Chapter 22

Twenty-Two

REID

I don’t dare breathe as Michelle saunters up to me, her dark hair swishing around her shoulders like midnight-colored silk. She flutters her long lashes up at me as she reaches for my arm.

“Reid. I missed you, baby.” Her high-pitched voice grates on my nerves.

Bile rises in my throat when her manicured hand touches my bicep, gripping it in a way that feels both possessive and demeaning—like I’m a damn toy for her to show off.

But I don’t dare push her away.

Not with Izzy standing so close.

“What do you want?” My words come out as a growl, despite my best efforts.

Michelle flinches at my tone but doesn’t release me. If anything, she steps even closer, her tiny breasts pressing against my arm.

I go very, very still. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Izzy has tensed, her eyes homing in on the way Michelle leans against me.

“I wanted to see if you gave my offer any thought.” Michelle simpers, staring up at me with hearts in her eyes. Her blood-red lips curve into a smile. “I want to give us another chance.”

How deluded can this bitch be?

I almost say that out loud but stop myself at the last second. I don’t dare piss her off, not with Izzy only a few feet away, watching us intensely.

My skin burns with disgust as her nails dig into my arm hard enough to make me bleed.

“Reid. Baby. I miss you.” She pushes up on her tiptoes and presses her lips against the underside of my jaw.

A shudder of disgust reverberates through me.

“I’m at work.” I attempt to shake her off of me, but she’s like a damn barnacle.

That’s apparently the wrong thing to say.

The skin around her eyes tightens, and her lips purse. Anger distorts her features into something unrecognizable. I’ve seen this particular expression once before—when she tried to kill a girl I befriended.

“Did you meet someone else?” Her eyes not-so-subtly slide in Izzy’s direction.

I can see the wheels churning in that diabolical brain of hers.

“Course not,” I snap, desperate to reclaim her attention. Despite the way my body trembles with revulsion, I grip her chin and turn her attention back to me. “Do you think anyone will ever care about me like you do?”

Michelle made sure of that when she had her brother curse me. In her mind, if she couldn’t have me, then no one could.

Her tiny nose wrinkles the longer she stares at me. “I can fix you. You know that. I just want you to give us another chance.”

Another chance.

As if we’ve ever been dating in the first place.

“Michelle.” I lower my voice to an urgent whisper. “We can talk about this later. Right now, I’m at work.”

“So there is someone else!” Rage darkens her features. “I’ve given you everything, Reid. Everything. You’re mine.”

“Michelle, please?—”

Her palm connects with my face before I can stop it. The slap doesn’t hurt, not really, but it still causes me to gape at her shock.

Her chest heaves as she glares up at me. Both of her hands ball into fists. “You stupid, ugly?—”

Her rant is cut off by Izzy sliding between us. I can’t see her expression, but her shoulders are tight with tension.

“You do not get to fucking slap him,” she hisses, taking a threatening step closer.

Fear grips me in a chokehold. I immediately reach for Izzy’s arm, determined to shove her behind me and protect her the best I can from Michelle’s infamous wrath. But when I touch Izzy’s skin—and feel the familiar prickles of heat—she simply shakes me off of her as if I’m not a two-hundred-plus-pound werewolf shifter and she’s not a tiny human.

She advances on Michelle like an avenging angel—a beautiful, deadly deity plucked from the clouds to find a home amongst us mere mortals.

“Say you’re sorry,” Izzy growls.

Some of Michelle’s initial fear evaporates the longer she stares at Izzy. I know what she sees—a human who won’t be able to stand up against her magic.

Terror like I’ve never felt before threatens to plow me over.

“Izzy…” I warn.

She ignores me.

“So you’re the bitch Reid’s cheating on me with,” Michelle says snottily, eyeing Izzy up and down with barely veiled disdain. Her upper lip curls. “I see he downgraded.”

“Are you fucking delusional? How can he cheat on you if you’re not even together?” Izzy takes another step forward, and I’m shocked as hell when Michelle staggers back a step.

“We’re on a break,” she snarls, regaining some of her bravado. “We belong together. He’ll come back to me. He always does.”

A strangled laugh threatens to escape me at her words.

“Then that’s his choice. But from where I’m standing, it sounds like he told you to leave him the hell alone.”

Michelle hefts her chin into the air imperiously. Her eyes flare a luminescent brown, her power shining through like a lit candle. “He doesn’t mean it.” She glances at me over Izzy’s shoulder. “Do you really think anyone but me would ever care for you? Look at you. You’re nothing but an ugly piece of?—”

Izzy pulls her arm back and punches Michelle straight in the face.

Holy fuck.

Holy. Fuck.

And then, all hell breaks loose.