Page 40 of To Challenge a Wolf

“Rhett,” Vivian said. “Talk to me.”

“Nothing to say.” Not in the pack’s hearing. But even if he and Vivian were alone in the cabin, he’d be mute right now.

As if she guessed half of his reason, Vivian took hold of his hand and dragged him out of the bedroom, down the hall, toward the back door. He stepped into his only slip-on shoes; Vivian still wore her cookout platforms. She nodded to Trevor and Kelsey, who stood nearest them with matching wide blue eyes.

“No worries,” she said with a beaming smile. “Just need to clarify some things.”

Kelsey gave two thumbs up.

Trevor said, “Some of your guests might head out in the meantime. Ember said her back’s killing her, and the twins are falling asleep standing up.”

Right. The pack. Guests in his home. “Whatever y’all want to do. You’re welcome to stick around, but…guess you don’t have to. No need for the safe room.”

The thought was like a bowling ball if he were the pin. Drew was dead. The threat they’d lived with all this time—one hundred twenty-six days—was gone. The pack was safe again.

Vivian squeezed his hand as if she understood his thoughts. Trevor gave a somber nod.

“Rhett…I hope you know how grateful we all are. For everything you’ve done to keep us safe—not only for tonight,” Kelsey said.

“My pleasure to know you’re well defended.”

Trevor and Kelsey were strange people. After talking to either or both of them, Rhett always felt somehow valued and valuable,even when Trevor was trying to match wits despite Rhett’s obviously superior snarking skills. He tightened his grasp on Vivian’s hand and led her out into the yard.

An autumn wind had kicked up in the last hour, bringing a chill to the air. Vivian’s flaring skirt swayed with it, and she shivered.

“Want a jacket?” he said. “I’ll go back for one.”

“Or you could kiss me again and warm me right up.”

“Viv.”

She crossed her arms and planted her feet. “Well, what? Are you going to tell me you didn’t enjoy that?”

From the house, Trevor gave a barking laugh that nearly made him choke as he fought to keep it below Vivian’s hearing. Rhett growled and pulled her farther into the yard, all the way to the tree line, then to one of his favorite places just inside it. A springy carpet of ferns and moss backed up to a little natural pool that dried out in summer and spread its edges outward in the spring rains.

When he stopped and released her hand, she looked toward the cabin and nodded. “Privacy?”

“Yeah. Not even Ezra can hear us now.”

“Well, great. Now you have no excuse not to talk to me.”

“Talk about what? What do you want from me?”

Vivian threw her hands up as if he were some toddler who kept spilling his juice. “Why do you keep asking that?”

“Because I can’t give it to you.”

Calm. Collected. He would meet her fire with the ice he knew he was. From a pup he’d been ice, sculpted by Stone. But the ice was cracking, and he needed Vivian to stay away from it with her platform shoes. Something wasn’t right inside him. It had started when she met his kiss with a passion equal to his yet all her own, crackling like Fourth of July sparklers and colorful like the Northern lights. How could any wolf, even one as screwedup as Rhett, not feel it all the way to his core when a woman like Vivian Rossi kissed him, when she held onto him like that?

“You don’t get to say you can’t give me what you don’t even know I want.”

“Fine.” He shrugged. “Tell me then.”

“Well, it’s simple. I want… I want…”

She must hardly be able to see him. He’d taken her far past the courtesy flood light on the porch, but she hadn’t stumbled once, and for a moment he’d forgotten her inferior vision in the dark. Yet she somehow managed to stare him down, as if some thread of connection heightened her awareness of him. Which was a stupid thought, but—

Vivian leaped into his arms with such trust and commitment he had to catch her. She wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms around his neck, and crashed her mouth into his with all the force of her body and soul. This kiss did more to both of them than the first had, threw gasoline on the smoldering coals. Rhett lowered her, still in the cradle of his arms, to the soft moss at their feet. They continued the kiss for a long time, until his thoughts were so consumed with her, with wanting her—

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