Page 14 of Rejected Wolf Mate

She snorted, rolling her eyes. “You’re one to talk. You have a harder head than a marble statue.”

“Come on,” I teased. “Out of the two of us, we both know you’re the more stubborn.”

She raised an eyebrow, her lips curled into a smirk as her eyes sparked with something between amusement and annoyance.

“Are you sure about that?” she said. “Because I still remember how we got together.”

I cracked a grin. “So do I. If I remember correctly, you kept saying no when I asked you out. Seems pretty stubborn to me.”

The eyebrow stayed raised, the smirk growing wider. “You’re the one who kept asking,” she said. “And if I remember correctly, you’re the one who got their wish.”

There might have been a slightly bitter edge to her voice, but I couldn’t tell for certain. Something about it struck me as off. I pushed it to the side. It had been a while. I probably just wasn’t reading her as well as I used to. But the quip had brought back memories.

I used to be a drifter and had wandered into a random shifter town one day. I needed money, so I picked up a few odd jobs here and there. Back then, I’d been sort of wandering aimlessly. I hadn’t figured out exactly what I wanted to do or anything like that, so I worked in a shop for a bit. Next to the shop was a small restaurant where a certain very attractive blonde worked, and she caught my eye the first time I saw her.

I ended up asking to be sat in her section and started chatting her up. I was surprised at the easy banter that started between us. It felt more natural than it had with any other woman. I realized then and there that I couldn’t let her get away.

So I went back, again and again. Finally, I ended up asking her out.

Astrid said no. When I asked why, she said she had too much going on. That I seemed nice, but dating wasn’t in the cards.

So I kept coming back, and we started talking more. I asked her out again. She said no.

When I asked for the third time, she asked if I was ever going to stop. When I told her probably not, she finally agreed to go on a date, and things had developed from there.

Back in the present, I said, “In that case, you should know I’m going to keep saying you should stay put.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but I shook my head.

“If you keep arguing, I’ll tie you up until you’ve healed more,” I said. “End of story.”

She scowled again and grumbled, “You’re impossible. You know that, right?”

I grinned. “I know.”

***

“She told me they kept her in a smallish room for most of the time,” I said. “And none of the questions she remembers them asking her are of any use. They don’t give away any information we didn’t already know.”

The entirety of the Silver Wolves listened to my report, leaning in, eyes locked on me, focusing intently. I could see the gears turning in every expression, each of them trying to figure out the best strategy and where to go from here. Old habits really did die hard. At heart, we would always be spec ops. Situations like this just proved it beyond a doubt.

“She was also pretty banged up for a lot of it, based on her story,” Jameson said. “So there might be parts she doesn’t remember quite right.”

“Yeah,” I said, trying not to clench my teeth. Astrid had been slowly healing since arriving, but just the memory of those injuries and knowing what she’d gone through was enough to drive me and my wolf into a fury. The Gray Wolf deserved to be torn limb from limb because of what he had done to her. I just hoped I was the one who got to do it.

“So, there’s really nothing we can use?” Mark asked. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but she’s kind of a terrible witness.”

“We know the Gray Wolf knows about us and is willing to go after us,” I pointed out. “That’s something.”

“Whatever he’s planning, it definitely seems like he considers us a threat,” Mark said. “Otherwise, I can’t imagine he would go to the trouble to kidnap a woman you haven’t spoken to in years.”

“Maybe she was the easiest target,” I said. “Most everyone else that the Silver Wolves care about are here in town. If they somehow found a connection between me and her, they might have gone for it because there were no other options.”

“Do you think it was for leverage or because they thought she might know something?” Mark asked.

“Based on Astrid’s comments, it seems more like it might have been for leverage. Either as a trap or in case we started looking into him too much.”

“In which case, his plan massively backfired,” Mark pointed out.

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