Page 42 of To Challenge a Wolf

“Rhett Jamison McCauley Helvering Jones!” She gave his bicep a mock punch. “I sell one-of-a-kind pieces.”

“So does a thrift store.”

“My pieces are very expensive and carefully curated. Unique, arty, timeless.”

He ought to poke her some more, but instead he drew her close and savored the contentment layered along with soothing black tea. “Do you like the work?”

She gave a little shrug. “It’s good money, super validating, and you know how I feel about fashion. Selling clothes is fun.”

“But you’re not saving the world. Or lost puppies and kittens.”

She was quiet a long time. Finally she said, “You still know me, Jamie. I was afraid you wouldn’t.”

All the time he was thinking of her and trying not to, Vivian was thinking of him…and searching. He didn’t deserve her.

“Your turn now,” she said. “Tell me how it was for you when you joined this pack.”

He took himself back three years, remembered for a moment, and then let himself put words to the memories. “I didn’t know I could admire an alpha or be glad to submit to him. I thought I’d keep beating alphas for the rest of my life, or else I’d find one that ground me down to powder the way Stone did.”

“But you kept searching, even thinking those were your only options.”

“I had to. You’ve probably heard plenty of wolves talk about the need for pack, so this won’t be news to you, but by the time I found Malachi, I wouldn’t have lasted much longer on my own. I could hardly eat most days, but I don’t think I’d have starved. I think I just would have collapsed one day.”

“Oh, Rhett,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“This pack is my life. Malachi chose me as the next alpha, Viv, and I accepted. If he dies early, before he’s old enough to start teaching a younger successor, it’ll come to me.”

He expected surprise or misgiving, but she only nodded. “You could lead a pack. You’d lead well.”

“I hope I would.”

“I have zero doubts. You’ve always had leadership inside you, and you belong here so well. I think maybe we’ve both learned how to trust in ways we couldn’t when we were young, growing up with all the threats and secrets. Maybe that’s what we both needed to make us ready.”

“For each other,” he said.

She nodded. She was so open in this moment.

He couldn’t let her hope for him. “No, Viv. I can call myself Rhett Jones, but I can’t be anyone other than me.”

“Well, good. I’ll always know who I’m dealing with.”

He growled.

“So we’re back to remembering my birthday while ignoring me. You seriously think we can’t be together.”

“We can’t.”

Frustration spiced her scent. “Because you can’t be somebody else? Who asked you to be? Because it sure wasn’t me.”

“You don’t know me as well as you think.”

“So enlighten me.”

She’d never see him the same way. Never again, for the rest of their lives. It had taken him a few years, but at some point he’d managed to see fate’s blessing in her refusal to listen the night he escaped. She’d kept her innocent view of him. Sometimes over the years he had smiled, knowing that.

“Come on, Rhett. We meet again after ten years, and within twenty-four hours…this.” She gestured to the mossy bed around them. “You can’t tell me this doesn’t mean anything. To you. To us. To the next ten years.”

“It can’t.”

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