me enough to grant me that.”
“I didn’t go while we were dating!” I blurt out. “What I did after we broke up is none of your concern!”
“Oh, but it is.” He sits down next to me and lays a hand on my thigh. Even though every cell in my body is screaming for me to recoil, I don’t want to antagonize him so I force myself to remain still. “I never agreed to break up. It wasn’t a mutual decision. Which is why you’re still mine. My mate.”
“Your mate?” I close my eyes and take a deep breath, wondering when exactly I entered the fucking Twilight Zone. “First of all, that’s not how breakups work. They don’t have to be mutual. If one person decides to end it, that’s it. Relationship is over. Secondly, what exactly is your kind? I assume you’re not a vampire.”
I shouldn’t have said it but sometimes my mouth runs away with me when I’m mad, and I’m spitting right now. Zeke rewards my snark by squeezing my thigh so hard, I yelp with pain. “Do I fucking look like a fucking vampire to you?” he snarls.
I take in his greasy, limp hair, his unshaven chin, his dirty fingernails, his torn jeans. Don’t do it. Don’t say it, Sabina. “No. You’re not nearly groomed or attractive enough.”
I hear the slap before I feel it. My ear is ringing, and a hot burn spreads over my left cheek. Still, I refuse to give Zeke the satisfaction of knowing he hurt me. I glare at him, lifting my chin in a show of defiance.
“One more comment like that, slut, and I’ll call my friends over here to take turns on you,” Zeke says in a low, furious voice. “Maybe I’ll get that leech of yours over here to watch.”
I’ve seen how fast Maximus can move. I know he can—and will—kill without hesitation. “Do it,” I challenge Zeke. “Call him over here. I guarantee you that not one of your slimy, shitty friends would survive the night.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Zeke retorts. “Leeches aren’t the only ones with special abilities.”
Once again, I wonder what the hell he’s talking about. “So what are yours? Aside from being an asshole?”
Grabbing my chin, he turns my face so I’m looking directly at him. It takes a moment for me to see it but when I do, a cold fear prickles over my skin. His pupils, instead of being round, are suddenly vertical slits in his green irises. Like a cat’s. What the fuck? “Nice contacts,” I say, trying to hide how freaked out I am, but then he blinks and his pupils grow round again. “What are you?”
“I’m a shifter. I can turn into a cheetah.”
At first, I’m not sure I heard him correctly. “A cheetah? Like the big cat?”
“Yes, like the big cat.” He rolls his eyes. “Many of us have settled here. Our packs include bears, wolves, even rarer animals like owls, gorillas—”
It’s all too much. The bubble of laughter rises up in my chest and bursts out of me before I can stop it. I cackle maniacally, and the look of angry disbelief on Zeke’s face only serves to make me laugh harder. It takes me several moments to get a grip on myself. “You’re seriously expecting me to believe that, as well as a nest of vampires, Tucson hosts several packs of shifters? What, is this the secret supernatural capital of the world? Do the tooth fairy and Santa live in Arizona as well?”
At that, Zeke lets out a primal, animal snarl which sounds just like the big cat he’s purporting to be. It’s fierce and inhuman, and my mirth dies instantly.
“You’re not kidding,” I whisper, fear once again gripping my gut. “It’s really true?”
“It’s nice to see you finally giving me the respect I deserve,” Zeke says coldly.
I realize my thighs are trembling and jam them together to hide how unnerved I am. “I have so many questions,” I say, trying to distract him.
“I’m not here to answer your questions,” he snaps. “You’re here to answer mine.”
“All right,” I say, defeated. If he can really shift into a fucking cheetah, he’s a lot more dangerous than I thought. Does Maximus know about this? Was this why he was so worried?
I want to kick myself for being so stubborn. For not telling him I was meeting Zeke. For not listening to his warnings. And I know what I have to do.
Looking up at Zeke as seductively as I