The Darkest Wolves - A.K. Koonce Page 0,3

my surprise a bit too late when I close my gaping mouth and cross my arms.

Only then does his attention slip to the outline of my perfection.

My features steel, and I try to get to the point of his conversation before Nyra comes to get me for the Mating Moon.

“And?” I ask harshly.

What does he want? Is he here to see the Goddess’s work firsthand? The laziest gift that any shifter has ever been given?

What?

“I just…” He shrugs just lightly then before meeting my eyes with that same look of cold carelessness. “I guess I just expected a more impressive woman. I don’t know.”

My jaw drops so fast it high fives the floor, and they both celebrate the first real shock I think I’ve ever experienced in my entire life.

“Excuse the fuck out of me?” My hands hit my hips so hard it hurts, but the outraged sting to my ego hurts more.

Expected a more impressive woman?

Of all the times people sweetly called me pretty, I never thought I’d be demanding it from someone.

And yet, I almost am.

I almost want him to acknowledge all the ways I know I’m beautiful.

Just tell me I’m fucking pretty!

“You don’t think I’m attractive?” I hold back my irrational anger by barely a thread of dwindling politeness.

He takes a good minute to reassess me with a slow rake of his infuriatingly dead eyes.

I cannot believe I thought his piss green gaze was beautiful.

“I’ve seen better,” he finally spits.

My palm snaps across his mouth like he just threatened me.

He basically did!

He threatened my humbleness.

I’m humble, Goddess dammit!

A sharp smile twists his lips, and his thumb drags across his mouth to wipe away the pain I know I just left him with. Still he sneers at me as if I just complimented him rather than attacked him.

“I have an offer to make you, beautiful,” he whispers with a dragging drawl of his low tone.

It’s mocking now. That pet name is a mocking insult, and I want to clock my fist against perfect teeth for ever saying a word to me.

He’s the rudest fur fucker I’ve ever had to meet.

My teeth are clenched shut so tightly that I can’t even respond to him. A high arch of my eyebrow is as much as I can do.

“You’re interested,” he says casually, and as he leans in, placing his big hand against the window sill between us, my attention slips down the hard lines of his chest. Lean narrow muscle tone gives him a lithe appearance that says he’s quick.

But something in the back of my mind tells me I could take him if I had to. The skills I’ve learned from my father have never been wasted.

I’ll never waste his legacy.

And I know if I keep talking to this asshole shifter, we’ll end up putting those skills to use.

“Come take a walk with me.” There’s a flawless charisma to his words.

It’s like he doesn’t recall being a total dick just three minutes ago. He’s completely forgotten it. Dicknesia has taken over his mind. It thrusted right in, and now he’s just a sweet-talking pussy charmer.

As if my pussy could be so naïve.

A heartbeat pulses between my thighs like a reply, and I hate her betrayal in this moment.

I’ve never despised a man so fast.

A smile pulls at my lips as I adjust my arms firmer over my chest. When I tilt in close, he leans in too. There’s a new glint in his eyes. A sexy, knowing look.

Fuck that look too. As a matter of fact, fuck all of his personalities. None of them are worth a second of my time.

Yet, still he’s shifting close to me at the simple thought of me possibly giving in to him. My lips graze his ear. My exhale fans out along his neck just as I finally reply.

“No,” I whisper seductively.

My fingers grip the window, and without warning, I slam it down firmly in place between us. Unfortunately, he’s quick enough to jerk his fingers away before any damage can be done.

Dammit.

His pretty eyes twitch villainously.

I can’t explain why I don’t make my epic sauntering walk away from him. I can’t. I’m frozen in place beneath the weight of his now urgent features. He seems torn between begging and screaming for me to listen to him. It’s a magnetic feeling between us to see him caught in the emotions I’ve felt all day.

His head shakes slowly, and it seems methodical the way he pushes his hands down his thighs, takes a deep