Page 54 of To Challenge a Wolf

“Secrecy in a small town, Viv. I had to hire a couple guys from three towns away and pay them a premium to drive out here.”

She burst out in the alto laugh that he loved. This savvy, assertive, beautiful woman had hiked all the way to the border of his dearest possession and now stood admiring it with him and laughing at him in the warmest way. He wanted to take her into his arms, not to kiss her this time, only to hold her. To treasure her always.

He gritted his teeth. Where had that impulse come from? It was too much. Vivian was too much. Vivian wasn’t his. But she wanted to be. He had to do this right. He couldn’t screw this up.

Before a silence could grow between them, Vivian said, “I hope they didn’t think you were some dangerous bank robber out here concealing stolen cash.”

He shrugged. “If they did, the secret of the safe room is probably still safe.”

She laughed again, then sobered and looked toward the road. He did too, letting himself see it as if for the first time. The red dirt at their feet that gradually fell away toward the forest, pocked with rocks and boulders, fringed with dry brush. The trees below them, glorious oranges and reds, pale yellows and golds, all of which seemed to smile in the afternoon sunshine. And the final dip that met his cleared yard, the cabin he andTrevor had worked hard to restore while several other wolves pitched in on weekends.

“It’s beautiful, Rhett. It’s beyond words.”

“Yeah,” he said.

“And you love it. I can see the love for your life here in your eyes sometimes, though not often. Your eyes still hide more than they show.”

“I know.” But his chest pinched that she’d noticed.

“I guess you prefer it that way? But I almost wish you didn’t.”

“It’s not what I prefer, Viv. It’s what Stone made me. He took…” All the muscles of his face did what they were programmed to do. His expression flattened. Should he tell her?Couldhe tell her?

Vivian stepped in front of him and tilted her face toward his. “Tell me what he took, Jamie.”

“He called it ‘mastering my affect.’ Trained me to flatline my body, emotionally, any time something big came up inside me. Between wolves, it’s a big advantage if your enemy can’t smell your moods. Makes you unpredictable.”

She set her hands on his chest as if she needed to feel him, feel his breathing. “Your pack can’t smell your moods?”

“No. Not even Malachi can. They get my essence—steel with some gunpowder—but that’s it.”

“Haven’t they noticed?”

He bared his teeth in a grin he didn’t feel. “Heightens my carefully honed intimidation factor.”

“Don’t. No snark, not about this.”

But he had explained the facts. Snark was all he had left.

She seemed to see this somehow, though his expression had yet to revive. She took his face between her hands, gentle in a way Vivian usually wasn’t. “You can’t choose when to use this skill and when not to?”

“It’s not really a skill at this point. More ingrained.”

“And did he use vampire bites toingrainthis too?”

“No. Just wolves.”

“Adult wolves, programming this into you with physical punishment when you failed. Am I right?”

He nodded.

“And no doubt the programming began when you were a tiny pup, even before you were confirmed a wolf.”

“Wow,” he said, “it’s like you’ve read the Stone Helvering playbook.”

She glared. Right. No snark.

He took her cool hands in his, and somehow simply holding them glitched out the program he hated and brought him back to himself.

---