Page 65 of To Challenge a Wolf

“Put it this way. WhenIwas a stupid eighteen-year-old pup, I sent my mate away so she could live out her dreams of adventure. Then I got sick. Then I started losing my wolf gifts. Took a year, but I finally got it through my thick skull that the woman I’d loved and let gowasmy mate.”

Her heart began to pound, her pulse to fill her ears. “You got sick?”

“Wild fever, instant vomiting if I tried to eat. Eleven days. My family feared for my life.”

Fever. Were the two illnesses similar? But Rhett had been over his within an hour. He hadn’t thrown up. And he’d been fine until she’d admitted friendship with a vampire.

Trevor said, “My point is, at that age he might not have known you were his, especially if he didn’t believe life mates were real. And maybe now he’s…stuck on that somehow. Stubbornness backfiring on him or something. So if he’s being a jerk, call him out. And if you’re worried for his health and want a mediator, you’re right about going to Malachi. Rhett’s different with him, always has been. Take him with you and set him straight.”

“Sounds like solid advice. Thanks, Trevor.”

“Sure.” He stood up and shoved his hands into his back pockets. “Look, Viv, he’ll tell you otherwise, but the pack doesn’t value only what he brings to the table—which is more than anybody has a right to bring.”

“You’re right. He’d say otherwise.”

Trevor let out a low growl. “Well, it’s not true. We valuehim. And we love him.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

“I wasn’t sure.”

“It’s plain as day to me. It’s not to him because he’s got some scars he doesn’t know what to do with. It’s what I wanted to ask Blaine about. I’m going to get him to face things, Trevor. Get him to see how his pack loves him, and how I…I love him too.”

Trevor smiled. “Glad you found him.”

He said good night and went upstairs, and Vivian curled up under a spare quilt on the most comfortable sofa bed in the world. She closed her eyes and loosened her muscles. She tried to form some strategy with which to tackle breakfast in the morning. Breakfast with her wolf. But Trevor couldn’t possibly be right. If she were chosen by fate for Rhett, he would know.

Good thing Vivian didn’t need help from fate to make this happen.

Seventeen

Their pattern was comfortable by now, meeting at seven in the morning, first patrons of the day as the diner’s sign was flipped fromclosedtoopen. Vivian watched her wolf—yes, forget fate, she would think of him this way in defiance and as a tactic of manifestation—as he took a seat in the corner booth they chose every time. He looked…tired.

“Did you sleep?” At least one male in her life needed to, or she’d end up insomniac herself, lying awake worrying that they were lying awake.

“Well enough,” he said. He tilted the menu toward her. “We haven’t had the french toast yet. Want to split it?”

“That’s so sugary for you.”

“They make it with a lot of cinnamon. And it won’t be the only thing I eat.”

“Well, you know I’m all in.”

He seemed at ease, getting straight to ordering and small-talking about cinnamon. All right. Maybe she was reading too much into the lines around his eyes. Maybe today everythingwould come together. Maybe today, when she saidwe have to talk, he would agree.

She ordered bacon and grits, and Rhett ordered the meatiest breakfast option on the menu: steak and eggs. He also ordered the french toast. When it came, he slid half of the order onto a spare plate and slid the plate across the table to her.

“That looks…” Confectionary sugar sprinkled the impossibly thick, egg-and-syrup-soaked toast. “Sinful.”

“I think that’s the idea.” He ignored his half until he finished his meal and chuckled when Vivian took a bite of toast first.

He put a hand to his pocket and fished out his phone, which like most wolves’ phones was permanently on silent. Unlike humans, they never failed to notice the vibration.

“It’s April,” he said. “Ember went into labor around eleven last night.”

“Oh!” A little bubble of happiness formed inside her. Soon the pack would get to meet the tiny pup. “Any other details? Does it say how she’s doing?”

“Midwife’s there, along with Ann and April. And I’m sure Malachi’s there as well.”

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