Page 59 of What a Wolf Demands

Short of tying her up, it was the best he could do. He dropped his hand. Then he pulled on his jacket and gestured toward the analog clock on the SUV’s instrument panel. “If I’m not back in twenty minutes, I want you to leave without me.”

“What!” She sat up straighter, alarm in every line of her body. “We didn’t agree to—”

“Keep your voice down,” he said, glancing toward the mansion.

She clamped her mouth shut. Then, voice lowered to a stage whisper, she said, “I’m not leaving you behind.”

“I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t have to.” When she opened her mouth, he lifted a hand, cutting her off. Then he made his voice hard. “I’m not compromising on this, Lily. Twenty minutes. Not a second longer.”

Her jaw took on a stubborn slant.

Without warning, his wolf emerged, its demeanor agitated.

And it had a message. PROTECT, it said along their mental connection. Protect this one.

“Nice of you to show up,” he told it. Before the beast could disappear again, he looked into Lily’s eyes and drew on the wolf’s power, putting just enough push behind his words to make them stick. “You wait twenty minutes, then you leave.” When she looked ready to protest, he added an extra push for good measure. “That’s an order.”

She didn’t like it. Revolt simmered in her gaze. But she must have sensed his resolve—and the power of a true command—because she gave a terse nod. “All right.”

He put a hand on the door. “The address for the Lodge is already programmed into the GPS.”

Her mouth tightened, but she didn’t argue.

It shouldn’t have mattered—her anger. But for some stupid reason, he didn’t want to part ways on a bad note.

Fool. He gave himself a mental shake. Focus on the mission. Isn’t that what he told his wolves? Distractions could kill as easily as an enemy blow.

Without another thought, he popped the door and got out, his senses tuned to the surrounding swamp and the stretch of road ahead. Just as he went to shut the door, Lily called his name.

He stopped, his eyes flying to hers.

She’d leaned across the console, her body straining toward his. Her anger disintegrated, revealing the worry beneath. “You said . . .” She drew in a shuddering breath. “Just make sure I don’t have to leave without you.”

A heartbeat passed . . . two. Then, eyes locked with her green ones, he made a promise he wasn’t entirely sure he could keep. He just knew he’d do every damn thing in his power to try.

“I will,” he told her. “And when I say I’ll do something, I mean it.”

10

Lily watched the little clock on the SUV’s instrument panel. The car was so quiet she imagined she could hear the tiny gears of the minute hand inching it around the face. It had been nearly twenty minutes, and there was no sign of Dom.

Where the hell was he? She looked at the mansion in the distance. What was going on in there?

This was a stupid, stupid idea. She gnawed at her lower lip, her gaze on the loup-garou pack headquarters. What had she been thinking, pressuring Dom to come here? To walk in there alone? It would have been smarter to go straight to New York, where she could have petitioned Maxime Simard to contact her Alpha about Bart.

Except that plan counted on Luc leaving Bart unharmed in the meantime.

Hell, maybe he didn’t even have Bart. Maybe he’d been bluffing when told Dom he’d taken the bar owner prisoner.

But that didn’t really make sense. Luc hadn’t known she was in the hotel room when he tossed out that threat. If he had, there’s no way he would have left without her. So why tell Dom he’d captured Bart? As far as Luc knew, Dom cared nothing for her. And Bart was nothing to a hitman from the New York Territory. Dom’s job was to hunt down fugitives and deliver them to justice. He could have killed her on sight if he deemed it necessary, and wolves in every territory would have hailed him as a hero.

A little voice spoke in her head. So why didn’t he?

Out of nowhere, heat rushed through her, memories of the night before crowding her mind. He’d been sent to apprehend her, possibly kill her. Instead, he’d sheltered her, protected her from her enemies, and given her the most incredible orgasms of her life.

And now he was risking his life to save her friend—a man he’d never met and had no reason to care about.

She fumbled for her door handle. The gun, forgotten in her lap, tumbled to her feet and hit the floor mat with a dull thud. She gasped, waiting for a bullet to blast through the SUV.

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