Chapter 2

Jane Mckay POV:

I was two steps from the stairs when the oak door behind me banged open.

"Jane Mckay, stop right there!" Dirk stormed into the hallway in his loose robe, his golden-brown hair messy and his face twisted with rage.

I didn't stop.

Dirk caught me in three strides and clamped his hand around my upper arm hard enough to grind bone.

"Do you really think playing hard to get will win my attention?" he growled low, his voice dripping with smug certainty.

I turned my head and stared at his hand.

"Let go," I said quietly.

"And if I don't?" Dirk sneered. His Alpha Dominion crashed down on my shoulders—the kind of Command meant to buckle a lower wolf's knees.

My breath went ragged. Before my knees could bend, I hooked my left hand around the inside of his wrist.

I drove my thumb into the nerve cluster above his ulna—a spot I'd practiced on cadavers at Saint Sanctuary more times than I could count.

"Dirk, do you know how fragile a rutting male wolf's nerve endings are once his heart rate passes one hundred forty?" I locked eyes with him and twisted my thumb down.

Dirk gasped, his arm jerking back like I'd burned him with silver. Shock flashed across his amber eyes.

Right then, Coral ran out barefoot from the bedroom, wrapped only in a thin silk sheet.

"Dirk, are you okay?" She rushed over and clung to his arm, looking at me like I was a monster. "Sister, what did you do to him? How dare you attack an Alpha!"

"Attack?" I shook out my sore wrist. "I just gave him a free nerve reflex test."

"Turns out the proud Alpha of the Maddox Pack thinks with his lower body and has the exact same pain receptors as a stray dog."

Dirk's face turned an ugly shade of purple.

"You crazy bitch…" he gritted out, a dangerous light flickering in his wolf eyes, as if he wanted to tear my throat out.

"Want to hit me?" I tilted my chin up. "Go ahead, unless you're afraid tomorrow's Pack headline will be 'Executive Suffers Nerve Spasm From Overindulgence.'"

Dirk's fists clenched and loosened. He swallowed the rage.

"Jane, you'd better not regret this. I will personally go to the Council of Elders to terminate our engagement," he spat out as a final threat.

"I can't wait," I replied lightly, turning to walk toward the small guest room at the far end of the hall.

I pushed open the dusty, unused door, stepped inside, and slammed it shut.

Outside, Coral's fake soothing voice mixed with Dirk's curses, then my old bedroom door banged shut again.

Silence. I tossed the bag onto the dusty single bed and slid down the door onto the floor.

The armor dropped. A spasm tore through my chest core. I curled up, fist pressed to my ribs, biting my lip.

With trembling fingers, I pulled my phone from my pocket. The screen glowed with a payment notice from the Saint Sanctuary Pharmacy.

I was still a million short for Kacie's life-reconstruction herbs next month.

I closed my eyes and saw Kacie's pale little face. After that night four years ago, I hid my pregnancy. Then I got hurt, and she was born with a fatally displaced heart core.

Even if the Mckay family threw me into the streets tonight, I had to get that money.

I stood, brushed the dust off my jeans, and stared at the contact name flashing on my screen.

Julian Mckay. My playboy cousin. The one who'd bet me a million dollars I wouldn't walk into an elite club and sleep with a random Alpha for one night.

I took a deep breath and hit the call button.