Page 50 of The Mating Need
“I have good reason, Mr. Mitchell. I only wish to protect your livestock and your livelihood while protecting the environment. Is that not enough? Surely a balance can befound.”
Jenny’s gaze snapped back and forth between the two. Aiden fairly bristled with hostility, though the professor still smiled, as if they indulged in social pleasantries. As if he were a calm and reasonable man making a reasonable request that any reasonable businessperson wouldgrant.
But she had seen the evil beneath the man’s smile and knew it was afarce.
He didn’t come onto the ranch to ask permission to camp. He wanted to assess the alpha and hispowers.
Judging from the sly skull grin beneath the man’s skin, Perry found Aiden’s weakness. He wasn’t immune toreason.
And that could be the alpha’s downfall, because she suddenly knew Perry would find any way possible to nudge his way into the heart of the Lupine pack. Once he gained access, he would mow them all down as efficiently as she’d seen Troy cut the grass with the big bush hog machine in the utilitiesbarn.
Aiden frowned, and she could see him wrestling with a decision. She had to convince him, without being obvious, to get rid of thisSkin.
Now, before Perry had the chance to look around and see exactly where he could infiltrate. Every bone in her body cried out for this threat to begone.
Feeling the heat of the professor’s gaze, she forced herself to look up. Jenny’s fingers tingled with the itch to release the powers humming beneath herskin.
“Balance is good. When there’s trust established. Does Professor Carson trust you? And if he does, why didn’t he accompany you to this meeting? Why not ask him to introduceyou?”
Her words made Aiden’s gaze sharpen and Dalesmile.
Perry’s smile vanished. If the man had fangs, he’d barethem.
“I don’t know what business it is of yours, littlelady.”
She’d been insulted before by experts. Perry wasn’t even close. But Troy stiffened. She put a calming hand on his arm as he went to stand. Probably he wanted to punch Perry straight in his condescendingnose.
“Oh, it’s my business. I like it here and I respect Mr. Mitchell. This is his ranch.” Jenny decided to go for the throat. She was a wolf, after all. “I heard a rumor you wish access to this ranch because you believe there are werewolves on thisland.”
None of the males with her blinked an eyelash, but she felt the ripple of energy shift to pure disbelief, saw it in theirauras.
If auras could speak, they’d all scream What TheHell?!!
Perry didn’t blink, either. He laughed. “Werewolves, Miss…ah.”
“Jenny.”
“You think I want to conduct a scientific investigation on the existence of werewolves?” Perry bent over, laughing. When he straightened, he wiped his eyes. “Pardon me, that has to be the funniest joke I’ve heard in months. I’m a scientist, Miss Jenny. Not a believer infantasy.”
“Professor Carson attended your lecture and said you were a believer in the supernatural. He said you wished to kill them,” Dale toldhim.
Perry’s thin mouth flattened. He leaned forward. “My colleague attended a lecture I hosted in part jest. It was to revive student interest in a lost topic – conservation. Had he remained for the second half of the lecture, he would have heard me tell the audience there are no such things as werewolves, but we must do all we can to save the real wolves from becomingextinct.”
Jenny felt the tension flee the air, but internally, she stiffened. Perry’s aura turned pure black. Even had she not seen his aura, she’d have known the man was lying by the way he averted hergaze.
He waved a hand. “Come to one of my lectures and find out for yourself. A little lady like you could learn a lot from me. An education is a good thing, even for agirl.”
It took everything she had not to stand up and punch that condescending smile off the man’s face. Jenny knew his type. He aimed to unsettle her, make her put up defenses by targeting hergender.
Mansplaining was not going to work. She’d been around experts. Perry was just another dirtbag.
“Really?” she askedhim.
Pasting a bright smile on her face, she fluttered her lashes. Sometimes her best defense was to play the part of a dumbgirl.
Because she didn’t want Perry thinking he had anything onher.
Troy, on the other hand, wasn’t about to put up with the man’s nonsense. He stood and went to Perry, gesturing at the frontdoor.
