Page 25 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

This werewolf went against everything I knew about shifters. I awkwardly fiddled with my blades, pulling them in and out of their sheaths to make sure they came out smoothly despite him just checking. “Thanks,” I said, not able to look at him. I’d killed his kind. Stabbed him. Why was he so nice to me? What did he want from me? ‘Cause that’s something I’ve learned in life: everyone always wants something from someone they do something nice for.

“You’re welcome.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked at last, staring up at him. At those unreadable eyes and the imperial black eyebrow with the white streak that lifted when faced with amusement or curiosity as it did now.

“You save my butt and ask such a thing?” His voice sounded weird saying such a word in his posh accent.

I relaxed a bit. Ok, he’s repaying a debt. That made sense. I saved—well, I didn’t really save him; I just stopped him fromdoing something terrible, maybe? “Who was that woman?” I asked.

His hooded eyes darkened and then glowed with the light of his wolf. “My Alpha,” he bit out.

I nearly rolled my eyes, but refrained. “If I couldn’t deduce such a thing, I’d be a rabbit in a burrow without a head.”

He flicked my nose. My reflexes were dampened, so I didn’t get a blade halfway out of its sheath before he’d pulled back. I wiggled my nose, staring up at him. What the heck?

“You wiggle your nose like a rabbit. But you will not be losing a head on my watch,” he promised.

I huffed out a breath, crossed my arms, and stared at him.

“If you were a werewolf, such a look would be seen as a challenge,” he said, nearly nonchalantly, holding my gaze with his emotionless dark eyes that still sent a zing of cold warning through me.

I lifted my chin. “And if I mean it as such?”

A tiny, dark chuckle erupted from him. “We will spar when you are well, Little Red. Until then, you will rest.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” I hissed, scowling at him.

His eyes flashed with his wolf, but he looked away and ran a hand through his shaggy hair. He glanced back, his eyes still rimmed in gold. “You do not know when to rest, do you?”

My scowl deepened. Howdarehe! “I’mfine.”

“Are you?” he asked, challengingmewith a stare this time.

“Yes,” I said. I wouldn’t show weakness. I drew a blade in case he decided my challenge should be met with claws.

His lips twitched. “You would be a fine werewolf.”

I blinked, trying to figure out what he meant and if it was a compliment or if I should be offended, and I realized my nose wiggled. My nosewiggles? Now he’s made me subconscious about mynose. Wonderful. “Was that a compliment?” I asked at last.

“Take it as you will.”

I wrinkled my nose, then smoothed it out. Apparently, my nose moved much more than I thought. “You distracted me.”

“Did I?” He glanced up from where he was turning something over the fire.

“You are?—”

“A cur?” he asked, his lips twitching and eyebrow raising.

“Nope. An incorrigible idiot.”

The way he smiled and his eyes sparkled with amusement just then made him seem human. “Thank you.”

“Infuriating incorrigible idiot of a cur,” I muttered.

“Glad to be of service.”

“Why are you like this?”

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