Page 7 of To Challenge a Wolf

“What about her?”

Vivian sighed with abundant longsuffering. “When was the last time you spoke to your sister, Rhett?”

“I don’t.”

That stalled her for a long moment. She shook her head. “Why not?”

“She doesn’t know me. She never really did. She was just a kid when I left.”

“She worshiped the ground you walked on and cried for days when I told her you weren’t coming home. I can’t believe you never got in touch with her.”

Unless he could somehow verify she wasn’t under Stone’s influence, contacting Savvy wasn’t safe. But he wasn’t about to justify his survival precautions to Vivian. Anyway he’d been a preoccupied big brother. Savvy would have missed him for a day, tops.

When he gave no answer, Vivian sighed. “Fine. Topic change. How long have you been with this pack? It can’t have been more than a few years.”

The back of his neck prickled at her certainty. He cocked his head. “Or I left Stone and came straight here.”

Vivian was shaking her head before he’d finished. “You were in Montana six years ago. Then you were in Kansas. Then Kentucky.”

His mouth dried.

“I told you I’ve been looking, Rhett. I think Harmony Ridge is the only wolf pack in the country I haven’t met yet.”

“You shouldn’t have—”

Her eyes flashed, and she stormed toward him in her heels, fists tight at her sides. “Shut up. Unless you would have been just fine not knowing if I was dead or alive, safe and free or confined in one of Stone’s lockups, just shut up.”

Finenot knowing if she were dead or alive?Fineif Stone had her in a cage? He bared his teeth. He’d tear to pieces anyone anywhere that tried to do that to Vivian, including Stone.

“I rest my case.” Vivian crossed her arms and didn’t lessen her glare.

He crossed his arms in return. They stood a few feet from the picnic table as though facing off, a duel at high noon. Screw this. Rhett should scoop her off her feet and—

And what? He broke off the thought before he could know the answer.

Besides, he needed other answers. Two in particular. “Why and how did you find me?”

Her mouth pursed into a bow, the cute face she didn’t know she made when she was considering what to say next. “To verify your location and your welfare, obviously.”

“Obviously,” he deadpanned.

“Also to see you and talk to you. Also to apologize.”

The final word reverberated in his head. Danger klaxons began.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t understand, and I didn’t let you tell me. About a year later I found out what Stone did to you, and—”

“No.”

The word came on a growl now, low enough not to be heard by strangers. Rhett couldn’t hear this. Couldn’t go back in time to the day he accepted Vivian didn’t want to know what he really was, the reality behind the construct Stone had perfected.

“No?” she said, never silenced for more than a few seconds. Both arms still crossed in front of her, she tapped her right fingers on her left arm.

“Viv, I’m over it.”

“So I can’t apologize.”

“I don’t need an apology.”

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