Page 88 of Unwilling Wolf

She jerked her chin up. “That, Mr. Jennings, is none of your business.”

“So I had this thought,” he said, ignoring her. “An epiphany, really. What if you haven’t consummated your marriage yet? Then it can still be undone, you see. And for a wolf?” he asked low. “A wolf has to claim your body to make you his. You’re still up for grabs, Eliza.”

Lord, how she wished she could leave without causing a scene. A piercing ache had settled in her chest, and she wanted to slap Wyatt. Too many onlookers were watching the dancers though, so she curtsied and backed up to make room for the first couple to skip down the middle of the two lines.

He lifted his voice over the distance between them. “You deserve better than a man who fails in his marital duties, Eliza. You need a man who will protect you, give you his fealty, and respect a fine lady such as yourself.” Wyatt leaned forward and rested his cold, reptilian gaze on her. “You need a man to make you feel things. To touch your body.”

“Stop,” she whispered in a ragged murmur. She was close to crying, and people were staring. He was speaking so loudly, people could hear what he was saying.

He pulled back with a hollow smirk. “Let Anna have Garret. You belong with a man of wealth and merit. For God’s sake, at least with a man who is attracted to you.”

Such conversation was wholly inappropriate! She was shocked into silence.

“Garret Shaw doesn’t even want to bed you.” His voice echoed over the sound of the fiddle, and the dancers around them stumbled to a stop. One of the women close to them gasped, but Eliza was too mortified to look around and find out who it was.

Garret came out of nowhere like a tornado, and the fist that connected with Wyatt’s jaw cracked so loud, it would haunt Eliza’s dreams.

The violence of that fight shocked her to her bones. They were so fast. Too fast.

Burke and Lenny got involved immediately, trying to bodily pull Garret off Wyatt, but Garret was relentless. He was beating him bloody, and when a snarl ripped out of him, Eliza screamed to cover it up. She didn’t know why she’d done that. A moment of desperation, perhaps?

She feigned a faint and hit the ground hard, forearm pressed to her forehead.

Hands grabbed her and bodily pulled her toward the door. It was Lenny. Eliza eased her eye open just wide enough to see Garret roaring obscenities at Wyatt, who was on his hands and knees in the middle of the dance floor, blood streaming from gashes on his face.

Burke was doing his best to get Garret to the door, and for the most part, Garret was allowing it.

“This ain’t the time, that’s for sure,” he yelled at Wyatt. “This ain’t over. You better sleep with one fuckin’ eye open!”

The brutality in his voice stole Eliza’s breath. He’d meant every single one of those words.

Clint Jennings strode from the shadows to Garret, and Garret rounded on him, jammed a finger in his face. “Hear the truth in my voice. You start this now, I’ll kill your whole fuckin’ family in front of everyone.”

Garret’s eyes were blazing an intense blue. Clint held his position, nostrils flaring with every breath as he watched Garret shake off Burke’s hand and stride toward the exit.

The last thing Eliza saw before Lenny dragged her out of the barn was Anna, standing in the middle of the dance floor. She’d never witnessed such an enraged look on a woman in all her life, and that look was aimed at her.

Eliza held her gaze.

The feeling was mutual.

She hated that awful woman right back.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Eliza ignored Garret as they made their way to the wagon. She could feel his attention on her, but she had nothing to say to that…that…arsehole!

“What were you thinking?” Garret barked.

Eliza’s pent-up anger exploded. She rounded on him and shoved him in the chest as hard as she could. “On which part?” she yelled. “Huh? What was I thinking when you took Anna Jennings to the dance floor in front of the entire town?” She pitched her voice even louder. “The day after they tried to ruin me? Or perhaps you are asking me what I was thinking when I faked a faint so you wouldn’t turn into a damn wolf in front of everyone? What was I thinking when I was still trying to protect you, even after you hurt me! You’ve got me. I don’t know what I was thinking either.”

Garret’s rage turned to uncertainty in his eyes.

“Or what do I think about the part where you were nice to me all day, and then you allow that brute of a man to call out our sham of a marriage in front of the entire town. Have I not been through enough?”

Garret’s lips parted as if he wanted to say something, but he hesitated.

“What is it, Garret? You can call me yours for the entire town to see, but I can’t feel the same about you? Don’t worry. I know in your twisted mind you will turn this on me somehow. You’ll come up with half a dozen ways I handled everything all wrong. And hang my feelings, right?” She shoved him again. “What do you care what I was thinking?”

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