Read Online Moonlight Kin 4: Tristan by Jordan Summers - Free Book Online

between you two. There seemed to be—”
    “No!” Tristan cut off whatever he was going
to say. “You know I do not mix with humans. All I see is bait when
I look at her. Bait to catch the Darkling.”
    His cold words left Izzy chilled to the bone.
She shouldn’t be surprised. Tristan had said from the outset that
he didn’t care for humans, yet somehow she’d convinced herself that
the frigid exterior was just a front.
    She’d been a fool.
    Izzy stood. She didn’t need to hear anymore.
She thought of Stone’s offer of help. Would it still stand? She
glanced once more at the closed door.
    At any moment, Tristan might return. Izzy
needed to contact Stone, if for no other reason than to tell him
that he was safe because the monster was with her. They all were.
    She pulled out the cell phone he’d given her
and turned it on. Izzy found the number and sent a quick text. Less
than a minute later, she received a response.
    I’ll help you get away. Just tell me where
you are.
    Izzy replied. I’m someplace you can’t help
me. I’ll let you know if and when we leave.
    Take care of yourself. The monsters aren’t
to be trusted.
    Izzy knew that better than most. Tristan had
just squashed the tiny bit of doubt lingering inside of her. She
turned the phone off and shoved it into her purse. Izzy looked at
her half-eaten sandwich. Suddenly she wasn’t hungry anymore.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Tristan sat across from Pierre in his ornate
office. He’d never seen so much gilded gold outside of a Parisian
palace. He didn’t like the way the Alpha looked at him. It was as
if he knew something that Tristan did not.
    “We need a place to stay. Preferably
someplace remote, so that I will know when the Darkling draws
near,” he said.
    “No problem. I know just the place.” Pierre
sat back. “How does the woman feel about being used as bait?”
    Tristan shrugged casually. “I hadn’t planned
to tell her.”
    Pierre watched him closely. “What if
something happens to her?”
    Tristan’s gut clenched. Nothing was going to
happen to Isabel.
    “You cannot always protect bait,” Pierre
said. “Accidents happen.”
    Tristan flinched.
    “Are you sure there is nothing going on
between you two?” Pierre asked. “I’ve never seen you so wound
up.”
    “Positive,” Tristan’s vehement response
didn’t have the effect he’d hoped.
    Pierre grinned, looking positively enthralled
by the whole conversation. “You say that the woman is a means to an
end, yet she carries your scent.”
    Tristan blanched. “I had no choice but to
touch her,” he said. “When I first encountered her, she refused to
come with me.”
    Pierre’s face hardened, along with all the
muscles in his body. “When you say touch, what exactly do you
mean?”
    There was one hard-and-fast rule within the
Moonlight Kin. A woman could be coerced, but never be forced into
physical intimacy. Doing such a thing was an automatic death
sentence for any Were.
    Tristan had gladly carried that sentence out
a few times over the years, which was why he gnashed his teeth at
the Alpha’s insinuation. “I had to pick her up and carry her
someplace private so we could talk. That’s how my scent got on
her.”
    Pierre relaxed a fraction. “It
seemed...stronger.”
    He thought about the kiss, and his whole body
tensed. There was no sense in lying to the Alpha. They had ways of
ferreting out information. “She forced me to kiss her.”
    If Pierre’s eyebrows rose any higher, they’d
disappear beneath his hairline. “How exactly did Isabel do that?”
he asked. “Did she hold you at gunpoint?”
    Tristan knew what he thought. It would be
what any Alpha of the Moonlight Kin would think, when it came to
him. Tristan wasn’t known for being emotionally or physically
demonstrative, unless he killed someone. And even then, emotions
rarely played a part. He wasn’t the type to keep females
around.
    Contrary to what they all believed, Tristan
wasn’t a glacier and he wasn’t