Page 39 of Reformed Wolf

Jude was a good sport, catching Mal and pretending to take the hit. He groaned dramatically and let his head loll to the side like he’d passed out.

Our packmates clapped and cheered, then Mal ran around and demanded high-fives from everyone. Halfway through his victory lap of the clearing, he started to slow. He opened his mouth in a giant yawn and sat down in the grass to pick dandelions.

Brody shook his head, laughing at his son. “I think it’s N-A-P time.”

“No, no nap! I don’t wanna!” Mal shouted, pushing up to run for the trees.

His dad sighed. “I regret teaching him how to spell. He’s too damn smart for his own good—or my good, anyway.” Brody waved as he left to chase after Mal.

As everyone got back to their work, Dylan swaggered over, dirty knees and all, and I was severely tempted to drag him back to bed. “Hey,” he purred, reaching up and plucking a leaf from my hair.

“Did you like watching me win again?” I asked, cocky as hell as I kissed my mate, reaching around to tease at that crease at the hem of his shorts with the tips of my fingers. I wondered if it was just my imagination or was there a bit of slick there?

He chuckled. “I dunno, are you sure you won? Because it looked an awful lot like the toddler won to me.”

Ouch. “Hey, I helped,” I defended.

“Yes, yes, you’re very strong.” Dylan pinched my stomach, and I jerked back, trying not to laugh. Oh no, now that he knew I was ticklish, there was no way he wouldn’t take advantage of my weakness. “Just let me finish weeding the garden, then maybe you can show me some of those moves, pinning me to the mattress. Or maybe you could let me win…” He turned in my arms, winking once over his shoulder as he walked away, swaying those damn hips, and I laughed, my heart fit to burst. I was so in awe that he was mine.

Reluctantly, cock straining behind my zipper, I got back to work. I definitely wanted to wrap this up so I could go wrestle with my mate. I lined up the next measured plank and nailed it in place with a few swings of the hammer.

“He’s way too good for you,” Jude teased.

He probably expected me to argue with him, but all I said was, “He sure is. This camp is too basic for someone like him, and he’s given up too much. That’s why I want to do something nice for him. Something… modern.”

“Like what?” Shan asked warily, measuring out some plywood.

I shrugged, hammering in the nails on the next plank and tugging on the board to confirm it wasn’t going anywhere. “Well, maybe we could install a few solar panels or maybe like a septic field?”

Shan’s eyebrows jumped. “We’d have to clear out a lot of trees for something like that.”

I grunted, scruffing a hand through my hair. “I know, I’m just thinking out loud. But what about, like, a gravity shower? I saw one at that prepper store, and you can heat the water using the sun.” I couldn’t contain my smile as I peeked over at Dylan where he was laughing at something Damon said. “Can you imagine Dylan’s reaction to a hot shower?”

This overwhelming need I felt to protect and care for my mate, it could only be described as alpha. As laidback and relaxed as I’d always been, I kinda thought I was immune to it… and then Dylan came along, and the surge of emotion was enough to carry me out to sea—and I would be grateful to drown in it. My smile dipped at the edges. “He deserves better than this. He deserves everything I can give him and most of what I can’t.”

Shan was shaking his head, and I could tell by his sigh that he was about to drop bad news. He hated having to say no. “Tris, we can’t afford all this.”

I knew the whole money argument was coming. “You forget, I’m the one who talks with Griffin at the bank. I know exactly what we can and can’t afford. Besides, what’s the point of investing our money if we don’t spend some of it every now and then?”

Shan pinched the bridge of his nose, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Tris, what you’re proposing isn’t going to cost a few grand. This isn’t like, a generator and an inflatable kiddie pool. We’re talking infrastructure.”

“And we will all benefit from it,” I reasoned. “Don’t tell you wouldn’t love to offer your mate a chilled glass of wine on your anniversary—and you could because we would have a fridge.”

He bit his lower lip, and his eyes took on a greedy kind of glaze as he imagined everything we could do with electricity. Lights, sure, and music and movies, but we could even get satellite internet!

And yes, okay, the ongoing tally of everything I wanted to build would come with a hefty price tag and would require someone more skilled than I was to install it, but I just happened to know someone who was filthy stinking rich and very well connected, and when it came to Dylan, he was also the one other person who would do anything to make him happy.

“Don’t worry, boss. Leave everything to me.” We were way past due for a visit from my dearest father-in-law.

Shan groaned and rubbed a hand down his face. “Please don’t make me regret this.

Chapter 18

Dylan

The hike to Vesta’s place was a lot longer than I thought it would be. I had a hard time believing a woman as old as she was could make this hike to the camp every few months for the quarterly festivals. It wasn’t like she could drive down, and nobody had carried her piggyback as far as I’d noticed. This wasn’t anything like taking a quick walk to the corner store, and with my hiking buddies taking their sweet-ass time, it was going to take hours and hours to walk there and back.

At the back of our party were Sasha and Stuart, gossiping in voices that weren’t nearly hushed enough—they were talking about Damon and how cute his ass was when he was bent over working in the garden. Next in line behind me was Tara, humming a little tune under her breath. She had a really beautiful voice, but when I’d tried to encourage her to sing a little louder, she’d blushed and shook her head. Apparently singing was the only thing she lacked confidence in.

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