Page 8 of New Nebraska Home

“You’re not welcome here. You should pack your bags like the rest of the humans. You and that genetic mistake don’t belong here.”

I gritted my teeth but kept my mouth shut. Just five more minutes.

“Move,” I demanded when she stopped in front of my cart, gripping it on both sides, making it impossible for me to continue through the store.

“I don’t think I will. I think you need to move. You and that thing that’s with you.”

“Look, you need to stop. Just let us get our groceries and we’ll be gone.”

“I don’t think so. The only humans allowed here are the ones that are useful, like the cheap blood whores for the vampires. Is that what you are, some feed bag for the vamp you have at home? I bet you even help that elemental by sucking his—”

“Enough,” I yelled. “Just go away.”

She was clearly trying to rile me up, but I couldn’t for the life of me imagine what she hoped to accomplish.

“No, you go away.”

“Fine.” I lifted my hands in surrender, then laced my fingers with Leif’s and turned to walk out of the store, abandoning the cart in the middle of the aisle with Karen.

“That’s right, little human slut, walk away,” she called. “Hey kid, how does it feel knowing your entire existence is a mistake? That every member of this community would prefer to see you dead?”

That was the moment my patience, my sanity, and my common sense fucking snapped in half. It was one thing to talk down to me. It was another thing entirely to address a seven-year-old boy with such vitriol in your words.

I turned sharply, and even though Leif was trying to keep pulling me away, I would not have it.

“Excuse me?” I said to Karen, snarling as if I were the one who was part dog.

“You heard me.”

“You are a grown-ass woman talking shit to a child. What the fuck kind of person does that? I think we both know which of you is the mistake, who the community would be better off if they were dead, and it isn’t the innocent child.”

Normally, my grandmamma would be in heaven looking down at me, livid at hearing such hateful words coming from my mouth. But I think, in this case, she was gazing with pride. No one talked to my family like that.

Karen smiled at me. The psychotic witch was smiling at me like she had won something.

She leaned forward to whisper, “I was hoping you’d say that.”

“Did that sound like a threat to you?” A deep, gravely masculine voice said behind me.

She had baited me into a fucking trap, and I had let her. I was wrong. Grandma was rolling her eyes.

“Turn around, girl, you need to be taught a lesson,” a second voice said. “You threatened the wrong pack.”

I turned around to see six men, all wearing sunglasses inside, like douchebags, and all had matching leather vests with some kind of insignia on it.

“I didn’t threaten your pack,” I said, not able to keep my voice from shaking. Leif was still next to me and I tried to angle us so we could back away from Karen and these men, who were looking at me like I was lunch.

Leif took my phone from my pocket and tapped at the screen a few times, making a call. I didn’t know who he was calling, but I hoped it was Cal or maybe Brock.

“You threatened a member of my pack, which means you threatened my pack. We don’t take kindly to threats. Do we, boys?” the leader, or at least the twenty-something large man at the front of the group, called behind him to the others.

Some said “no,” but most just laughed and shook their heads.

“She started it, she—” I tried to reason, but it didn’t matter. I heard someone’s voicemail pick up the call and realized that Leif and I were on our own.

I was pretty sure we were about fifteen steps from the door, then maybe another twenty before I was in my car. The odds weren’t good, but they were what I had. Maybe I could just get Leif in the car and safe until help arrived?

I leaned down and scooped him up, then started running. The men behind me started whooping and hollering before chasing after me. I got outside, but there were more waiting. Another four stood between me and my car. The ones from the store came back and had us completely surrounded.

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