Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
It took mere minutes for them to fall asleep.
CHAPTER SIX
Catching sight of the figure standing outside the Hounds’ HQ a week later, Casey felt her stomach sink. Up until that point, her veins had been buzzing with anticipation at her upcoming game. Now, agitation spiked through her system. They hadn’t spoken in a very long time. And if Sherryl’s smirk was anything to go by, she wasn’t here for a friendly chat.
Sherryl had probably come with the rest of her team to watch the Hounds play against the Ohio Wildcats. Anyone could watch providing they paid the fee. The mink teams often attended the other games, looking for weaknesses in the players they’d soon be up against.
Tightening her grip on the strap of her duffel, Casey kept her expression neutral as she came to stand before Sherryl. Her mink snarled, wanting nothing more than to scalp the backstabbing bitch and rag out a chunk of that pink, pixie haircut.
She’d lost weight since Casey last saw her. And not in a good way. Honestly, Sherryl looked like a harsh wind could blow her over.
She also looked … strange. It was hard to describe. Her body language seemed casual and relaxed, but she was giving off a weird, dark vibe that made Casey’s hackles rise. And the look in her eyes was just … wrong. They were glassy. Unblinking. Alive but somehow dead. It was like looking right at an amped-up junkie as they contemplated whether to fuck you up now or later.
Miles had looked at Casey like that once, and that was before he’d turned to drugs. She’d been consoling him after his breakup with Sherryl, and he’d turned on her so quick her head had spun, but it hadn’t been Miles. Not really.
The couple hadn’t imprinted on each other, but the threads of the bond had been there, and the abrupt severance of those threads had fucked with his emotional state in a major way. Could it also be fucking with Sherryl?
“I suppose I should be congratulating you on your mating,” Sherryl spat, her arms folded, her mouth set into an acidic smile.
The bitter note in her voice was no surprise, considering Sherryl had never stopped pining for the true mate she’d lost as a child. She’d let it twist her up inside; seemed to embrace the pain, even.
Casey sighed. “Is this shit really necessary?”
The other female tapped her chin. “I wonder what your mate would think if he knew you’d fucked your cousin’s mate. He’d probably be even more disgusted than Mallory would be. Hmm, maybe it’s time she knew the truth. Out of curiosity, will you fight back when she comes at you? Or will you take the pounding you deserve? The pack would turn against you if they knew, you know. They would. Just like they turned against me.”
This crap again? “No one turned against you, Sherryl. Not until you joined another soccer team, anyway. Some consider you a traitor now.” In fact, every Hound would happily stomp on the bitch’s head. “The only one who blamed you for what Miles—”
“Don’t say his name.”
Again, Casey sighed. “I’m done here. Move out of my way. I have shit to do.”
“Like go see your mate?” Her eyes glittered with something dark and cold. “Why should you get to have everything when I don’t?”
“You’re really going to be dramatic now? You’re a starter for the Seals, and you’re an enforcer for their pack; you have what you want.”
“But not my true mate.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to be alone. You’re choosing to be.” Tragic as it was, many shifters lost their mates—they didn’t all sink into a well of bitterness and self-pity. They didn’t all begrudge others happiness or wear their pain like a badge. “Now, I really am done with this conversation.”
“Oh, you are?”
“Yeah. I got bored five minutes ago.”
Sherryl’s upper lip curled. “You always were a high-and-mighty little whore. I’ll bet Mallory would agree with me on that when she hears the truth. And she will hear it.” When Casey didn’t react, Sherryl raised a brow. “You think I won’t tell her what I know?”
“Oh, I think you’ll tell her. I think you’ll get a perverse joy out of it.” Because any jealousy that Sherryl had once felt for Casey had substantially intensified since Eli came into the picture. And now that dark emotion was intertwined with spite, resentment, and scorn. Sherryl would gladly see Casey suffer just as she was suffering, which was why … “It’ll be the same perverse joy I’ll get out of beating your skanky ass to a pulp for hurting my cousin just to get to me. Because that’s what will happen. You know idle threats aren’t my thing.”
“It won’t be me who’ll have hurt your cousin. Her pain will be on you.”
Okay, that much was true. But it would hurt Mallory even more if she were to find out from Sherryl—a person who would delight in telling her. Which meant Casey would have to be the one to do it. But how did you tell your cousin you’d once slept with her mate? “Preston will hate you if you do this.”