Lycan Unleashed by Tiffany Allee

wanted to take the out he’d given me. But I’d lied enough. “I can’t ID the owner off the aura I felt on the coin. It wasn’t distinct enough.”
    “And you knew that from the beginning?” he growled.
    I steeled my spine and met his gaze. “Yes.”
    “So you lied to my face.”
    “I omitted.”
    “You omitted?” His voice rose, harsh against my ears.
    I jutted my chin out. “I never actually said—”
    “The hell you didn’t! Near enough.”
    “I’m sorry, okay? You’re right. I lied. I deceived you on purpose. And maybe that makes me a total bitch but I don’t care.” Talk like a lady or no one will treat you like one. Like my mother’s rules mattered now. I was a liar, and deserved every bit of Mason’s ire.
    “You don’t care?” He asked. His voice returned to a low growl, but somehow sounded even more dangerous. And filled with more anger.
    “It’s my badge on the line! I had to be in on the investigation.”
    He stared at me for a second, intense gaze never leaving my own, then he shook his head.
    “I didn’t have a choice.” My voice thinned and I swallowed hard, dangerously close to tears. I didn’t, did I? No. I’d had to have at least some control over this. Some control over keeping my job.
    “You could have told me the truth.” Voice flat, he seemed deflated. As if the anger had drained out of him.
    “You wouldn’t have let me in,” I insisted. Would he? Even the possibility hadn’t occurred to me. Why would he?
    He barked out a short laugh and dropped his eyes to his glass. “You don’t have any fucking idea what I’d do for you.”
    My mouth dropped open, and before I could think of anything to say, he pushed up from the table and left.

    Snow fell silently outside of my bedroom, adding to the ten-inch pile already on the balcony. I rolled over, pulling my down comforter closer around my neck, and met Charlie’s unblinking eyes.
    I reached out and scratched his chin, and the bit of light leaking from the sliding glass doors reflected off of his black fur. “Think I messed up big time, buddy.”
    Charlie yawned and his eyes closed. I sat up and glanced at the clock. One fifteen. Great. The way I was going, I’d be up the rest of the night.
    Mason’s words reverberated through my mind, and despite my best efforts to sleep, my brain insisted on examining each and every potential meaning behind them. And for once, I wished for the familiarity of my mother’s voice in my head, instead of the foreignness of his voice and intent.
    You don’t have any fucking idea what I’d do for you .
    What the hell was that supposed to mean? If he cared about me, why couldn’t he just say it? Why had he called our kiss a mistake, and why had he avoided me ever since? The words seemed to mean that he cared about me. A lot. But that was tough to wrap my mind around. And I was scared to think about it too much. Scared to hope. What if I was wrong? What if he meant something else entirely by those words, something more akin to the loyalty shared by cops, not the caring shared by lovers. I couldn’t take the chance. If my own family couldn’t—no, I wasn’t going there. Sure, he’d kissed me. But only once. A year ago.
    Oh there’d been looks before that. Times when I would feel his gaze burning into me. But when I’d turn to look at him, his eyes would be elsewhere. I’d convinced myself that I’d imagined his interest. And we had talked, but it had been just friendly chatting. Granted, I hadn’t noticed Mason talking to others in such an easy manner, but I’d always figured it was because—unlike most of the tough macho cops I worked with—I was quiet, and maybe easier to talk to. I’d thought that simple friendliness was all it was.
    Until that night.
    Two days before Christmas. I’d gone outside to get a breather from the mostly oh-dub crowd at the party. Snow had covered the ground, so similar to what the outside looked like right now. His gaze had been hot against my