Rather than return the glare, he looked past the man into the hall. “Is he here?”
When wolf-eyes spoke, he had a gruff voice. Its scratchy timbre hurt Michael’s ears.
“He’s here. He expected the latent wolf to bring you last night.”
“Scarlett is my mate. We were temporarily sidetracked. I’m here now. Cole can deal…unless, of course, he wants me to go see Zack for my information.”
Michael had no intention of going to Zack for anything other than murdering the son-of-a-bitch, but he was willing to let Cole and his crew think otherwise if it got the ball rolling on Angel’s location a little faster.
From behind the man who blocked the door, a shout resounded down the hall. “Let him in, Deke.”
Deke jumped, moving out of the way and Michael clutched Scarlett’s hand tighter to reassure her she was still safe. He would tear every member of the house limb from limb if he needed to. They were here to collect information and get out. That was all.
As Barge, Todd and Seamus passed Deke, they growled at him. Turning around, he looked at his three companions.
“Listen, boys, if you’d rather wait outside that is fine.”
Todd shook his head. “No, Michael, we go where y’all go.”
Great. Michael’s wolf rolled his eyes. We have officially gained a fan club.
Not sure exactly how that happened. We delivered them a beat down.
His wolf paced around. Their wolves are thrilled to be with us.
Michael wasn’t sure exactly what to do with that information. Instead, he looked at the shifters.
“If you’re coming with me, I’m going to charge you with a job.”
All three men hit the floor. Michael cursed and grabbed Todd by the shirt, pulling him up.
“Don’t you guys start that dropping to the floor and shifting nonsense. I’m not going to carry your unconscious selves out of here if you overuse your shifting and pass out.”
He looked at the other two. “Stand up.”
They did as he commanded and Michael heard Scarlett snicker next to him.
Grinning, because Scarlett had just laughed at something he’d said, he continued his instructions.
“If I’m busy, the three of you are responsible for Scarlett’s safety, even if that means carting her out of the house and taking her back to my hotel room.”
Pulling his key out of his pocket, he handed it to Scarlett. She took it and placed it in her pants’ pocket. For a second, Michael was absolutely fascinated with the way her small fingers moved. There was a gracefulness that she possessed that he’d never seen on anyone else before. It was as if her limbs flowed in one simple, straight movement, as opposed to the jerky rushed way his own body functioned. She was just so … dainty.
“We’ll protect her, Michael, you can count on it.”
Todd’s voice pulled him out of his obsessive thinking about Scarlett. He glared at them one more time. In no way did he fool himself into thinking he could count on them.
He didn’t plan on getting into the kind of trouble where he would actually need their help. However, having them on alert might help things. Where his mate was concerned there was no such thing as being too careful with her welfare.
Finally, they turned the corner and walked into a room. The walls were painted red with high ceilings, a large fireplace and furniture that spoke of antebellum south. If no one in this pack lived very long as Scarlett said, then this wasn’t a callback to another time the occupant had actually lived in. No, Michael knew right away that Cole was trying to make some kind of statement about class and culture with his home decoration.
Michael’s wolf howled inside of him. Yes, both parts of him were both unimpressed with the show.
Three men sat together on a couch. The one in the middle—who looked to be about thirty but then again everyone here did since clearly no one was truly mated—wore an expensive white linen suit. On his right and left were two dark haired shifters. They were big and bulky looking.
His wolf snarled. The bodyguards.
No one stood up to greet him and Michael smiled. So much for the show of manners and breeding.
“I’m Michael Kane. I understand you have information on my sister.”
Chapter Four
Scarlett could hardly breathe. Michael had just walked into the living room of the man who could be called the most powerful shifter in the world—unless you were on Zack’s side of the war—as if he owned the place. He wasn’t cowering. He didn’t even look down. He just announced himself like he had every right to be there.
Her mate was magnificent.
“Yes, Mister Kane.” Cole actually stood up.
She knew she wasn’t alone in her shock at this behavior. Next to her, Todd, who for some strange reason now wanted to protect her, bristled, moving back and forth on his feet.
Cole spoke with his lazy southern drawl that masked an anger she was glad not to have seen very often. “I’m Cole Devereaux.”
Cole extended his hand and Michael eyed it but did not shake. The would-be Alpha of their wolf pack stared down at his own hand before putting it by his side.
“Here’s the deal.” Michael’s voice was so low, so strong sounding. It did funny things to her insides. In fact, every time he was near her, she seemed to get warm—
sometimes wet—in all sorts of places she hadn’t known could react like that. “You offered my mate protection so I’m not going to kill you right now.”
Cole’s eyes got huge. “Excuse me? You come into my home and threaten me?”
“I didn’t threaten you. In fact, I think I just told you that you’d be safe from me. But I’m taking Scarlett and we’re leaving here forever after you tell me where my sister has run off to.”
Cole turned his gaze to hers and there was pure hatred in it. She’d seen that look before, only it had been coming from Zack and his men. Gods, Michael really couldn’t throw her over now. There would be no one left to help her. She’d be a dead woman within a matter of moments.
Cole addressed her directly. “I told you I wanted to tell him.”
Michael growled and all eyes in the room turned to him. “She didn’t tell me.
Someone else did. In fact, she went out of her way not to tell me, you presumptuous moron.”
The two wolves who were permanent sentries for Cole stood and the door opened up.
Thirty of Cole’s rank and file wolves marched in. Scarlett didn’t mind this group as much as she hated Zack’s version of it. These guys expected her to cook and clean for them, to wait on them hand and foot, but they never asked her for sexual favors.
She’d never known if that was because she was latent and that was so disgusting to them they didn’t want to touch her or because they were actually relatively decent people who didn’t demand sexual favors as a reward for letting her live. She suspected it was the second option since most women in the pack preferred to be here than at Zack’s.
Cole cocked his head to the side. “Despite your words, I think you are challenging me, Mr. Kane.”
“You know what?” Michael turned around to look at Scarlett before he glanced back to Cole. “You might be right about that. You might not have threatened to kill her but you just spoke to her disrespectfully. I don’t like that she had to act like a servant to stay alive. So, yes, I’m challenging you, Mr. Devereaux.”