Page 64 of To Challenge a Wolf

“I can do that,” Vivian said.

“I know. I just… There’s something you need to know. Or maybe you already figured on it, but you…uh, you seemed to think you were talking privately. Outside.”

Her mouth fell open and stayed that way.

“Sorry. It felt more unfair not to tell you.”

“I thought if you were watching a show and chatting with Kelsey, and if I stayed in my car, I’d just be background and you wouldn’t tune in.”

“Well, normally you’d probably be right. But that wasn’t a normal phone call, Viv.”

“What do you mean?” Had she offended Trevor by talking about Rhett to an outsider?

“No wolf can be in proximity of a vampire, even over a phone call, and not tune in.”

She propped her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. “I don’t remember calling him a vampire.”

“You didn’t have to. I knew when he said ‘hi, Viv.’”

That brought her head up. She’d thought she knew the extent of their hearing, even the sharpest of wolf ears like Ezra’s and Malachi’s. She’d underestimated them. “Two words? You knew after two words?”

“A vampire’s voice has a sort of texture like…like velvet. I don’t think human ears pick it up. I’m sure you hear a pleasant voice, maybe a musical quality. But a wolf can also hear the velvet lure.”

Trevor’s blue eyes were somber, but he didn’t seem angry with her choice of friends, or even with her choice to tell Blaine how she felt about a member of his pack. Oh, gosh. She pressed her fingers to her cheeks as heat flooded them.

“You heard everything?”

Trevor nodded. “Sorry.”

She might as well make use of the situation. “Well? Thoughts? Tips, wolf to human-who-isn’t-his-mate but has feelings anyway?”

“Why do you think you’re not his mate?”

“He told me he knows I’m not.”

“How?”

“Well, because…” Why was he asking? Wasn’t it obvious? “He doesn’t recognize me, the way you recognized Kelsey. The way all wolves recognize. You meet her, and pretty soon you know.”

Trevor gave a low laugh that still managed to sound like a bark. He plopped down on the carpet without losing any of his apex grace, then draped his hands on his knees. “Viv, listen. Y’all were separated so young. He was nineteen, right? Still a pup for all intents and purposes. Probably still pretty stupid.”

She shook her head. “Maybe you were stupid at that age, but Rhett was a hypervigilant soldier wolf. He didn’t get to be a pup, Trevor. I—I can’t say more than that, but trust me, he was honed steel by nineteen, with no room for stupidity or sentiment or anything but survival. Heck, he’d even been taught from a pup that mates aren’t real.”

Trevor blinked slowly, as though her last words had flipped a switch in his head. “Taught that mates aren’t real.”

She nodded. His gaze grew distant a moment, staring past her as he fit puzzle pieces together in his head.

“Trevor?” She could no longer stand the suspense. Trevor might know something she needed to get through to her…

…to her wolf.

Toherwolf.

“You think I’m his mate.”

“Yeah, I do. I have since I saw y’all together at the cookout. I wouldn’t have said anything—not to either of you—if I hadn’t overheard just now. And I might be wrong, Viv. That wolf’s impossible to read, so it’s not as simple as picking up black tea in his scent. But…I felt it here.” Trevor thumped his palm against his chest. “I saw him with you, and my wolf heart saw Rhett with his mate.”

“But you could be wrong.” The whisper stuck in her throat. She didn’t want to introduce the possibility, but she had to know.

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