Page 21 of Auctioned Wolf Bride

“Look, could you get Malcolm or someone to look into it?” Tannen asked. “I would do the research myself, but I don’t know how much I’ll be able to get done in the middle of nowhere.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Mark said. “And I’ll grab a few of the others and go meet the girls. Make sure no one’s trailing them.”

“Great,” Tannen said. “Thanks, Mark.”

He hung up, glancing around the clearing, his entire body tense, ears pricked, waiting for any sign of danger.

“We should get going soon,” he said. “But for now, get some water.”

He pulled out a bottle from his bag and held it to me. I nodded my thanks, then started drinking, and kept drinking. I hadn’t realized how thirsty I was until the water had touched my lips. Finally, I forced myself to stop, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand as I handed the bottle back to him.

“When it comes to it, let me handle Astrid,” I said, bringing up a topic that had been on my mind. “Because Mark wasn’t exaggerating when he said Astrid might kill you.”

“Trust me, I’m well aware,” he said, drinking from the bottle before depositing it back in the bag.

I hesitated, chewing the inside of my cheek as I figured out how to broach the elephant in the room. The one thing thatloomed over both of us but neither of us wanted to talk about, even though we needed to.

“The claiming bond,” I said.

“Yep.” He grimaced. “It was a dirty trick. I couldn’t do anything about it. It was either kill everyone in the clearing and the rest of his gang by myself before they killed both of us, walk away, or go along with it.”

“Do you think there’s actually a way to break it?”

“We’ll find something,” he said. “And I’ll find it. I don’t think either of us wants this.”

The words shouldn’t have stung, but something about the way he said it chafed under my skin. I knew I wasn’t his first pick for a mate, and he certainly wouldn’t have been mine, but that didn’t mean I was content to let him insult me like that.

“Yes, I know how annoying it must be being tied to an absent,” I said.

He looked at me in confusion, the furrowed brow far more attractive than it should have been. Then comprehension dawned, and he shook his head. “It’s nothing to do with you,” he promised. “It’s that I have no interest in claiming anyone, period. It’s not really my style.”

“Really?”

“I like my freedom.”

Right. Of course. I remembered all the rumors around town, about how he slept with a different woman nearly every week. No wonder he wouldn’t want to be tied down by a claiming bond.

“Besides. You’ve made it pretty clear that you don’t want to be claimed by me. Should I be offended?” The lightheartedplayfulness to his tone was one thing, but when I looked in his eyes, there was a genuine sincerity there. As if he was truly concerned about what I thought of him.

“Not you,” I said. “Anyone, really.”

“You like your freedom, too, eh?” He gave a roguish smile that made my heart flutter despite the fact that I knew better.

“Different reason,” I said. “It’s more that once it happens, I won’t know how much of my thoughts and emotions and attraction comes from me and how much is because of the claiming bond. It wouldn’t feel real.”

For example, the fact that all I could think about at the moment were his lips and how it would feel to have them trailing down my neck. My wolf growled in pleasure. I scowled.

“Any idea how long we have until it clicks into place?”

“A couple weeks.” He scratched his head, looking off. “Symptoms… I’m not sure about.”

“You feel it, too, do you?” The words spilled out of my mouth before I could think better of it.

He raised an eyebrow, giving me a sly look that sent electricity jolting through my entire body.

“Let’s just say I’m having to be very careful around you right now,” he said, taking several steps toward me.

I shifted backward, only to feel rough bark pressing between my shoulder blades. I could barely breathe, painfully aware of how close he was at that moment. I could sense an urgency and lust rippling off him. I knew how badly he wanted to pull me closer to him, and I knew how badly I wanted to feel his hands gripping me, running along my body. I barely breathed as my heart thudded and my wolf pressed forward, wanting to take control so she could move us closer.

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