Page 105 of Wolf Roulette

My phone rang.

“Hey. Andie here.”

“Mate.”

His smooth voice trickled over me like heated water, and a shiver worked up my spine. “Sorry. Who’s this?”

He growled.

My mouth spread in a grin. “Just a joke. Don’t get your fur in a tangle. I meant to call you last night, but my brain was fried. There’s something in the works—”

“Would that have anything to do with the picture of you in the paper with a proposal for a Deception Valley Airport?”

The Valley Vinedidn’t fuck around. “I wanted to talk to you before that released.”

The silence mounted.

“Sascha?”

He took a breath. “Why did you do this?”

Really? Theairporthad clear benefits. “You know why I did this. The pack is trapped. With an airport, they can find their mates.”

“So that’s the only reason?” he asked carefully.

“What do you mean?”

“My pack are desperate for their mates, Andie. What do you think happens when the airport opens?”

My cheeks flushed. “I didn’t do this to deplete the pack’s numbers if that’s what you’re insinuating. I did it for theoppositereason.”

Sascha sighed. “I needed to check.”

“Did you now?”

“For myself, no.”

“Are there others listening to this conversation?”

“Correct.”

Closing my eyes, I mentally smashed the desk and furniture before answering, “Then you can tell them that I did it to save our wolves.”

I straightened.

Booker sniffed in disdain.Your wolves. Not mine.

I just straight-up claimed the pack.

Squeaking, I hung up.

Sascha called a second time, but I screened him.

I’ve never said that before.I’d felt protective about the Luther women and children and wanted the tribe to be happy as a whole, but what I’d just said felt really, really significant.

I shook away the thought.

The more pertinent issue was how to not bankrupt the tribe.

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