Serengeti Sunrise - By Vivi Andrews Page 0,2
hood above him.
It was that look. The one that made her breath come faster, her heartbeat picking up in a helpless response only this imbecile seemed to inspire. She took half a step forward.
Then his eyes dismissed her, locking back on the engine block. “I’m just here for the car.”
Zoe’s temper flared like a sparkler on the Fourth of July. Damn but she hated it when he ignored her. Almost as much as she hated it when he made her want him with a look.
She needed a reaction—any reaction—to prove she owned him as much as he owned her.
“Anyone ever tell you you’re a shitty mechanic?”
“Only you,” he grunted. “Repeatedly.”
“Well, it bears repeating. Cars are supposed to run. FYI.”
Tyler growled without looking up from the engine. “This car wasn’t supposed to be taken off the ranch until I replaced the radiator. That’s why the keys were in my office and not hanging on the board with the others.”
Zoe shrugged, unrepentant. “Landon padlocked the board. You didn’t lock your office.”
“A mistake I won’t be repeating.”
“A smart man would leave a set of keys out so I wouldn’t have to break into his office to get them. Or try to teach myself how to hotwire a car on one of his precious jeeps.”
“A smart woman would listen to her damn Alpha and stay the hell on the ranch like everyone else until things calm down in town.”
Zoe smiled sweetly. “Then I guess neither of us has much in the way of intelligence.”
He twisted, his eyes locking on her again. There was a subtle threat in that look, filled with his need to dominate her. Her heart rate accelerated.
“There’s a reason none of us are supposed to leave the ranch right now, Zoe. It isn’t just your own life you’re risking with your recklessness.” The muscles in his neck were corded with anger—which, perversely, just made her want to lick them.
Which, even more perversely, made her want to punch him. The constant compulsion to push him until he pushed back couldn’t be healthy, but she needed to break through his reserve and feel the reckless heat beneath that calm, controlled surface like she needed to keep breathing. It wasn’t even conscious anymore—fighting with him, goading him. It had passed habit and become reflex.
“It wasn’t my recklessness that got us into this position in the first place,” she countered. “I believe that was your baby brother and his floor show at the Bar Nothing.”
A muscle jumped in his jaw as his gaze retreated back to the engine. “Michael’s apologized for that.”
“Aw, that’s sweet. But maybe Michael shouldn’t have gone into a bar and half-shifted in front of two dozen humans in the first place.”
The muscles in his shoulders tensed, and Zoe felt a dim flicker of guilt. Tyler’s family was his only weak spot—a weak spot she’d been poking at ever since she discovered it. Never let it be said that Zoe King didn’t fight dirty.
She wasn’t even really annoyed with Michael. Yes, he’d fucked up by showing too much of his animal side in a human bar, but it hadn’t been on purpose and as yet the world hadn’t come crashing down around their ears.
In fact, not a damn thing had happened.
It had been over a month. A month of battening down the hatches and bracing for the worst. A month of waiting to see if the humans had seen enough to call in the media and the scientists—the media to turn them into a freak show and the scientists to turn them into lab rats.
Humans didn’t tend to react well to things that were different and a bunch of men, women and children who could shapeshift into giant predators at will definitely fell into the different category.
Zoe was inclined to give their homo sapiens cousins the benefit of the doubt—there hadn’t been a witch burning in centuries—but she was in the minority at the pride. The fear of what might be done to them if their secret was exposed, as well as the tradition of zealous secrecy, had kept the scattered shifter prides and packs all over the world from revealing themselves to the humans long ago.
When Michael inadvertently let the cat out of the bag—so to speak—Zoe had momentarily thought Landon, her forward-thinking brother, would take the opportunity to come out to the humans. Instead, he’d called in all their nomads and strays, commanded everyone to stay on the ranch indefinitely, and held his breath, waiting for the humans to lay