Page 145 of Unwilling Wolf

Eliza’s smile fell from her lips immediately. “Lenny?”

“She’s fine.”

“Burke? Cookie? Wells?”

“They’re alive.” He ticked his head to the side. “Little scarred up.”

She huffed a relieved breath. “Garret Shaw, don’t scare me like that! Everyone drops like flies around me. Except Aunt Elizabeth. She just lives on and on.”

He gripped her shoulders and searched her face. “Eliza, I saw Roy.”

The mention of the man who was so much a father to her drew the air right out of her lungs. “What?” she whispered. “When? Is he okay?”

Garret huffed a laugh and hung his head. “He’s now my Second.”

Chills rippled up her forearms. “Second what? That sounds very important.”

“In a werewolf Pack, there is the Alpha, and there is the Second. He’s the one watching the Pack while I’m gone. He asked me to…” His Adam’s apple dipped low as he swallowed hard and searched her face. “He asked me to bring you home.”

Eliza’s face crumpled, and tears burned her eyes as she rested her forehead against Garret’s chest.

Roy was okay.

Roy was okay.

Roy was home, and he was okay.

Garret cupped her cheek and lifted her gaze to his. “No one will hunt you anymore, Eliza.” A sharpness had taken his eyes. “Clint is dead, and so are his people.”

“What?” she asked on a breath. “What happened?”

“Before you left, Clint Challenged me. It was supposed to just be us—me and him. Fight to the death.” Garret shook his head slowly. “He brought his people. It was a war. It was the final war, Eliza. We are the only Pack in the territory now. The Jenningses are gone. Even Anna has moved away to be with friends of the family. You’re safe.”

A sob escaped her, and she hugged him tight. So tight. She clenched his shirt in her fists and stared up at those twinkling stars with eyes blurred by relieved tears. “I never cared about me, Garret. I was terrified of losing you.”

He slid his hand up her spine to the back of her neck and cupped her head gently as he hugged her. “I want you with me.”

“Silly man,” she said thickly. “Can’t you see? I’ve been with you all along. Why do you think Roy asked you to wed me?”

He eased back and shook his head, eyes full of emotion.

“Because he knew how much you mean to my heart. Since we were children. I’ve always been yours, Garret Shaw. Werewolf or not, we were always meant to be in this moment right here. Your ring on my finger. Your last name on me.”

Garret dropped to his knee and held both of her hands in his strong ones. “Eliza,” he rumbled, looking up at her with those wolf eyes that glowed in the dark. “Will you marry me?”

Oh, she knew exactly what he was doing. Garret was doing it right this time. He was making this a love match. He was taking away the sting of their marriage being a promise to her father. He was claiming her.

He was choosing her.

Bottom lip trembling with emotion, Eliza nodded. She waited until her voice would be steady when she answered him. “I would be honored.”

Chapter Fifty

Aunt Elizabeth had requested Eliza’s presence as she drew her last breaths.

Never in her life would Eliza forget the look on her aunt’s face when she’d met Garret, or when she’d seen the state of her dress as she and Garret had been ushered into Aunt Elizabeth’s room that night after the party.

It felt like so long ago, but it was only two weeks.

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