Head Hunter (City Shifters the Pack #3) - Layla Nash Page 0,28

reluctantly, like he hadn’t ever said them out-loud before. “They sound like it.”

“They were.” It sounded grim, more a curse than a grandson’s appreciation. Dodge took another deep breath and though his gaze remained on me, his attention drifted. “My father was their only son, their heir. Their golden boy. They sent him to all the right schools, lined him up with the right job, the right country club, put all the richest bitches in front of him... And he had the terrible fucking judgment to fall in love with my mother.”

Bitterness twisted his voice and my heart jumped to my throat. But I couldn’t find words. I didn’t want him to stop talking.

Dodge frowned and absently tugged at the front of my pajama pants, where the drawstring had knotted and tangled. He toyed with it, apparently unaware that I held my breath and fought not to wriggle and squirm at the teasing, glancing touches. “My mother had the audacity to be trailer trash. The absolute worst pedigree they could have imagined. She was worse than the help.”

He threw the words out in some East Coast, upper crust accent, but his grip tightened on my knee and he yanked on the drawstring. When I tensed, he abruptly shook his head, growling. “Sorry. Sorry. I won’t hurt you.”

“I know,” I said quietly. I meant it. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. He’d been careful with me, at least physically, even if some of his words were sharp as fucking daggers. I rested my palms on his chest, wanting to smooth away some of those edges for him.

Dodge’s gaze drifted back up to my face, like he remembered who I was for the first time, and his eyes turned even more golden in the dim light. Half of his mouth dragged up, though the expression didn’t last long. “They didn’t even know she was a shifter. That would have pushed them over the fucking edge.”

“A shifter,” I said. “Is that what – what you’re called?”

Again, his attention sharpened and his grip tensed and then all of him eased. He shifted into a gentler, almost teacher mode. “Yeah. Shapeshifter, shifter, wolf.”

“Not werewolf?” I braced for ridicule or laughter, more sharp words with a teasing but half-meant endearment on the end. I couldn’t decide if I liked when he called me ‘sweetheart’ and ‘babe,’ or if it was too annoying to tolerate.

His face softened in a smile. “No, not werewolves. Unless – is it a full moon?”

I tensed, staring at the wall as if I could see through the fucking drywall and brick to the sky outside. “I don’t – don’t know. Do you...”

As I prepared to launch myself off him and into my closet before he went insane with bloodlust, his smile broke free and he squeezed my thighs. “I’m kidding. There are some who lose control, but it’s got nothing to do with the moon.”

I whacked him lightly again, wanting to be furious at some fucked-up teasing, but the grin softened the hard edges of his expression and made him look younger. I pointed the “I mean business” finger at him. “I don’t like that.”

“That I’m not going to succumb to moon-madness and ravish you?”

The thought left my mouth dry and my thighs aching just a bit. When I didn’t immediately snap at him and instead considered the possibility, Dodge’s grin spread like wildfire and his hands slid all the way under my shirt. “Oh really.”

I smacked him again but couldn’t swallow a nervous laugh as I arched away from the delicious friction of his palms. “Stop it. That’s not – I don’t like when you make fun of me like that. I don’t know about this – this shit. If I ask a question, I mean it. I want – I deserve – a straight answer.”

He was still grinning as he laced his hands behind his head and just watched me. “Fine. No such thing as moon madness, not for shifters. Can’t speak for witches or fae, though, they’re not my people.”

I almost went light-headed. What the fuck? Were all the fairy tales true? “W-witches? Fae?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and I could tell he hadn’t meant to say it, that he’d somehow fucked up. Dodge tugged on the drawstring of my pajamas once more. “Do you want to hear the rest of my sob-story, or you want to quiz me on the supernatural encyclopedia?”

“There’s an encyclopedia?”

He laughed, a sudden guffaw that ran through his whole body and almost