Lycan's Prey by Jessica Hall

Chapter 23 – part 1

I remained in a terrible mood for the rest of the afternoon. I couldn’t concentrate or focus on anything. Two days in a row, I had seen Valen. The bond was buzzing, and I could feel it was making it increasingly difficult to do anything. On top of that, I had his lingering threat and the worry that came with it. He had the power to destroy the hotel we saved, the parting gift Valarie had given to Valarian and me. I felt protective of it; we built this place from its bare bones and gave it back life. I wasn’t about to stand by and let him take it from us. Yet I would be powerless against him in a city where rogues meant nothing.

It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t worried; I was. Macey, Zoe, and I have worked our asses off for years building this place back up. And for him to threaten to destroy it made my blood boil. The question lingering in the back of my mind remained: would he really destroy this place, harm his own mate’s business all because I refused to give into him?

“Ah mommy,” Valarian’s worried voice reaches my ears, and I lift my head to look at him. A shriek leaves my lips when I realize I was burning the grilled cheese. Smoke was billowing from the grill, and I rush over, ripping the tray out only to forget it was piping hot, and I wasn’t wearing oven gloves.

My fingers sizzle, and I drop the tray before racing to the sink and quickly turning the tap on to run my hand under the cold

water.

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Chapter 23 – part 1

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“Casey, don’t touch that,” I tell her when she leans down from the kitchen table to pick up the hot tray. She sits back up, and Zoe comes racing out with all the commotion. The smoke alarms suddenly start blaring loudly, and she opens the window above the sink before using a tea towel to waft the smoke out the window.

“Shit, Eve. Are you ok?” I nod, holding my hand under the cool water. My fingertips blistered while Zoe used the tea towel and picked up the tray, placing it on the stove and discarding the ruined grilled cheese. She then uses the broom to smack. the fire alarm, jabbing the button and cutting off its deafening noise.

“Let me see,” Zoe says, looking around me at my burnt hand.

tell her, and

been distracted all afternoon. What’s going on with you today?”

dining table in our cramped tiny kitchen. Both kids went back to their drawing and no longer paid attention

I knew she worried I would turn out like Valarie, she and

Chapter 23–part 1

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my own, I liked my independence, and didn’t need a mate

were pacing all night, and now you’re burning yourself. Go for a run. Val always told you to run it off.

have to force her out of bed. Yet, that couldn’t be happening to me.

the last time you even shifted?” I shrug, knowing

become of me. Each time, my

still able, Valarie told me that shifting helped ward off

how I miss that woman. She was one of a kind and one of the best women I had the pleasure of ever meeting. She would

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killed her, and I just had to make sure his

won’t get my son; I will make

of it.

me about it later when the kids are in bed,” says Zoe. I nod, looking over at them. Valarian’s amber

a glass of juice on the table beside him, and he stares at it and his lips purse while his brows furrow as he glares at it before moving it onto the coaster. He then does the same with Casey’s. Meanwhile, his pencils