Page 20 of The Goblin in the Sink Drain
I wasn’t falling for his revisionist history. He wasn’t getting in my head that easy. I knew the truth.
I had begged to go. I had been suffocating here. Then the house fell into my lap like an answered prayer. I’d papered the walls with posters of faraway places I wanted to visit after I moved out. I had considered relocating to the East Coast to attend college too. But I flushed those dreams down the toilet the second a deed was put in my hands. I hadn’t questioned that the house just so happened to be in the next town over, in neutral territory, where I could live and work without igniting messy conflict with our neighbors.
Before I lost my nerve, I lifted my chin to meet his feral gaze. “Are you my father?”
“How can you sit there—” bone popped in his hand as a paw took shape, “—and ask me that?”
Never had I pushed him, on anything, but I couldn’t let this go. “The Walshes believe I’m like them.”
“A dragon?” His voice distorted as his jaw elongated to grotesque proportions. “And you’re so desperate that you believe them?”
Hands on my lap, I debated sliding them into my pocket for my claws. That the thought had popped into my head told me how terrified I was of his slipping control over his beast. “Why are you so upset?”
Aside from the occasional flare up, Dad kept his temper leashed. Or at least he had around me.
The throb in my cheek was a reminder he was unstable, and if he shifted in this mood, he could kill me.
“You’re asking if you’re my daughter, and you want to know why I’m?—?”
A long howl poured from his throat as his sinew cracked and muscles twisted, his bones breaking and his dominant wolf clawing for freedom. Saliva strung his jaws, and his chest heaved as he sucked down air.
Running from a predator was never a good idea.
Neither was sitting politely across the desk from one while it finished shifting and lunged for my throat.
Slowly, lowering my head in a submissive pose, I stood and backed toward the door.
Alphas shifted faster than the average wolf, but without him using magic to boost his speed, I had precious minutes to escape the room that could quickly become my grave. Had Dad decided to make the change, it would be another story, but his fury had made the call for him, and his wolf would come out chomping.
Sure, the dad I knew would regret tearing me limb from limb after he regained control. This version of him? I wasn’t as sure, and I wasn’t going to wait around to find out.
One hand behind my back, I fumbled for the doorknob, twisting it hard and exiting fast before slamming it shut again. The wooden barrier wouldn’t do much to protect me from him, but it was something.
“Where do you think you’re going?” The sentinel to the left of the door gripped my arm and twisted it parallel with my spine.“We have orders not to let you leave that room until the alpha says otherwise.”
“Too bad.” I stomped his instep, using his surprise I would fight back to break free. “I’m out of here.”
The thing about being a latent was everyone underestimated me. Packmates bought into the fiction I was basically human, and I encouraged that, but I was on equal footing with almost any shifter in their human form. I had the same senses, reflexes, and strength unless they involved their animal.
“Ana.” Zoe lifted her hands in a beseeching gesture as she stepped away from her post on the right side. “You’re only going to make things worse for yourself and for Sloane.”
“Dad has lost control of his wolf,” I warned her, already fleeing down the hall.
An indrawn breath conveyed her shock, and the scent of her fear stained the air.
Sloane. I had to find Sloane. Before Mercer took a bite out of her.
Wood exploded behind me as the office door shattered, and I picked up speed.
One of two things happened when an alpha lost control.
The pack subdued them. Or the pack joined them.
And Sartoris? They were joiners.
seven
Screams rose from behind me,filling me with dread, and I veered toward the kitchen. There was a large door leading into a rear parking lot where deliveries were left, and I aimed for it as footsteps thundered down the hall. I couldn’t afford to waste time on being sneaky, so I ran straight past Nina, Dad’s cook, at the stove and out the door.
