a shifter?” he inquires, and I ignore him. “No? What about your job with the council?” I purse my lips, and he sighs. “Your pussy?”
Smirking, I glance at him. “Which one?”
He grins at me as I look back at the road. “Fine, ask me something.”
“Why do you hate the council so much?” I query, even though I’m curious about many things. Like why he left that night at the club, and why he came back and found me. Why didn’t he kill me when he found out I worked for them?
“Honestly? I didn’t used to, but now I see what they are doing to this world.”
“Which is?” I prompt, glancing over at him to see him staring out of the window.
“Not their job. They were put in place to protect our people, but instead, thousands are being killed by hunters and their own kind. People are lost, left behind, and taken, and they just sit back and get richer and more powerful. So I took their job into my hands and became the judge, jury, and fucking executioner.” He looks at me when he says that, and I almost drool. Fuck, why is the idea of this guy hunting and killing people so attractive?
Worse yet, why do I want to do it with him?
To fight by his side again, to see the blood covering his body, to feel the rush of the kill and then take it out on him.
His eyes narrow like he knows my thoughts, and his lips tip up, making me look away before I say something stupid. He gave me the truth, and for some reason, I feel obliged to give him one. “I’m not just a tiger shifter, but don’t ask any more on that.”
I feel his gaze burning into my face, so I quickly ask another question. “Why didn’t you try to kill me? Why did you stalk me instead?”
“I was curious,” he murmurs.
“What about?” I press softly.
“Why you were working for them. You seemed…different. I was right,” he answers like it’s that simple. Fuck, he’s so wrong. I’m not different. I’m nothing but a killer and I still take their money, even though I know they are in the wrong a lot of the time.
But fuck his judgement and expectations. I did what I had to in order to survive, and he doesn’t get to make me feel bad about that.
“And to answer your earlier questions, yes, my name is really Khalid. You’re the first person I have given that name to in many years.”
“Why?”
“Easier if no one knows who I am. I’m just a forgotten relic. Who I am is not important, but what I do is,” he replies cryptically.
“Many years? How old are you?” I glance over again as I take a turn. “I don’t know much about skinwalkers, there aren’t exactly any left…well, apart from you.”
“Because they killed us,” he snarls, and then I hear him trying to control his anger. “They thought we were too powerful and couldn’t be trusted. From the fucking snakes themselves,” he spits and sighs. “I’m old, older than you can ever imagine. I’m the first skinwalker.”
“Bullshit,” I retort, and then pull over when I realise he’s being serious. “You…you are the first skinwalker?”
He nods, looking me over with tight lips, while I just blink at him. “You are really fucking old then, grandpa.” I laugh, and he rolls his eyes.
“Such a brat,” he mutters.
“And you said brothers, right? So they have to be just as powerful and old?” I deduce, and he laughs.
“You’re fucking smart. Yes, they are just as old. We are all powerful, the first ever seven monsters born into this world…we started it all.” He frowns. “Why am I telling you all of this?”
“I don’t know, but I won’t stop you.” I grin. “Anything else you want to share?”
For a split second, something passes over his face before it blanks. “We are almost there, another hour, max.”
I let him keep his secret, even though I want to push. It’s not like I’m freely giving away mine. I don’t even know why we’re sharing in the first place. We could both be dead before sunrise, or I could betray him… Yet I feel weirdly comfortable and turned on at the same time by this skinwalker. And him telling me his real name and no one else? Yeah, my heart fucking skips a beat at that, the cold melting for a moment.
I get back on the road, and about ten minutes later, he