Page 24 of Wolf's Gambit

“I don’t think they see you at all.”

As I looked at him in surprise, he gave me that half smile again. “You don’t know me,” I told him, my voice croaky and dry. “Or my pack.”

Cannon tilted his head to the side slightly. “Don’t I?” He dipped his head in a brief nod and walked back toward the store. Leaving me completely confused about our entire exchange or how the heck I was going to explain this to Kris.

My brother didn’t disappoint.

I was rolling meatballs when he came charging through the door. “It wasn’t my fault!” It was embarrassing how many times we started a conversation like this.

Kris threw his jacket on the sofa as he glared at me. “What did I say?” he demanded.

“You said make you dinner. How was I to know he’d be at the store?”

“And you were flirting with his brother?”

“I was what?” Shaking my head, I picked up another handful of beef. “Who’s his brother…oh.” Realization dawned on me. “Nikan?”

Kris’s unamused stare said it all.

“He introduced himself to me. You taught me to be polite.”

“Not to them!” Kris said with exasperation. “Why are you so difficult?”

As I went to defend myself, a wave of dizziness hit me. Staggering, I dropped the meatballs. “Shit.”

“Kezia?” Kris sprang forward. “Are you okay?”

CHAPTER 7

Kezia

A surge of warmth erupted in my belly, my stomach muscles clenching so unexpectedly and tightly that they caused me to double over in pain. “Oh, shit.” Gasping, I clutched at my sides. “That’s one hell of a stitch,” I told my brother through gritted teeth as I straightened.

“Kezia?”

“Mm-hmm?” Another sharp stab in my gut had me bending over again. “What the hell is this?”

“Your heat.” I heard his growl, and then I was being lifted off my feet. “I need to get you to the hall.”

“I can walk!” I protested as my brother ignored me, and with a hurried step, he opened the front door. As we neared town, I felt it. The sudden stillness of those nearby. Of the males nearby. “Kris?”

“Shh, Kez, don’t speak and hold everything in,” he warned me. Another stab in my gut had me clutching his shirt as I bit into my fist, keeping the groan of pain at bay. “I know, sis. I know it hurts. Hold it in for me,” Kris ordered soothingly as he stroked my back.

It did hurt. It hurt like a thousand venomous snakes all biting at once. But even through the pain, I knew what my brother was telling me. Any sound of pain or need from me, in my heat, would cause the men to react. I was an unbred wolf in her first heat and potent to the surrounding wolves. Their wolves were riding their senses now, not the men.

“I’m fighting,” I whispered to my brother as he cradled me closer, his long strides eating up the distance between our cottage and the hall.

“You’re so strong, Kez. Hold it a little longer,” he whispered.

My head burrowed into his neck as another wave of heat and pain crashed over me. All I could feel was my heat exploding, but I also heard my brother’s warning growls to others as he hurried through our village.

Not able to hold back the tears any longer, I let them fall free as my back tried to arch in pain, made more intolerable as I forced my body to stay still. Through the agony coursing through my body, I realized we had stopped.

“You need to move,” Kris’s voice was low, guttural, almost intelligible through the growl, his wolf riding close to the surface—a brother protecting his family.

“I want her.”

I dimly recognized the voice, but the crashes of pain washing over me kept me distracted enough.

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