Free Moonlight Kin 4: Tristan by Jordan Summers

things.”
    “I’m not sure what you want me to say,” she
said.
    Pierre tilted his head. “You are a unique
woman,” he said, surprising her once again. He rose from the settee
and walked to the door, where he paused. “Contrary to his
appearance, Tristan wasn’t always made of ice. There was a time
when he was a lot like you.”
    Izzy couldn’t imagine Tristan ever being like
her.
    “Thank you for...” Pierre’s brow furrowed,
and his voice trailed off.
    “What?” Izzy asked, more confused than
ever.
    “For thawing him a little,” Pierre said, then
opened the door.
    Tristan stood in the hall, his hand raised to
knock on the parlor door. He had an unreadable expression on his
face.
    Pierre grinned. “Right on time I see.”
    As if on cue, Tristan scowled. “Let’s go,
Isabel,” he said. “I have the keys to the cabin. Thank you again
for your assistance, Alpha. I will let the Lycanian Elders know of
your aid.”
    Pierre laughed. “You do that.”
     
    * * * * *
     

Chapter Six
     
    Izzy waited until Tristan climbed behind the
wheel of his silver F150 pickup truck and pulled out into traffic
before she confronted him. She hadn’t planned to bring the subject
up, but Pierre’s questions had rattled her, and Tristan had been
acting distant ever since they’d left the house. Frankly, the whole
situation pissed her off.
    Tristan had no right to be angry or pouty or
however snowmen acted when they got their carrot noses out of
joint. Izzy was the one being taken advantage of. She wasn’t the
one in the wrong. He was.
    “So,” she said, itching for a fight. “How
exactly do you plan to use me as bait?”
    To his credit, he didn’t flinch, but his
glacial features tightened.
    Didn’t think I knew about your little plan,
did you?
    “Did Pierre tell you that?” he asked.
    “Does it matter how I found out?” Izzy wasn’t
about to let him know that she’d eavesdropped on their
conversation. There was confessing and then there was confessing .
    Tristan exhaled. “The Darkling wants you. We
have to give it what it wants,” he said. “There is no other way to
draw it out.”
    Izzy crossed her arms. The move pushed her
breasts up. “Do I get a say in any of this?”
    He glanced at her chest, then his expression
hardened. “No,” he said then returned his attention to the
road.
    He doesn’t care about you, remember?
    “Well I’m sorry to rain on your party,
Snowflake, but you’re just going to have to find the monster
without me,” she said. “Because I have no intention of helping
you.”
    Izzy might’ve helped him, if he’d bothered to
ask, but he hadn’t. Instead, he’d planned to deceive her.
    “The Darkling doesn’t want me,” Tristan said.
“It wants you. It followed you here from Oregon. It knows you’re
here. It won’t give up until I stop it.”
    “Sounds like you need me more than I need
you,” Izzy said. “That must suck for you.”
    Tristan laughed, but the sound sent shivers
down her spine. “It matters not,” he said. “You will help
me.”
    “I will not,” she parroted.
    Izzy stared out the window. She didn’t like
anyone giving her orders. She’d had her fill of them when her
parents had her locked up in the asylum.
    “You either help me or everyone you love will
die,” Tristan said. “Just like your friend, Celina Gibson.”
    Her head whipped around in surprise. At the
same time, a wave of pain struck. Mindy had told her about Celina’s
death. Told her about Slade, the man who’d killed her. Izzy had
already known that her best friend had passed because she’d caught
a glimpse of her spirit shortly after her death.
    Izzy didn’t like having the incident thrown
in her face. And she damn sure didn’t like being threatened. She’d
done everything she could to lead the danger away. It just hadn’t
been enough.
    She glared at Tristan. She’d known he was
stubborn and beyond uptight, but Izzy hadn’t thought he was capable
of killing innocents. She’d