Chapter 53

"You do?" Killian arched a brow as he had never anticipated such an answer from her.

"Yes, I do. You gave me a place to stay even though you heard the rumours flying around me," said Inez. She patted Ruth, who was clinging to her. "I am not a fool; I can see who is being genuinely kind to me and who is not."

"And yet you do not trust me enough to tell me why and how Dominic treated you?"

An emotion flickered across her face, but it was gone too quickly for Killian to identify what it was.

"Will you tell me why you hide your real substance? You have so much anger and blame packed in thick ice that it s terrifying, and yet you present yourself as a slick charmer who is nothing but an open book. You have so much potential, and yet you are wasting it away. Why?" She shot back. As she had expected, he closed down. Her laugh was empty of humour. "See? Unless you are willing to share your secrets, don t try to poke your nose into mine."

Perversely, Killian had to admit that her defiance amused him just as much as it did his beast. Inez Sinclair might be broken, but she still had some fight left in her. And Killian respected that, even if it made him annoyed that she was not giving him the answers that he wanted.

"Very well. Don t think about running," Killian said to her. "Even if you try to run away, I assure you, my enforcer and I will track you down in a matter of seconds." After all, her scent seemed to be designated to fucking tantalise him and his beast.

Inez rolled her eyes at him. "Let me assure you that if at any point I wanted to leave, then I would walk right in front of your eyes."

"Like you did to Dominic?" Killian arched his brow.

Inez smiled at him with a hint of ferocity. "Believe it or not. I did tell him that I was walking out; he was the one who never believed me."

Killian s lips curled up. "I should have known." With that, he spun on his heel and strode away, taking Ruth with him.

Once he was gone, Inez exhaled a shaky breath. Being so close to Killian was really hard. It was nearly impossible for her to keep her composure when all he was doing was existing, and yet somehow he pulled all kinds of sexual reactions from her body, which alarmed her.

And what was up with Dominic? When she was right in front of him, that man wanted nothing more than for her to die. That too, a death that was simply inhuman. Now that she was out of his hair, why was he looking for her? Was he really trying to corner her?

Inez felt she could no longer understand Dominic. She had once prided herself on knowing that man better than anyone, but then again, her belief came crumbling when that man had her kneel in front of the entire pack years ago.

The next morning, Inez kept her head held high as she walked into the main lodge. She wanted to stay in her own lodge, but Inez didn t want the rest of the shifters to think that she was scared of them. Sending out such a message would only cause trouble for her.

She wasn t going to have them thinking she was spineless. Shifters pounced at the smallest sight of weakness.

In the open kitchen, Edira was working while the rest of the pack was seated around the large dining table. When Ajax saw her coming, he raised his hand and waved at her. "Hi, there, beautiful. Had a good night?"

"I did," Inez nodded as she peered around the table. She could sense that the feelings of the pack hadn t changed one bit towards her. The only one who was slightly different was Laxus. Maybe it had something to do with Selene looking better than yesterday. noveldrama

The woman sensed her looking at her and smiled at her. "Good morning, Inez."

Inez nodded at the young woman. "Good morning, Sel."

"It seemed like last night s session worked," remarked Finn as he picked up the glass of juice sitting next to him and took a sip from it. "You seem like you are doing well, Sel."

"You can say that," Selene replied with a soft smile. She reached out and picked up some soft-boiled eggs and placed them on her plate.

Inez didn t know why, but everyone, including Edira, looked at Selene with shock when she picked up something to eat. It was as if she had not just picked up an egg but saved someone from a burning fire.

"Well, it seems like you are at least good at something," Edira remarked as she plonked a tray of freshly grilled bacon on the table. However, the glare that she sent her way was enough for Inez to know that the woman was far from opening up to her.

"Not everyone comes to this world to just become a burden, Madam Edira."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"I am figuring it out myself."

Huffing, Edira sat down on the chair as she watched Inez pick up the bacon, mashed potatoes and some avocado toast. She said to her, "I hope you are not getting too comfortable here. The day my Selene gets better, I will have my Kill kick you out."

"I will be waiting," Inez remarked, feeling slightly miffed. However, compared to the taunts that her mother shot her every now and then, Edira s sounded rather soothing.

Edira narrowed her eyes when she saw Inez treating her lightly. She scoffed and said, "I know you must be thinking that our pack will start treating you as Sel s saviour. But you are mistaken. We do not take the likes of you in our pack."

"Likes of me?" Inez raised her head and questioned. "What do you mean?"

"Why don t you see your pack web?" Another voice joined in as Inez turned to look at Ally. "You might find something amusing."

And Inez didn t doubt her for a second. As the woman was smiling at her as if she knew that Inez was in rather grand trouble.