”

“You were in juvie?” Shaya practically squeaked.

“—a group of human guards cornered him and were torturing him with electrical rods and Taser guns while at the same time beating the shit out of him. It looked like they intended to rape him too before finishing him off. That kind of thing happened a lot. Many shifters die in juvie. I intervened and stopped Derren from being one of those very unlucky shifters.”

It took at least two minutes for her to recover from the surprise of his admission. It hadn’t just been what he’d said, it had also been the way he’d said it—emotionless, flat. But she knew better than to think that Nick was aloof about it all. She’d quickly come to understand that the more enraged Nick was, the more toneless his voice became. After giving him a few minutes to calm down, she finally asked, “How did you end up in juvie? What happened?” When he didn’t answer, she pressed him. “Nick?”

“We’re here.” He pulled up outside the salon, relieved to be able to escape the conversation.

Feeling like she’d been dismissed, both Shaya and her wolf bristled. If he wanted to be cagey, fine. Whatever. But, really, it wasn’t fine. Not simply because she was extremely intrigued, but because she wanted to know more about him. Wasn’t that her right?

Realizing she was again being weird, she cursed herself. She shouldn’t be sulking because he hadn’t confided in her. This should be what she wanted. Sharing stories would counteract her effort to keep a distance between them. Trying for nonchalant, she shrugged. “I shouldn’t have asked. Your past is your business.” Before she could open the door, a hand was curling around her throat and turning her head slightly. At the dominant move, her wolf backed down a little.

“I’m not disregarding you,” Nick told her in a low voice. “I just don’t want to scare you off. I don’t have pretty stories wrapped in red bows, Shay. I don’t have fun memories to exchange with you. I wish I did, but I don’t.” He drew circles on her throat with his thumb. “I meant it when I said you deserve better, but I also meant it when I said I wasn’t selfless enough to leave you alone. I can’t risk you running even faster than you already are.” As she nervously licked her bottom lip, a growl rumbled out of him. “Do you have any idea how much I want you? Any idea how much I want to know what’s like to be buried deep inside you?”

At that moment, Shaya had that deer-in-the-headlights feeling. His strong hand was around her throat, tension was riding his body, and his hungry gaze was trained on her mouth—feeding the need that was twisting her insides. It occurred to her just how vulnerable she was—how easily he could hurt her, and just how badly he could hurt her. But he never would, she was certain of that.

Before he lost control and kissed her, Nick released her throat and leaned back. “You need to go.”

Swallowing hard, she nodded. “Thanks for the ride. Bye, Bruce.” The dog merely looked at her blankly.

Once Shaya was inside the salon, Nick moved his gaze to the rearview mirror. Yep, the red Rolls-Royce was still a little distance behind Derren. The car had been following them for the past two minutes. Irritatingly, a white van was also following—the same white van that the human extremists used. Deeply suspecting that the Rolls-Royce was the Nazi’s car and that he had something to say, Nick drove away from the salon, not wanting him anywhere near Shaya. As he suspected, the Rolls-Royce followed him to the local park where Nick had yesterday taken Bruce. Similarly, so did the white van.

As Nick parked in the small, half-empty parking lot at the edge of the park, Derren’s SUV took the space on his left, and the Rolls-Royce took the space opposite Nick’s car. The van pulled up a few cars away from the Rolls-Royce. As Nick got a glimpse of the driver of the van, he noticed the familiar profile. Logan. F**ker.

Ignoring the two vehicles, Nick and Derren began walking along the narrow dirt path through the wooded area with Bruce at Nick’s side. A few minutes later, five wolf shifters came close enough to warrant a reaction—one of whom was the bald male shifter who had confronted Nick the day before. In response to the tension, Bruce growled at the strangers.

“I don’t think he likes me very much,” said an olive-skinned male with deep-brown eyes. If Nick hadn’t vaguely recognized him, he would have known it was the Nazi by the dominant alpha vibes emitting from him. “But that’s fine. Not many do.” He looked hard at Nick, attempting to stare him down, to intimidate him into lowering his gaze. Like that would ever happen. “You attacked four of my wolves yesterday.”

“They were irritating me,” said Nick dryly.

“That made me very unhappy.”

“As it’s your fault, you might want to take up that matter with yourself.”

He laughed. “My fault?”

“You ordered them to summon a wolf who is not only much more dominant than them, but an alpha. What did you expect would happen?”

The amusement fled from his expression and tone. “I expected you to be smart enough to speak to me.”

