and for the first time had almost learned to tolerate each other. It would be very awkward once whatever this attraction was between us ran its course. I would not give in to those instincts.
No matter how tempting.
She shook her head. “How about the fact I’m not an overconfident fuck-boy that’s used to being the most powerful person in a room and never fears anything.” Insults didn’t generally bother me, but for some reason I wanted to correct her on the fuck-boy thing. I had never made it a sport to jump between multiple partners as most supes did.
Her finger jabbed close to my chest. “Or, maybe, it’s that in my short life I’ve been sold and bartered between powerful men and know exactly how they think. They never let go once they get what they want. Never. We’re just squirming deeper into his trap, and you’re too arrogant to even see it.”
For a split-second, flames blazed across my skin, larger than before, lighting up the hall in an impressive display of elemental power. The humans turned to figure out what had caused the burst of heat; a few highly trained ones had guns in their hands, anticipating an attack. With their slower human reflexes, though, I’d already contained myself by the time they faced me, and there was no evidence remaining of my loss of control.
Glares were leveled on us though, and with a rumble rocking my chest, I stepped in front of Justice.
“Turn the fuck around. Now,” I said to the humans, my voice low. This was their only warning, and thankfully they all listened.
I couldn’t scent emotions like my brothers, especially Braxton, but I felt their fear. We’d lived and walked amongst them for a month, and still we were feared.
Something I was more than okay with. Fear was not respect, but in this situation, it was close enough.
2
Justice Winter
I rarely recalled seeing Jacob Compass lose his shit. He was always so contained. To the point where I felt inadequate around him, and to make myself feel better about that, I played a game where I forced deeper emotion into every one of his minute expression changes. If it was a drinking game, I’d be stone cold sober—dude was an iceman, portraying nothing but a calm capability to the world.
Around his pack he was the jokester, and while I liked seeing that side of him, it always rang as a bit of a front. What he was hiding, though, I hadn’t had a chance to discover. All he gave me were these brief moments; moments of fire; moments of shadow; moments of passion. Not enough for a full picture, just enough to intrigue me.
So when flames had just raged across his perfect features, it took me by surprise. I’d hidden that under an act of annoyance, because I didn’t want him to know how he made me feel. All the long nights talking, having each other’s back, being here together, it was morphing our relationship.
He stirred things inside of me that I didn’t want to examine. Like the way he’d stepped in front, shielding me from the guards around us. He was protective, almost instinctively, and I honestly didn’t know what to think of it.
No one had ever protected me, and over the years I’d learned to rely on me, myself, and I. Jacob messed with the status quo, and sometimes that made me hate him a little.
“What was that fire about?” I asked, forcing myself to remain calm.
His eyes were restless, a window to the wild inside. The green was a field of grass, except those times when it darkened to a moss. That color meant shit was about to get real.
Yeah, I had spent far too long trying to work out what was going on inside of Jacob Compass.
“Bartered?” he finally bit out. No matter how gruff he was, the musical nature of his tone was unique and distinct. “You were bartered by men?”
It took a second for me to realize what part of my previous sentence bothered him. The part that bothered me too. As my chest grew tight, I drew on my false bravado and devil-may-care attitude.
“Yep, more than once. You recall where Mischa found me, right?” He gave a stiff nod. “Well, that wasn’t the first time I’d been caged.” I shrugged, when really what I wanted to do was bleach my brain and dissolve those memories. If only there was such an option.