Head Hunter (City Shifters the Pack #3) - Layla Nash Page 0,112

tonight, asshole. You are going to behave yourself. You are going to restrain yourself at all times. You’re not going to freak out. If I get a fucking whiff of you starting to lose control, you’re getting an ass full of tranquilizers and chains in the cellar again, you hear me?”

Dodge scowled at him. “Who the fuck are we having over for dinner, the queen of England? I’m not going to lose control, all right? I’m fine. I’ll just eat and...”

The front door opened and closed, and the air changed. His senses, dulled by the alcohol, immediately sharpened. He knew. He knew who their guest was. He sucked in a breath, mouth open to catch any of her scent that he could, and lurched forward a step out of sheer instinct.

Evershaw grabbed his shoulders and marched him back, pinning Dodge against the wall, his forearm making a bar across his throat. The alpha growled low in warning. “Like I said, dude, control yourself. She is still fragile. She’s freaked out about something. She needs you to be calm. Do you hear me? She wants to talk to you, but you have to keep your shit together. Do you understand?”

“I hear you,” Dodge snapped, staring at the door to the living room over Evershaw’s shoulder. Persephone was there, in the living room. She was in the house with him. She was close enough to touch, finally. He wanted to barrel through the wall to reach her, to hold her hand, to smell her hair. The wolf howled, clawing to get closer to their mate. It was the worst kind of torture, to have her so close and still be so far away.

Evershaw slammed him against the wall again, and his golden eyes flashed with warning. “You’re not listening, dude. I know what your wolf is trying to pull. If you lose control again, that’s it. I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do with you, but you can’t be around Percy if you’re losing control. She’s human, man. She’s still weak. She’s afraid.”

The noise in his head quieted as the wolf retreated and the alpha’s warning finally reached him. Persephone was afraid? Of him? “Afraid,” he repeated, so low that Evershaw leaned closer to hear.

“Yeah. She’s afraid. The last memory of you she has is that fucking catastrophe in the hospital.” The alpha took a deep breath and eased his hold on Dodge’s shoulders. “I’m not kidding about the tranquilizers, you hear me? You get one paw out of line and that’s game over.”

Dodge nodded, his whole body aching with the need to see her. He practically vibrated with the urge to be closer to her. He thought he heard her voice through the door, asking Deirdre something. She sounded nervous. Why would Persephone be nervous? He shrugged and rolled his shoulders, trying to loosen the tension in his neck, and nodded. “I got it. I’m fine. We’re just going to talk.”

Evershaw’s eyes narrowed but he stepped back. Dodge lurched toward the door in three quick steps but a sharp pain shot up his calf and stopped him short. He looked down to find Silas biting his leg, growling in warning, and Evershaw ready with a syringe full of something. Dodge struggled to breathe and held his hands up. “I’m fine. I’m good. I just – got excited. I’ve got it now.”

Neither of them believed him, it was easy to see. Silas released his leg and made a wolfish disgusted face. He followed closely on Dodge’s heels as he finally opened the door to the living room.

Even with the tension of having Deirdre and Evershaw right there, and Silas at his heels, Dodge’s heart soared the moment he saw Persephone. It took every ounce of strength he possessed not to scoop her up in his arms and carry her back to his den, but he clenched his fists behind him and managed not to fall at her feet. “Hi. It’s – good to see you.”

Deirdre’s dark eyebrow arched and Dodge sensed a sharp joke in his future about terrible opening lines.

But he couldn’t care what the witch thought as he stood there and drank in Persephone. She didn’t look healthy, which made his chest ache. She’d lost weight and was pale, with the shadow of a bruise still near her collarbone, and a few pink scars on her arms and the line of her jaw. It infuriated him to the point of madness that the bastards had marked her,