abrupt.
“Don’t leave this house,” he ordered, then shifted and ran from the room.
Chapter Three
As he ran, he decided to kill her father and spread pieces of him across the southern states. It was just possible—maybe—that Celeste didn’t understand the full nature of a mate bond, but Michael sure as hell did. Michael knew it was very unlikely Jason would ever commit to another woman. To allow Celeste to become involved with someone else when he knew Jason was unaware she lived—it was infuriating. Jason had never experienced such rage, so he had to escape the house. He didn’t want to take it out on Celeste.
But Michael. Michael had a lot to answer for.
And who was she dating? She hadn’t mentioned his name. Was he human? A werewolf? Was she fucking him? Jason stopped and dug his claws into the ground. He cut off the thought and started running again…getting overwhelmed with rage wouldn’t help him or her. He couldn’t afford that; he had to deal with the mystery of why she had shown up now. But maybe it wasn’t such a mystery.
Several months ago a werewolf approached him. He had a plan to take over Michael’s clan and a small role for Jason to play in it. To Jason the role wasn’t so insignificant though.
When Celeste died Jason had been in the process of branching out. He’d dreamed of having werekind-safe resorts like Refuge around the world and so began his career in real estate speculation. None of his plans had come to fruition—she’d died, and he’d taken off. But he found the risk of land development too addictive to give up. He’d just switched gears away from hotels.
So when the werewolf—Derek—came to him with a plan to ruin Michael, part of which was to take his prime piece of land, Jason had jumped on it. He couldn’t care less about the rest of Derek’s scheme and hadn’t asked. That land was Celeste’s, the only thing left of her, and he wanted it. He hadn’t believed Derek when he insisted Michael would contact him to mortgage the land, but he’d jumped on it when it happened, skipping the in-depth background checks he usually went through. If he’d done them, he might have discovered Celeste was alive. Then she sure as hell would’ve been here already instead of showing up now injured and unable to remember most of the last twenty-four hours.
The rain let up, and he slowed to a loose-limbed lope while he worked it through. Michael had accepted insane terms for the mortgage, terms no rational person would take. He either had the money in reserve for the first balloon payment, was certain he would or just didn’t care about losing the land. Since he was using it for his new business venture, that couldn’t be it. If he had the cash, he wouldn’t have needed the loan, which left being certain he’d have the money. So, why didn’t he? Normally before Jason decided to hand out so much money, he demanded business plans, financial records and made personal background checks. Normally he made people jump through hoops. In his haste to get the last piece of Celeste, he’d skipped all of that. But he bet Derek hadn’t, and that made Jason nervous. What was Derek’s motivation for going after Michael? Simple greed for power or something else?
A familiar scent came to him on a sudden gust of wind, and he lifted his head to search it out. Wolf and, since there were no wolves indigenous to this park, it had to be werekind. Stopping still in his tracks, he looked around but didn’t see anything other than storm debris and rain. Taking a deep breath, he didn’t smell anything other than salt water either. It was either his imagination or the werewolf was gone.
When the unfamiliar feeling of dread inched its way up his spine, he turned, running full out for home. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but Celeste was in danger.
Celeste stood frozen in place when Jason made his hasty exit. She felt rejected, confused and angry. The confusion she understood, but the other two?