Page 65 of Crucible

You heard right.

Our girl wasn’t kidding when she said she had the power to crush us. She’s filthy fucking rich, and it’s not even in the top fifty reasons why I’m obsessed with her.

Thorin grunts, jarring me back to this side of sanity where it’s so fucking boring. “If she dies, he probably inherits it all,” he grumbles.

“You really think she has no one? What about that kid we found? He kept saying her name when we radioed for a med-evac and choppered him out. Maybe he’s her boyfriend.”

Ah, yes.

Tylerwhatever.

Fuck that guy.

The pussy was too busy dying in the snow with a leg half gone to frostbite whileourgirl made it all the way here and found shelter.

Found us.

No. Tyler won’t do at all. He’s not good enough for her.

“Hewasher boyfriend. Someone ought to tell him that, like his leg, he’s never getting his bitch back.”

I chuckle at my own dark humor.

“You just focus on keeping your mouth shut,” Thorin orders. “Now is not the time to stir up trouble for the hell of it.”

My gaze drops to the snow when I remember the lost look in Aurelia’s eyes. “I didn’t mean to make her sad.”

“Maybe this is a good thing,” Khalil says. “It’s out in the open now. We don’t have to worry about it blowing up in our faces later.”

I frown at that since the last thing I want is to make things easier for these assholes.

Team Sunshine all the way.

A low growl interrupts whatever bullshit excuse Thorin is about to make to continue torturing that girl. Pivoting slowly, Isearch the tree line thirty feet away, and at first, I don’t see a thing.

And then I see two things.

Glowing eyes piercing a solid wall of black.

A lone wolf with tawny fur steps into the opening with its head low to the ground and wary eyes shifting between Khalil, Thorin, and me. There’s a snarl on its lips as it slowly closes in, but the three of us hold our ground. We don’t look away, and neither does the tawny wolf. It stops five feet away, lips pulling back to bare its teeth as it gives another menacing growl.

Awww, she looks just like Sunshine.

“What’s the matter, girl? Where’s your pack?”

The wolf snarls and rears back as if she understood me. Her pack must be a sore subject. It’s then I notice her rounded belly and battle scars.

No pack, then.

Pregnant as fuck, though.

“Seth,” Khalil exhales my name with a quiet breath when I reach out with my palm up.

The wolf gives a low warning growl, but I don’t draw my hand back.

I wait her out.

She sniffs the air, looks away, and then sniffs the air again before inching forward. Her hackles are still raised, but she’s curious, too.

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