Chapter 8: The Bully's Hidden Scent

One wolf clamps his jaws around the vampire’s arm while another slams into his side, sending both of them tumbling through the dirt. The vampire snarls and throws one of them off with enough force to make him crash into a tree.

I take another step backward, but Momo keeps me rooted to the spot. She is watching the fight, but I can feel her attention shifting toward the woman. Something about her has Momo on edge.

I look across the clearing and find the woman standing behind the others. She hasn’t joined the fight. She is watching everything with a strange calmness, her eyes moving from the enforcers to Trojan before settling on me again.

Why the hell is she looking at me like that?

Then she smiles, almost amused, like this entire situation has gone exactly the way she expected. She takes a step backward and I realize what she’s doing. She’s leaving them. Her companions are fighting for their lives, and she’s simply walking away.

She runs, moving between the trees so quickly that I can’t follow her with my eyes. The two enforcers disappear after her, but the woman is already gaining distance.

“Don't let her get away!” Trojan roars inside my head, then he looks at me. “Go home.”

Momo turns and dashes through the trees as soon as she hears Trojan’s command, following the path back toward Trojan’s house. Branches scrape against my fur, but I don't care. My mind is still stuck on the woman and the way she looked at me before she ran.

She wasn't afraid. She looked like she saw something she didn’t expect, but there was no fear in her eyes. If anything, she looked almost pleased.

The mother. The words keep repeating inside my head.

I shift back as soon as we enter the house and grab the first towel I can find and wrap it around myself before heading upstairs.

My stomach growls halfway up the stairs.

“Great,” I mutter to myself. “And I have to breastfeed two strangers on an empty stomach.”

I push open the door to the bedroom I supposedly share with Trojan, expecting to find the wet nurse sitting beside the bassinet. Instead, I find Marcus standing beside the bed, looking down at the twins. But what irks me is the fact that his scent is masked. I would've smelled him when I arrived, but I didn't. I can't figure out why he's hiding the scent he loves so much.

He turns when he hears me and looks me up and down. His mouth curls into the same nasty smile I've known since we were teenagers.

“Nice outfit,” he says, his eyes lingering on the towel wrapped around me. “Did you lose your clothes while you were running through the forest?”

I close the door behind me and stare at him. “Where's the wet nurse?”

He shrugs. “How the hell should I know?”

“You're in the room with two babies and you don't know where the person responsible for taking care of them is?”

“I came to see my siblings. I didn't come to babysit the babysitter.”

I glance at the twins. They're both asleep, completely unaware of the tension in the room.

Marcus leans against the edge of the bed and folds his arms. “You know, for someone who claims she doesn't remember anything, you seem to have gotten very comfortable with them.”

I don't like the way he says it. “What does that mean?”

He smiles. “Nothing. I just think it's funny. This morning you were acting like someone had dropped two random babies into your bedroom, and now you're rushing upstairs to check on them.”

“I live here.”

“Do you?” he snarls.

His question catches me off guard.

He pushes himself away from the bed and walks toward me. “Because you spent years complaining about being Alpha Trojan's unwanted little ward. You couldn't wait until you were old enough to leave. Now suddenly you're sharing his bed and playing house with him.”

I stare at him, feeling irritation crawl up my spine. “Why do you care?”

“I don't.” Marcus shrugs, but the smirk on his face says otherwise. “I'm just curious how quickly you forgot everything you used to complain about.”

“I didn't forget.”

“Really?” He steps closer. “Because you don't even remember getting pregnant.”

My stomach tightens.

He notices immediately and smiles. “That one got you.”

I hate that he can still read me so easily.

“I don't remember a lot of things,” I admit. “But neither does anyone else, because everyone keeps telling me there was no fire.”

Marcus's expression changes for a moment, but he recovers quickly. “Maybe because there wasn't one,” his voice rises. “This is what happens when you seduce an alpha who hasn’t met his Luna and trap him with babies. It drives you nuts.”