Page 71 of The Wild Wolf's Rejected Mate

“Justus!” Elspeth calls back fondly. “And Annie.” She smiles at my mate and gratitude fills my heart.

I didn’t say anything about Annie when I came back mated without her, and I’ve said nothing since. In the absence of facts, packs make up their own. I’ve overheard the whispers—there was something terribly wrong with her, she was too weak, too foul-tempered, too messed up in the head like the rest of the lost packs—and I was so proud, and my pride was so bruised, that I never spoke up. It shames me now.

The itchy, restless feeling I had when I woke rides me harder. I need to get out of here. Just for a little while. I need to figure out what to do without Annie’s scent in my nose, slowing down my brain and making my wolf rowdy.

“Do you want a cup, Alpha?” Elspeth asks.

I shake myself. “No, thank you.” I don’t correct her. My dam taught me better than to pick nits with elders.

While I was lost in my head, Elspeth urged Annie to a rocker by the fire and filled her empty cup from the kettle kept hanging on the tripod. The brew smells like tea, but it’s milky tan.

Annie sips and smiles. “Oh, this is lovely. You boil the leaves with the milk and sugar?”

Elspeth nods, dropping to sit in the chair next to my mate with her own cup. “We poured the water over the leaves in North Border, too, but here, they heat the leaves in the waterand add the milk and sugar while it’s still boiling. And they use evaporated milk.”

Annie glances at the cup in her hand. “So that’s what this is? An evaporated milk can?”

Elspeth laughs. “More than likely. We tend to make do around here.”

“I was told we were out of milk and sugar,” I can’t help but grumble.

“Youare out of it,” Elspeth says. “Wedon’t let ourselves get so low that we run out.”

I could point out that the females only have milk and sugar—or any staples—becausewehunt, gather, or trade for it, but I remember too well the day when I was a pup that I declared to my dam thatIhad provided the meat in her belly.

It had been my first kill, and I was so proud. The moment the words came out of my mouth, my sire snorted, shifted, and let his wolf snarf down the whole, juicy prime cut of steak on my plate. Once his wolf had licked his chops clean, he shifted back and said, “You might have given her a meal, but she gave youlife, and if you think a piece of grizzled cow is worth anywhere near the same, you don’t value yourself nearly enough.” And then he ate my potatoes, too.

“Where’s Max?” I ask to change the subject.

“Over yonder.” She lifts her chin toward the bonfire. Most of our elders gather there in the mornings to warm their bones.

“Well, I need a word with him.” I shift awkwardly.

I don’t want to leave camp, but if I stay, she’ll ask to go home, and I gave my word. I’ve broken a solemn promise before, once, and I’d die before I did it again.

But how can I leave her, even for a moment?

Annie blinks at me, her brown eyes almost amber in the morning sun. They’re beautiful. And unsure. She’s looking to me for reassurance.

My chest tightens. I’ve never been so weak. She holds me in her hands. She could destroy me with a few words.

“You’ll be fine here with Elspeth. I’ll be back later,” I blurt and stride off like my heels are on fire.

I’m a coward. I’m afraid of a hundred-and-thirty-pound female with a wolf so small she could probably fit in a groundhog hole. I hope she doesn’t ever get that idea in her head. The animals flee when we arrive, but their tunnels are everywhere. If her wolf fled down there, I’d have to dig her out. It’d be a mess.

I should turn around. My wolf whines his agreement.

No. Annie isn’t going to freak out and hide in the groundhog tunnels, and if she does, she’ll be there when I get back.

I make a detour on my way to the bonfire and take great delight in sticking my head into Alroy’s tent and barking, “Bonfire. Five minutes. Bring Khalil.”

Alroy was dead to the world. He wakes up in a panic, fighting his blankets. I’m still smirking when I get to the elders sitting in their usual place on the downed log I planed and sanded into a bench for them a few years ago.

“Brothers,” I say, taking a seat beside Max.

They mumble “Alpha” under their breath, and I ignore it. “What tracks have folks seen since I’ve been gone?”

They perk right up at the prospect of fresh meat.

---