Page 5 of Claimed

He stares with his penetrating stare for a moment.

“Why?” he finally asks.

I bite my lip.

“Need you to explain yourself,” he advises calmly.

More fat tears roll down my cheeks.

He leaves and I choke on a sob. I try to take some deep breaths, but my heart is racing so hard it feels like it’ll leap from my chest at any moment.

I jerk in fear when he returns, but he’s holding a bottle of water and a box of Kleenex. He squats in front of me and extends the box of Kleenex my way.

I pluck one and wipe my swollen, red eyes and blow my nose.

Staying in the squat, he hammers me with more questions.

“Who are you?”

I don’t answer.

“Why are you disguising your scent? Where did you get the potion?”

I say nothing. It won’t be long, and he’ll know my scent because the potion will wear off.

“Where’s your pack?”

I blow my nose again.

“Why’d you shoot one of us? You poisoned some of our pack members at the diner, right? You tried to get me to eat that pie so you could poison me too, didn’t you? Why didn’t you just put it in my coffee?”

I keep my mouth clamped shut instead of telling him the herb’s flavor is detectable in coffee if the drinker doesn’t add sugar in their coffee so I never take the chance.

He doesn’t turn mean. He doesn’t hurt me. He doesn’t get impatient. But that stare penetrates as he slowly paces, looking thoughtful. I watch, unable to stop myself from fixating on his naked upper body, at his defined muscles. At his tanned skin. At his unique scent, which now blankets me as well as surrounds me.

“You’re gonna have to talk. You’re going nowhere until you do,” he tells me.

I swallow and bury my face in my knees. He paces another moment, slowly, patiently. When he stops moving and stands in front of me, I look up at him. His nostrils flare just slightly, so I shrivel.

The masking potion is wearing off. I’ve been worried about this eventuality. Once my actual scent takes over, it’ll be in this village and in their noses, and the alphas won’t ever forget it, so I’ll fail at hiding from them. If I even make it out of here.

As his nostrils flare, he continues to demand answers.

Did I try to kill Tyson specifically or would any of them have satisfied me?

Are there others nearby? Are they wearing the masking potion?

What’s my goal? Where did I come from? Then his eyes flash silver briefly as he asks, “Is Lily your real name?”

I’m surprised he remembered the name on my diner name tag, but I still say nothing. He’s relentless in his questioning. His rephrasing. He just hammers me with the questions but never hurts me, never threatens me even though I do nothing but sit here, staring at him pathetically.

And while he does it, he looks into my eyes like he can see through me, like he’s reading me and soon he’ll know all my secrets. He looks me over like he sees how dirty my life has been.

“Drink that water if you’re thirsty.” He gestures to the water he puts on the floor beside me.

I’m very thirsty, but I’m not about to drink it. It would probably serve me right if he decided to poison me right back.

He leaves again.

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