Page 68 of To Challenge a Wolf

He grunted. “Just say, ‘Good to hear. Congratulations.’”

She laughed. “I can do that.”

She typed the simple message and refrained from exclamation points, as he had never used a single one when texting her. Then she handed back his phone.

“You know,” he said, “I’ll be expected to meet the new pup within the next day or two. It’s pack custom for everyone to meet him as soon as possible.”

“And how does Ember feel about that?”

He grinned. “She’s the one who told me about the custom. I think she was warning me not to stay away too long.”

Ember might expect Rhett and the rest of her pack to acknowledge her pup, but Vivian wasn’t Ember’s pack. (Not yet anyway. Must keep positive.) She would wait for an explicit invitation and go only if one came before the end of the week.

The end of the week, and the end of her time in Harmony Ridge. At least for now. She had mere days to prove to this wolf that he had never lost his heart, that it ran deep and true, that he could open it to her without any danger. That if he would let her, Vivian would spend the rest of her life protecting her wolf’s tender, hidden heart.

Eighteen

“They won’t mind seeing you,” Rhett said.

“Won’t mind? That’s lukewarm at best.”

He let out a growl of sheer exasperation. Slowly, with exaggeration, he said, “I’m sure Aaron and Ember would be happy to introduce you to their pup.”

“If that were true,” Vivian said, enunciating just as slowly, “they would have invited me over.”

“I asked her if this afternoon was good, and she said yes.”

Sitting in their booth at the diner, they’d caught brunch rather than breakfast after Rhett’s boss had asked him to “just pop in for a minute” to look over a mysteriously troublesome car. That minute had become a few hours. Ultimately Rhett had used both his nose and his ears to solve the mystery, and parts were on order to get the car running again. He’d wanted to growl at everything and everybody when he’d first walked into the diner at eleven, having eaten next to nothing all morning. After two burgers, he was once again his unflappable self.

Until Vivian said she wasn’t going with him to meet the newborn pup.

“We’re expected to show up.”

“No, Rhett,youare expected to show up.”

His thoughts rammed up against her words and couldn’t make sense of them. Vivian should be with him, welcoming new pack. It was obvious. He shook his head. “What’re you talking about?”

“I’m not pack.”

The words were like skewers. He blinked once to absorb the stab of them.

“Don’t tell me you forgot about this major detail,” she said.

But for a moment, he had.

She read the truth in his face somehow, or in his silence, since his face would never betray something so troublesome. She cocked her head. “Well, that’s interesting.”

“No,” he said.

“News for you, wolf, you don’t decide what I find interesting.”

He still felt off as he paid the check and walked Vivian to her hatchback. Today she wore a green blouse and jeans, high-waisted and flattering, along with the same purple heels she’d had on when she drove from Chicago to Tennessee. She looked amazing, but that was nothing new.

“Just text me when you’re free, and we’ll do something low-key with the rest of the day.”

“I don’t have to go today,” he said. The pup wasn’t going anywhere, unlike Vivian, who’d be driving home Sunday. Too soon.

“Are you trying to tell me you’re not super eager to meet new pack?”

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