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“Nothing original that hasn’t already been written into any nineties high school sitcom,” I replied. Did I really just get into a fistfight? Over Colton?

His hand circled around the front door handle, but he paused instead of opening it, giving me the escape I so sorely needed.

“What did she say to you, Hadley?” He angled his body toward me, staring into my eyes.

“Oh, you’re using your cop voice.” I focused on his forehead instead of meeting his intense eye contact. “Sorry to say that doesn’t work on me. In fact, it makes me less apt to tell you a damn thing.”

He continued glaring. I tried to tally up all of the expressions Colton had given me since our little reunion. Most of them had been a variation of a scowl—with a heated sexual undertone. A long way from the lovesick puppy eyes of our teens. Or the tentative, wary looks he’d sent my way after the attack.

Even the memory of those gentle looks made me recoil, reminding me of how broken and weak I’d been.

I’d take the glares, happily.

Heated sexual undertones, on the other hand… No matter what my vagina might or might not have felt about the matter, I did not need them.

I sighed, ready to be out of this house and out of his orbit. “She said something to the effect I had come back here to seduce you and take your money so I could have an ‘easy life.’” I laughed. “Unlucky for you, I like my life just how it is—hard, unglamorous, and violent.” I gestured with my bruised knuckles to what I didn’t doubt was a freshly blooming black eye. “Your dad just informed me today that I have a little nest egg of my own that I don’t need to seduce anyone for.”

I was still processing the amount of money and that it was mine. There must’ve been a catch. Struggling, fighting, hustling—I was used to all of those things. They had become muscle memory. Just being given something wasn’t trustworthy. Then again, that something came at the cost of my parents’ lives, so there was a hefty price tag on that one.

Colton was staring at me. More accurately, my lips. His brow was heavy, eyes were glittering with fury, but I recognized the hunger. I’d seen it plenty of times on a boyish face. This one was older, darker, more animalistic.

I swallowed thickly, my throat dry and my body suddenly aware of just how close Colton was.

“Why are you here, Hadley?” he asked slowly, threat and desire threading through his masculine voice.

“To tie up some loose ends.” My voice was huskier than I intended it to be. “Not to rekindle old flames or break up perfectly terrible engagements.” I rolled back my shoulders. “So don’t get your hopes up. You’ll have to get rid of that one,” I waggled my fingers in the direction of the hushed voices, “the old-fashioned way. Which is cheating on her with someone else or murdering her because men hate difficult conversations.” I winked at him. “Now get your fucking hand off the door and let me walk out of here.”

His jaw clenched as he fought some kind of internal battle.

As much as I had turned into someone he didn’t recognize, I was realizing Colton was a stranger to me too. He might’ve looked remarkably similar to what I’d expected him to have grown into, but his sensibility was foreign. He was angrier. More possessive over things that weren’t his—me. There was a wildness to him that he seemed to be wrestling with. One I wouldn’t mind tumbling with, if I were honest.

The straitlaced, small-town, rule-of-law cop Colton didn’t interest me.

The glowering, teeth-gritting, shaking with rage, cursing one did. A whole lot.

He released a puff of breath and opened the door, letting cool air rush in and blow sense over my flushed skin.

I’d already made a very bad decision today by kissing the man I hated… Was I really thinking about kissing the man I used to love? My moral compass had nothing against kissing two men in a day, but I usually avoided ones with such serious implications.

“I’m not here to make your life harder or more complicated, Colton.” I rubbed my temples. “I’m here because I need something. Because I need … closure.” Not entirely a lie, I just didn’t disclose that the closure was killing a werewolf he didn’t know existed. “Then I’m gone again. I won’t be coming back. Once I get my closure, there won’t be anything here for me.” I didn’t say “not even you” because it was implied and a tad dramatic.

Colton opened his mouth, looking like he was going to say something, then he just nodded. I knew he was full of questions. It was cruel of me to not at least give him finely crafted lies about where I’d been. But lying was my life. I couldn’t do my job without lies. And though I could lie as easily as breathe, I really didn’t want to have to do it to Colton. Omission was better.

“Good night, Hadley,” he sighed, a surrender.

“Good night, Colton,” I replied, somehow not feeling victorious. “Thank your parents for a great dinner. It’s not often I get New Zealand lamb and a fistfight in the same evening.”

He shook his head, swallowing a smile as I walked out the door.

I didn’t look back. Didn’t do any of that angsty, wistful bullshit. I got in my car and drove off. I had work to do.

Earlier, I had absolutely no hunch about who my murderous witch was. Now, I had at least one lead.

Angela Stone.

Fiancée to my childhood sweetheart, strangely strong, a massive bitch, and she held a grudge against me for just existing.

I smiled as I pressed on the gas.