Alpha Beast (The Alpha Shifter Collection)

“Hey, weirdo,” he said. “I figured you’d still be enjoying your honeymoon.”

“I was, but something came up.” She stepped out of the way for Lewis to pass across the threshold.

Clenching her hands into tight fists, she offered her brother a smile.

“So, what can I do for you?”

“You want a drink?” Liam asked, making his presence known.

“Wow, I’m the first guy to be invited into your home and on your honeymoon, I’m honored.”

She chuckled, but it sounded forced even to herself. This was … intense. She kept looking at her brother, trying to understand him.

Lewis was always nice and sweet to her, but he was due to take over from their father. In the back of her mind, she had a distant memory of sitting in the closet, Danny seated beside her.

“He has to be mean, Jen. He doesn’t mean anything by it. It’s just who he is.”

Jenny had forgotten about all the times Lewis had been mean to her growing up. The bully he’d become shining through.

Liam returned with a glass of whiskey for her brother, a water for herself, and he stood, hands in his pockets.

“This is some place, huh?”

“Yeah. Liam said he’s going to take me out, show me all the sights from this side of the city. You know, seeing as we’ve all kept to our own side, it would be nice to see how a Wolf lives in their little domain.” She took a deep breath, looking at him. “Have you taken the time to enjoy this part of the city?” she asked.

“No. This is the first time I’ve been here. You know how it is with work.”

Jenny knew he was lying. He wouldn’t even look at her. She couldn’t believe it.

Staring at Lewis, she oddly wasn’t afraid.

Chapter Eight

Anger filled Liam as he looked at his brother-in-law. Lewis wore the mask of being a nice guy well, but he’d always believed there was something the bastard was hiding, and he’d been right.

Lewis had no reason to be near that building, and he shouldn’t have even known anything about it. Yet, here he was lying to them. To all of them, and it pissed him off.

As he stared at him now, it took every ounce of control he possessed not to kill him. He wanted to rip out his throat, but he held back.

Jenny had gone quiet, watching her brother. He didn’t know what she was thinking about or what she could even have to think about.

“What’s with the twenty questions? Surely, you’ve got a lot on your mind without pestering me?” Lewis asked.

“We know you were there,” Jenny said.

“Excuse me?”

Liam told him the location and watched as Lewis went red.

“That’s impossible. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Lewis looked from him to Jenny, then back again.

“We saw you,” Jenny said. “I need to know who the woman is.”

“I need to know what you were doing at one of our warehouses,” Liam said. He needed to have answers.

Lewis laughed. “I know you see your dead people, Jen. I do, but this, interrogating me like this, and to our enemy. This is a betrayal I didn’t expect from you.”

“A betrayal? You were at my wedding. They are not our enemy and haven’t been since the moment we were married, Lewis.” Jenny advanced toward Lewis and Liam watched as her brother took a step back. “You’ve been working against our father?”

Lewis looked at Liam and finally, the façade dropped. The anger, the hatred, it all shone through.

“Do you think I was going to let him align our names with this filth?” Lewis asked. “You were never supposed to be married. The weirdo that you are, you were supposed to scare him off with your talk to the dead and all of that.” Lewis spat at the floor beside her feet and Liam growled.

The sound echoed around the room, filling every single atom of air.

Jenny put a hand against his chest. “I don’t care about what you did to the building or to whoever died in there. I need to know about the woman you took,” she said. “Her daughter.”

Lewis looked at her. “How do you know about the little girl?”

Jenny put her hands on her hips. “How do you think I know? This came on my honeymoon! I had to go and find out what it was and who was responsible. The little girl is being held there.”

“Like a hostage?”

“She’s dead, Lewis. I believe she died of smoke inhalation, but she’s gone. There’s a spirit, a bad one—” She stopped as a sob came from Lewis. “Lewis?”

“I told her she had to be wrong. I gave her strict instructions not to take our daughter to work again. I told her.”

“Our daughter?”

Tears fell from Lewis’s cheeks. “You’re not that stupid, Jen. You’ve been kept from the world, but even you know what this means.”