Bailey Bradford - Southwestern Shifters 06 - Reverence Read Free Page B

just pissed him off.
He backed away until he smacked the kitchen countertop with his hip, then Harley casually placed a hand on the smooth marble surface. Not a foot away was a knife block stocked with shiny, sharp blades. Harley usually stood right where he was when any of the werewolves came in, so it wasn’t as if he was acting out of character. And really, he doubted the knives would do him much good if one of the beasts decided to attack him, but still. He at least had the illusion of being safer.
Marcus sighed and held out his hand to Nathan, his smaller partner. Whereas Marcus was big and scary, Nathan was shorter by several inches, maybe even a foot or more, and he had long, long red hair. Both men were incredibly attractive, yet Harley wasn’t turned on by them at all. In fact, his libido seemed to have died since he’d been abducted. He didn’t even miss it at this point.
Nathan pulled out a chair and sat, as did Marcus. Harley remained standing, trying not to be sullen but it was impossible. He hated these men, beasts, wolves, whatever. An image of the wounded man flashed before his eyes. Harley bit his tongue to keep from asking about him, just as he’d refused to ask for weeks now. He was kind of scared the guy might have died, and yeah, that made his chest ache, which was dumb. He didn’t care about any of these monsters. He hated all of them. Even Alex, sometimes maybe more than the others. If Harley hadn’t hooked up with Alex, then Alex’s enemies wouldn’t have hunted him down and absconded with him in the hopes of using him as a pawn in some demented power struggle. Harley wasn’t entirely clear on what it had been about, other than the sick fuck who’d taken him, Joshua Dobson, had wanted to kill Alex, and Marcus, and Nathan, and just about everybody, and Joshua wanted his brother Sean back and that had seemed like a sick obsession but—
“I’ve decided you can return to your apartment as soon as you want to.”
Harley flinched at Marcus’ words. He gaped for a few seconds then realised his mouth was hanging open—which always made him look like an idiot, but then again, who didn’t look like a moron when they were gawping—and he snapped it shut. Surely Marcus didn’t expect an answer? Harley rarely spoke to him or anyone face to face here.
Marcus looked at Nathan, almost pleadingly, it seemed to Harley, but what did he know? He averted his gaze and studied his bare toes instead. He was glad he didn’t have long monkey toes like his brother Ryder did. And why was he thinking about his toes? Because it beat wondering about the people sitting at his table. Almost as much as he feared them because of what they were, Harley was afraid he’d see them more as humans than beasts and… And, well, he didn’t know what, except it seemed safer to keep away from them in all ways possible.
“Harley.”
He reluctantly looked up at Nathan. The man was really very pretty, with that pale skin and red hair, and eyes a greenish colour. Harley gave himself an internal shake. What the fuck did it matter what Nathan looked like, or any of the other wolfy folks here?
Nathan’s nose twitched like he smelt something funky and he stood up and slowly walked over to Harley, watching him the entire time.
“Has anyone from our pack hurt you in the time that you’ve been here, Harley?” Nathan stopped so close to him he could smell the man. They were almost the same height— Harley had him by maybe two inches—but Harley felt like he was looking up at Nathan, which was stupid. It was a psychological reaction, one he experienced because he knew Nathan had the power, or, at least, a hell of a lot more power than he did. Harley finally gave up and went back to looking at his toes. At least the nails were nice and tidy.
“Harley—”
“I know my damned name!” he snapped, surprising himself as well as Nathan, who took a quick step back. Harley heard a growl and was instantly contrite, but still very pissed