Oh no, no, no. Why’d she have to say that? To use those exact words?
Chilled to my bones, I finally walked out. Liam neither greeted me when I climbed into his car, nor did he spare me a passing glance. He wore his usual black V-neck and blue jeans but had added a black dinner jacket.
“Am I overdressed? I let Sarah pick my clothes… ”
His gaze didn’t budge from his windshield, but a nerve ticked in his jaw. “Are you fishing for a compliment?”
“What? No! I was just asking if I should go change before we leave.”
He pressed on the gas pedal, and the car lurched forward. I hurried to strap myself in.
“Too late now,” he snapped. “I’m sure August will appreciate your little princess dress.”
That stunned me into silence. But only for a minute. “Don’t be a jerk, Liam.”
He side-eyed me. “Me? A jerk?” He barked out a dark laugh. “I think you got me and your mate mixed up.” He pronounced the word mate as though it were something rotten.
Anger welled up behind my breastbone. “How is August the jerk? He’s not the one who said I backst-”
“He challenged my authority in front of the pack! I can’t even put him back in his place verbally or physically, because he’s your mate.” He narrowed his eyes. “Tell me, are you and him a thing now?”
I shook my head, not as an answer, but because he was acting crazy.
“If you and him fuck, that’s it for you. You’re stuck with him for life, and from what Sienna says, he’s a boring lay.”
I blanched, and then I flushed with anger and glared at the low buildings smearing past our window, wondering why Liam had to be so crude and petty. I wasn’t the one who’d jumped into bed with someone else the second I was unattached.
He jerked the car to a stop at a red light. “The crazy thing is how much shit I’m getting from my buddies about this. It’s not like I strayed, yet I’m the bad guy.”
I was gripping the tulle as though it were a stress ball. Didn’t do squat for my stress level. “I know you’re hurt-”
“I’m not hurt! I am fucking furious!” He slapped his steering wheel. “You toss me to the curb at the first mistake I make. I’m not perfect. No one is! Not even you.”
My knuckles whitened, and my eyesight sharpened, but I pushed back my wolf before she could rip through my little princess dress.
“I slept with Tammy because she stroked the ego you’d crushed.” The volume of his voice had dropped, but it still rang too loudly in the car.
Tammy. Tamara. Why was I not surprised?
Had he ever stopped seeing her? Why was I torturing myself with this? It didn’t matter.
She didn’t matter.
What they did didn’t matter.
“How am I supposed to be Alpha if I’m made to feel like a piece of shit?” he asked.
I didn’t make a sound. I barely breathed. My spine tingled, and again, I shoved my wolf back.
The light turned green, and Liam flattened the gas pedal, weaving between cars like a Formula 1 pilot.
“She was just a means to an end,” he added, so low I almost missed his words.
I still didn’t say anything.
He pulled to another violent stop, this time on the side of the road that led up to the inn. “Say something,” he yelled. “Shout at me! Do something! Tell me what a prick I am, slap me, tell me what a bitch Tamara is!” His violent words were limned with desperation.
Is that why he’d taken her to his bed? To test my affection? Or was it to stroke his ego like he’d said two minutes ago?
He reached over and clasped my shoulders, pivoting me toward him. “Aren’t you even a little jealous? Don’t you care about me?” he whispered, his powerful voice faltering.
“You broke my heart, Liam.” I was incredibly calm, and it wasn’t even an act. I didn’t feel vindictive. “I let you in, and you wrecked me. Is that what you want to hear?” I licked my lips that felt as dry as my eyes.
His hands slid down my arms, gripped my biceps as though to keep me from falling away from him. But I’d already fallen away from him.
“Are you and August-”
“There is no me and August.”
Liam’s eyes flashed with something-hope. Like a lit match, it spread and made the air inside the car crackle.
“But there is also no me and you, Liam.” One-by-one, I pried his fingers off my arms. “You have to let me go,” I said softly. “You have to let me go.”
Red handprints remained where he’d squeezed.
“I will obey you like I vowed, but don’t ask me to love you.”
He scrubbed a hand through his gelled hair. A hardened lock fell into his shiny eyes. “Ness… ”
“Please, Liam, let me go,” I murmured.
I touched his cheek, smooth from a fresh shave, the only soft part on his body. The rest of him was all hard lines. He swallowed, and his jaw muscles juddered under my palm. He covered my hand with his and kept both anchored to his face as we sat on the side of the road, the inn just out of reach but already in sight.
“Let’s get tonight over with,” I said, slipping my palm out from underneath his.
He lowered his eyelids, then lifted them back up, drawing in a long breath through his nostrils. Or maybe he was drawing in a lungful of courage. The Creeks’ reputation was so dire that I worked hard on quieting my own nerves as we slowly made our way up the hill toward them.
Liam parked up front, behind a compact row of cars that ranged in fanciness, from gleaming Cayennes to rusted Civics. The sight of rust reassured me I wasn’t out of my depths, that I’d be able to relate to some of these shifters.
We walked toward the inn side by side, the earlier tension between us diffused. We were in no way relaxed, but that had nothing to do with our row and everything to do with the den of wolves we were about to enter.
“Why do you think she asked to meet me specifically?” I asked.
“You’re Everest’s cousin. You worked as an escort. Maybe she thinks you spied on a Creek or two.” Liam’s neck was a rigid column on the unyielding mantle of his shoulders.
I must’ve gone slack-jawed, because Liam ran a knuckle under my chin as though to shut my mouth.
“You didn’t, right?”