chipped gray paint covering the wood. Ted is under the impression he has me where he wants me. He fails to see I’m the one in control.
“You’re the so-called ‘sweet’ one,” Ted begins. “The innocent one of the Weird girls.”
The insult draws my attention back to him. “Our last name is Wird,” I correct. “And we’re not a fan of that nickname.”
Ted continues as if I never spoke. “I know better. Every hetero with a dick does. You fucked that vampire and fucked him good, no?”
His Creole accent was cute at first. Nothing of that cuteness remains. Heat builds along my cheeks, erasing the chills that the dark presence stirred.
My teeth clench hard. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I also hear you’re sad and lonely, desperate since your boyfriend was killed. You remember him, don’t you? The same were who preferred a disfigured freak over you—”
I whip around, no longer feeling polite. “Don’t you dare speak of Liam and his mate that way, and don’t presume to know me.”
“Relax, sugar tits. They can’t hear me. They’re dead, remember?”
I slap him across the face. It hurts. Oh, it hurts. I avoid shaking out the burn in my hand. The strike worked against me. He barely felt it. But he knows I felt his words.
Humiliation crawls across my face. Being were, he can sniff my pain and embarrassment. He laughs, bent on casting another blow. “Your brother-in-law is the Alpha Aric Connor, right chérie?”
The throbbing pain stiffening my fingers tightens my response. “Yes.”
Aric is a revered pureblood and the strongest of his kind. His reputation alone cautions supernaturals against offending me. Ted, being new to Tahoe and naïve to Aric’s power, doesn’t understand he’s about to cross a very dangerous line.
He bends to meet my face, his lascivious grin cutting lines into his narrow face.
“Just because you’re related to the alpha by marriage doesn’t make you anything special. If you want the truth, it’s your sister Taran I wanted. She’s as hot as the fire she casts with her magic. If she wasn’t mated to the second in command, I would have fucked her harder than you did that vamp.” He pushes off the door. “Now, run away, little girl. Keep living your lonely and pathetic life. Maybe next time, you’ll appreciate the piddly scraps thrown your way.”
Angry tears threaten to fall and sizzle across my burning face. His tirade struck almost every insecurity I possess.
Some beings make an art of out of inflicting pain. Ted should run a master class.
I square my shoulders. “It’s one thing to not take rejection well,” I say. “It’s another to be cruel to spare your ego.”
Ted shrugs. “Not cruel, chérie. Honest.” He straightens to his full height to look further down his long nose at me. “You’re lucky,” he says. “I don’t usually waste my time with weaklings like you.”
I blink back the tears I’m tired of shedding. “No, you’re lucky I don’t throw you out the window.”
This really makes him laugh.
He stops laughing when I do, in fact, throw him out the window.
My force, the cool name my bubbly sister nicknamed my telekinetic power, funnels from my core and propels Ted and his might-mighty ego across the room. What remains of the boarded window explodes into shards of glass and splintering wood.
Ted lands with a thud, and plenty of swearing, three stories below with leftover window bits raining down on him.
I turn the knob and step into the open stairwell of Ted’s apartment building, pausing when a warning pokes at me and reminds me I’m not alone.
The door shuts behind me with a creak. I look down the hall. To my right, only quiet awaits, the only signs of life from the reflection of a T.V. against a window. My way out is a different story.
A were, bear I believe, rests his back against a wall, speaking to what might be a cougar. I’m not like my sister Celia, whose inner tigress can scent a predator, or like Taran, who can distinguish supernaturals by the magic that surrounds them. I’m not even like Shayna. Since her mate’s werewolf essence began residing inside her, she’s learned to differentiate weres by instinct.
I do well enough, reaching out with my gift to discern the inner beasts lurking within them. The density of their musculature and the way they move and command their stances are very telling. Each characteristic mimics their animal counterparts. I’ve met many weres across the globe and have studied their traits closely. I’m