Page 44 of The Wolf I Sworn To Hate

Xyla stared at her father. “Look, I’m a grown woman, and I can do what I want and spend time with whomever I please. I don’t have to answer to you.”

“Where’s Sean?”

“Do I look like his babysitter?”

She pushed past him and headed for the kitchen to see if Franny needed help. Guilt overwhelmed her for not being honest with her father and true to Sean. Xyla felt as though she was being physically and emotionally ripped apart. She didn’t want to upset her father, but she was falling in love with Sean.

17

Sean

Sean slipped in a few minutes later and took a quick five-minute shower. He thought about melting some snow in a bucket and washing some clothes, but he still had a pair of pants, underwear, socks, and a shirt that couldn’t stand on their own. He would have to wash clothes soon, though.

He meandered through the house and found Sawyer hanging out in the library, reading by the fire. Sean plopped in the chair across from Sawyer.

Sawyer looked up from the book and raised his eyebrows. “How’d it go?”

“How did what go?”

Sawyer grinned. “Don’t play dumb with me. I saw you and Xyla slip into their cabin.”

“Oh. That. Well, she initiated sex again, although I won’t deny the fact that I anticipated it when we went into the cabin. It was pretty great.” Sean grimaced. “She’s terrified of her father, though. She asked me to wait a few minutes before coming inside because she didn’t want to deal with her father.”

“You can’t really blame her for that, although it didn’t work. I heard him raking her over the coals when she came in.”

“Such a pleasant man to be around.” Sean rubbed his face and leaned back in the chair. “I have a ton of mixed feelings about her. Her scent haunts me. Before, when she was acting like a spoiled, snobby bitch, I detected her scent, but then it just pissed me off.”

“And now?”

“It’s haunting. I feel drawn in and it drives me crazy.”

Sawyer grinned.

“I know what you’re going to say. You think that means that she’s my fated mate.”

“Yep.”

Sean shook his head vehemently. “There’s no way. First, she’s human.”

“You know, even though I was in god-forsaken countries, I still got the newsletter sent out by the Nightshade Wolf Shifter Pack that talks about everything that is happening. I know that Angie, who is a human, is mated with an alpha of the wolf shifter pack in the shifter world. Beth and Savvy are witches, and they married Rory, a wolf shifter, and Conner, the brother of our pack’s alpha. Don’t give me a line of crap about how she can’t be your mate because she’s human.”

Sean was quiet for a second. “I feel like I’m betraying Ivy. You know I loved her more than anything, and she was my fated mate.”

“But she’s gone now and has been for a very long time. Ivy loved you so very much, and I promise that she would want you to be happy and find love again. You know that.”

“I do like Xyla, but I’m not in love with her.”

Sawyer closed his eyes and shook his head. “You’re grasping at straws here. You know as well as I do that just because someone is your fated mate doesn’t mean that you are going toautomatically fall in love. These things take time, but in the end, it will work itself out.”

“Maybe, but in the end, it really doesn’t matter. There is no way that Elliot would allow Xyla to be with me, and she’s not strong enough to defy her father.”

“You never know. One day, when she figures out that she’s in love with you, she just might. It’s pretty obvious that she loves you just by the way she looks at you.”

“I guess. We’ll see.”

Sean grabbed a book and sat down with it, intending to read until dinner. However, he fell asleep before he got through the first page. The next thing he knew, Sawyer was shaking him awake.

“Either that’s a really boring book or you’re exhausted.”

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