Page 55 of Wolf Obsessed

“Do you think he’s really coming tonight?” Willa took a bite.

Lincoln pushed his food around his plate. “I do. My dad almost never changes his mind once it’s made up.”

He looked around the room before lowering his voice. “Sawyer would have let us know if plans had changed.”

Willa stopped chewing, and her face paled.

Erica shoved her bowl away again. “I definitely can’t eat now.”

Tears welled in Erica’s eyes, and her cheeks reddened, making her look younger than she was. “I’m scared, Sloane.”

I set my fork down and reached over to pull her to me and give her a hug. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. We aren’t going to let Alpha Dane take anyone.”

Willa squinted, tears brimming in her eyes. “How can you be so sure?”

I swallowed. I wasn’t sure. “Because we can’t lose. And we won’t.”

Willa dabbed at her eyes with her thumb, and her other hand went to her belly.“I’ve already lost so much. I can’t lose anyone else.”

Jacob wrapped his arms around her, cradling her to him.“Hey, you won’t. Everything is going to be okay.”

Her face crumpled.“I hate this. I hate waiting.”

She wasn’t the only one.

I speared another piece of meat and put it to my lips before forcing it in. I hated force feeding myself my mother’s cooking.It wastoo good to do that.

I pulled Erica’s bowl in front of her once again. “You do need to eat, sweetie.”

Erica made a pouty face and sat up as she stirred her food.

Lincoln put his hand on my thigh, giving it a squeeze. We shared a look. The vein by his temple throbbed, and he bounced his leg lightly but hard enough to make the table rattle.

I picked up my glass of water and took a gulp. “Do you remember that summer we came to your pack and went to the lake swimming?”

Willa’s eyes lit up, and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “You’re talking about the time there was a snake in the lake, and we ran up onto the rocks.”

I giggled. The two of us had huddled together, squeezing each other so hard we’d left fingerprint-sized bruises on each other’s arms. “We stood up on those rocks forever while Brandon, Ian, and Darrin fished that snake out of the water.”

Willa laughed so hard she snorted. “A good thing, too. Wasn’t there more than one?”

I laughed too. “I think there were three.”

Lincoln squeezed my thigh. “Are you afraid of a little snake?”

Willa’s hands shot out, opening fully to show their length. “There was nothing little about them. They were huge!”

I bobbed my head. “At least five feet.”

Lincoln patted my thigh again. “Sounds awful.”

“Darrin ended up fishing them all out.” My chest tightened at the memory of him. “Brandon and Ian made a big show about looking like they were helping.”

The smile slipped from Willa’s face too. “It didn’t stop us from going back to swim there the next day. That was a good summer.”

I licked my lips and looked down at my plate. “It was.”

Life had been simple then. There was nothing to worry over. No war. No maniac alpha. Just a bunch of kids having fun. We were going to get that back.

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