“I have no interest in you or your pack. But if it’s a brief conversation you want, we can have that now.”

“I suppose we should start by introducing ourselves. I’m Petrus Hadley.”

Nick could see that Hadley expected some sort of reaction, so he didn’t give him one. “Nick Axton.”

Hadley went into deep thought for a moment. “Nick Axton, Alpha of the Ryland Pack?”

“Previous Alpha of the Ryland Pack. I’m no longer Alpha or part of the pack.”

“You’ve joined another?”

“No.”

“A Pack Alpha’s turned lone wolf? I have to ask myself why an alpha as powerful as you would live without a pack. You’re too powerful for anyone to have forced you out, so you must have left of your own accord.” Hadley shook his head. “I don’t get it.”

“You don’t need to. It’s not your concern.”

Hadley stepped forward. “This is my turf. Therefore, any of your business—”

“Is mine and mine alone,” Nick firmly stated. His wolf growled his agreement.

A minute of complete silence passed. “There are only two things that make men do stupid things—women and greed. After spotting you with a redhead, I’m guessing that in your case, it’s a woman. I’m also guessing that while you’re here, you won’t involve yourself in pack business.” That was more of a pressing suggestion than a query.

“As I said, I’ve no interest in you and your pack.”

“Good. If things remain that way, you and I won’t have a problem. But if they don’t…What’s your redhead’s name, by the way?”

Son of a bitch. Nick stepped forward. “You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were threatening my mate. But I have to be mistaken, because if that was the case, I’d have to kill you—and I’m pretty sure you’d prefer to live.”

A smile spread across Hadley’s face. “She’s your mate? Well that explains everything. And now I feel so much better.” His expression turned grave as he continued. “That’s not all that I wanted to speak to you about. I’m sure you’ve heard the ‘drug lord’ rumor and how many of my wolves abruptly vanish.”

“Rumor? You’re saying it’s untrue?”

“Although you haven’t been in town long, you may have noticed that the human extremists here are somewhat eccentric. They started the drug lord rumor in an effort to blacken my reputation. It makes me the perfect suspect each time one of my wolves goes missing.”

Hearing the pain and anger in Hadley’s voice, Nick’s skepticism began to fizzle away. “You have nothing to do with their disappearances?”

“It took me some time to figure out what was happening. The humans running this thing are very smart and very careful.”

“Running what?”

“A game preserve.”

His wolf went still. “Game preserve?”

“From what I’ve learned, they kidnap shifters, dump them in the middle of nowhere, and then track them and chase them, running them down like they’re dogs.”

Derren studied Hadley through narrowed eyes. “What about the trio of packless wolves who hang around town, the rebels? If the rumors about you are untrue, why would they leave your pack?”

“Each of them lost close ones to these humans,” replied Hadley. “The longer I went without finding the people responsible, the more the rebels began to wonder if I truly had something to do with it, so they left. I have some of my wolves keeping watch over them. Out there all alone, they’re easy prey.”

“Why haven’t you shut the preserve down?” asked Nick.

“I haven’t yet found it. As I said, these humans are smart and careful. Imagine how much money they can make from charging prejudiced and hateful humans to hunt us like that? They’ll also be very much aware of how bad the repercussions would be if their little secret was discovered—not only would they have shifters on their ass, but their own kind. Currently extremists are making out like we’re the monsters. If that place is exposed, it would pretty much cancel out their argument.”

And exposing it would therefore be the answer to the prayer of every single shifter in the world. “I’ll contact some people I know, ask them to find out what they can about this preserve and see if they can locate it.”

“People you can trust to keep it quiet? I don’t want the humans being tipped off that we know. It would give them the time to pack up and run.”

“Yes, people I can trust. Keep me updated on what you know, and I’ll do the same.”

Hadley considered that for a minute, studying Nick and Derren intently. Then he nodded. “You should be careful. You may be powerful, but you’re easy prey without a pack, just like your friend here. If your mate is a shifter, she’ll be in similar danger. I’d feel uncomfortable leaving you unprotected, given that you’re on my territory.”

“Protection won’t be necessary.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you, heard just who and how many shifters you’re allied with—including shifters other than wolves, which is a rare thing. The last thing I need is something happening to you and then a horde of pissed-off shifters turns up here, holding me responsible to some degree for not protecting your ass. So if it’s all the same to you, I’ll be putting some people on you in any case.” Before Nick could respond, Hadley was walking away.