“I’ll take that as a yes,” she said, a hint of amusement in her tone.
The room crackled
with magic. Everyone and everything took on a pale lavender tinge. Every single witch in the room—male and female—had a spell at the ready. Colt needed to calm the fuck down.
It took a second. He grunted and shook, adjusting his shirt before he popped his collar. His wolf continued to prowl around inside of him, torn between wanting to run to his mate and following Colt’s lead that she be left alone.
He never should have come into the city. It wasn’t Grayson, but it wasn’t home, either. At home, Dodge could shield the house, trap Colt inside whenever he thought he was going feral. When Colt was younger, Dodge was still strong enough that he could track Colt down, haunt his furry ass all over the state. Now that he was fading, Dodge couldn’t even leave the Bumptown—which meant that Colt was on his own for this one.
He had to get the hell out of there.
“Know what? I’ll think about what you said. I’m still gonna find a way to fix my brother’s bond. If love won’t heal it, maybe enough diamonds will.”
It was hard to talk around his extended canines. His claws and his fangs revealed the precarious state of his mind.
The other witches were primed to throw magic at him if he made any sudden moves.
Luciana continued to smile across her desk at him. “I like you. Too bad another of my kind has already got her hooks in you.”
He went still. “She’s not a witch.”
“Tell yourself that if it makes you feel better. It’s faint, but it’s there. You’ve definitely been touched by a witch.”
No. It wasn’t possible. She didn’t have the signature purple eyes, and she spent every day downtown running some kind of hippie shop in Grayson. What kind of witch worked retail for cash when she could be guaranteed true diamonds by working with the coven?
She wasn’t a witch.
She wasn’t his mate, either.
Colt had had enough. Time to get out of the building before he lost his temper, the witches retaliated, and he ended up a toad or something equally as embarrassing.
“Thank you for your taking the time to see me,” Colt said solemnly. “Appreciate it.”
“I really do like you. Pity about your mate. If she won’t help you, you can always come back to me for your next favor.” Her lips curved. “And it’ll only cost you a .25 carat.”
“I’ll have to keep that in mind,” he said. Sure, he was lying, but he was leaving so he didn’t think it mattered all that much. “You’re a real gem.”
“A diamond, dear wolf. A diamond.”
Evangeline tried to pretend she wasn’t hungry, even going so far as to hum to drown out the rumble of her stomach.
She made it maybe three hours.
Her body clock was all thrown off. Night had fallen fully since her captor returned her to her cage. It was dark, she still didn’t have any idea what time it was, but it had to have been close to twelve hours since she’d had something to eat.
At first, she didn’t even feel any hunger; stress and anger and nervousness tended to do that. But as the night wore on and she realized that a dangerous shifter believing she was his mate meant that she was the safest she had ever been—since Maddox would save her from everyone and everything, including himself—her stomach started to remind her that it had been hours since the fateful coffee.
She was starving.
Well, he did say that he was going to prove himself to her. And he had mentioned something about dinner.
So maybe she had thrown it into his face that she would never sit down and have a meal with him. That was back when her appetite was missing. Now? She needed nutrients to keep up her strength if she wanted to try escaping again.
Besides, her ankle was still screaming with pain. Evangeline had finally given in and taken the aspirin about thirty minutes after he left her alone. It helped a little, but the harsh aspirin wasn’t sitting right in her empty stomach. She’d always had to swallow her painkillers with a meal; going without meant feeling nauseous and weak until it worked its way through. Better than outright pain, but not by much.
Careful not to put her entire weight on her swollen ankle, Evangeline limped over to the door. He promised that he wouldn’t lock it again. She didn’t even bother to check. What was the point?
She banged on the door. “Hey! You! Are you just going to leave me to waste away in here?”