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Okay…
“Yeah, me too,” I said down the phone. “It’s nice to hear from you now though. You said there was something important you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Yes,” Mitchell replied. “Are you alone right now? Are your mom and Joe home?”
Ace growled, telling me he could hear what Mitchell was saying. I gave him an annoyed look. He needed to cool his jets. I didn’t need Mitchell overhearing him on the other end.
Ace ignored my glare, put his hands on my waist, and pressed me against the kitchen counter. I tried pushing him back a step, but he wouldn’t budge.
“Dorothy?” Mitchell asked.
“Sorry.” I did my best to ignore my very severe-looking boyfriend. “No, Mom and Joe are out for dinner. I’m babysitting my younger brothers tonight.” I paused. “Did you need to talk to Mom?”
My shoulders tightened at the thought that he might only be calling me to get a hold of my mom.
“No. I called to talk to you. I wanted to get an update on your life. How’s school?”
Huh?
I found it hard to believe he was calling just to catch up after all this time.
Besides, too much had happened over the last three years. I couldn’t fit it all in a single phone call. Nor did I think he would care.
“School is…good. Great. It’s my senior year, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to finish out the year with a nearly perfect GPA—”
“Uh-huh, that’s great,” he interrupted. “How about your love life?”
I veered back. “My love life?” Not exactly a topic I thought my birth father would be interested in.
“Hang up,” Ace said abruptly.
He tried to grab my phone, but I quickly slapped his hand away. I glared at him.
What the heck was that about?
No, ?I mouthed at him. I slapped his chest to make sure he knew I was annoyed with him.
“Yeah, I heard through the grapevine that you and Ace finally got together,”
Mitchell said. “Is that true?”
Once again, Ace tried to grab my phone out of my hand, but I pulled away before he could.
I covered the microphone so Mitchell wouldn’t hear. “What is your problem?”
“Hang up the phone,” Ace demanded again. “He shouldn’t be talking to you without your parents here. He shouldn’t even have your number.”
“He can talk to me whenever he wants! He’s my father!” I shot back.
“Dorothy?” Mitchell asked through the speaker of my cell. “Did you hear me?”
I pressed the phone back to my ear. “Yeah, I heard you—”
Ace squeezed my hips in warning and violently yanked my body against his. “Doe, I’m not kidding,” he growled. “Hang up the damn phone.”
“I really just need you to answer the damn question, Dorothy,” Mitchell continued in my ear. “Have you officially mated with that fucking monster or not?”
I froze. “What…? Did you just call Ace a monster?”
Ace made another attempt to grab my phone, but I was ready this time and ducked under his arms, quickly moving across the kitchen.
“Doe!” Ace called after me.
I was able to avoid being caught by him by putting the kitchen island between us and moving every time he did so I always remained on the opposite side. Ace’s snarled.
“Come on, Dorothy, drop the act,” Mitchell continued. “The OPS ruled that Ace wasn’t allowed to mate with you before you’re eighteen.
“So, if the rumors are true, and Ace has brainwashed you into mating, the OPS is liable to take you from him.
“They can help you get away. We can figure out a way for you to come live with me, far away from any damn werewolves—”
I was so engrossed in what Mitchell was saying that I didn’t even notice Ace had rounded the counter.
He pounced on me and grabbed my wrist, causing my grip to falter and my phone to slip out of my hand. Before I could catch it, it landed with a splash in the sink full of dirty dishwater behind me.
“Ace!” I yelled. I shoved him away from me and spun around. “My phone!”
Ace pressed against my back, looking over my shoulder. “Crap! Here, let me get it.”
He reached into the murky water—taking a suspiciously long time to fish around for it—and pulled out my cell. The screen was black. He clicked the button on the side. Nothing.
“I think it’s broken,” he said.
I gaped down at the phone.
“I’m sorry.”
I whirled around and punched him in the chest. “You did that on purpose, you jerk!”
“No, I didn’t—”
“Yes, you did! You didn’t want me talking to my birth father, so you made me drop my phone in the water!”
“Doe, that’s ridiculous. I may not have wanted you talking to him right now, but that doesn’t mean I would purposefully break your phone. It was an accident. I’ll get you a new one, I promise.”
I scrubbed my hands down my face with a defeated groan. “Ugh, my head hurts,” I whimpered into my palms.
I hadn’t gotten a migraine this bad for a while. Only mild ones I barely even noticed, but this one was hitting me with a shocking intensity, right between my eyes.
Ace wrapped his arms around me. “Fuck, I’m sorry, Doe. What did Mitchell say to you? Do you remember?”
I frowned at him. “Of course I remember.” I was just talking to him, after all. “He asked me about school. And you. And then he said…um…he said something weird…
He told me…”
I stared blankly ahead, my thoughts suddenly extremely muddled within my inflamed skull. A fresh wave of pain rolled over me, causing me to wince and my stomach to roll.
I dug my fingers into my temples. “I swear, I remember. My headache is just making it a little hard to think right now.”
Ace let out a sigh. Did he sound…relieved?
“It’s okay, Doe. We can talk about it when you feel better.”
I nodded. Maybe that was for the best. “Why didn’t you want me to talk to him, anyway?”
Ace rubbed my sides. “Because Mitchell doesn’t have custody over you. Your parents do. He’s not supposed to talk to you without them present. That’s why he asked if you were alone.
“He’s up to something, and I don’t like it.”