Wicked Werewolf Passion by Lisa Renée Jones Read Free Book Online

the Rebel’s didn’t hire you and this is a trick to extract secrets from The Society?”
    Shi took the blow of her questions with a hard stare, but he felt their hard impact. His nostrils flared, seeking the truth beneath her words, and he smelled none of the manipulative intent that could have been present. Instead, he scented her fear that he would really betray her, not the other way around. Damn it to hell, how had they gone from where they’d once been to here? 
    He yanked his cell phone from his belt and punched a button before putting it to his ear. “It’s Shi,” he said when Kole answered. 
    “Do you have her?” Kole asked and Shi watched Carmen’s eyes widen with surprise at the voice of the Royal Guard’s leader her exceptional hearing had already identified.
     “Yes,” Shi confirmed. “I have her. She wants confirmation I’m not working for the Rebels.” 
    He was silent a moment. “She’s within hearing distance? Then she already knows what she needs to know. I hired you.”
    Carmen reached for the phone and Shi wasn’t inclined to deny her. He let her have it. “My father is not a traitor,” Carmen said vehemently the instant she had it to her mouth. “There’s some explanation for whatever you think you know.”
    “Then help us help your father,” Shi heard Kole tell her. “Do what he asks you to do.”
    Carmen’s eyes lifted to Shi’s. “Why go outside the Guard?”
    Kole was silent several long beats. “I have my reasons. Tell Shi I’ll call him later.” The line went dead. 
    Carmen handed him back the phone and Shi slid it onto his belt. For a moment, the two of them just stared at one another, and he felt their past collide with their present, their uncertain future as well. He’d never felt so tormented in his life, not even with Susan. Absolutely not with Susan. He’d felt mating heat and obligation with Susan. What he felt for Carmen was so much more. They had history, a relationship. A bond that was powerful enough to never be forgotten, to keep him looking out for her, protecting her from a distance despite her father’s hatred of him. Despite being certain she would feel the same. But she didn’t. He knew that now. She hadn’t judged him or turned her contempt on him when truth be told, he had. He hated himself for letting Susan nearly destroy him.
    Suddenly, Shi needed space, he needed to think, he needed to get his body under control before he forgot his duty over a woman again. Not just any woman, he told himself. This is Carmen. Whose father is a traitor. Shi shoved away from Carmen and distanced himself from her, leaning against the door of the truck opposite her, and it was all he could do to keep a stony face, to control his emotions. To appear as if he was casually watching her when he felt like he was going to climb out of his own skin. 
    She turned to sit against her door, facing him, tugging her dress down before wetting that lush mouth of hers and studying him. Her gaze flickered towards the front of the truck and back to him. “What about my blindfold?”
    “The Benedanti can erase your memory. The blindfold was just extra precaution.”
    “I see,” she said after a momentary pause, her delicate brows furrowing. “Does that mean you can send me back to The Society without the knowledge of you ever being here?”
    “Yes.”
    “Is that what you plan to do?”
    “I haven’t decided.”
    She stared at him a long moment and then laughed without humor. It was the closest thing to bitter he’d ever heard from her, despite all she’d been through. Her gaze cut to the ceiling and she laughed without humor. “At least you’re honest.”
    Shi opened his mouth to respond and snapped it shut. He trusted his driver, Jacob, like he trusted no one else he employed, but this was a conversation for behind closed doors. “We’ll talk when we get to our destination.”
    “After the Benedanti interrogate me.”
    “When we’re alone.”
    “Right. When