Jaxen POV
Scarlett’s last words still scraped under my skin like broken glass when I walked into my mother’s kitchen.
My wolf paced behind my ribs, restless, ears flat.
He hated the leftover sting of Scarlett’s voice almost as much as I did.
Mom looked me over the way she used to size up a pup who’d just torn through her prize rose bushes, already deciding I was a disappointment.
I didn’t wait for the lecture.
“You want a DNA test, Mom? Because of the way you’re staring, I’m thinking you wish I’d crawled out of somebody else’s den.”
Silence slammed down.
Every pair of eyes in the room locked onto me.
My claws flexed once against the insides of my fingertips and then forced themselves back.
Even if she wanted to pretend I wasn’t hers, the proof lived in every hard line of me.
