Page 94 of To Challenge a Wolf

Rhett growled.

“Or you can face-plant and look stupid when she opens the door.”

“She’s not going to.”

Trevor helped him sit on the steps, then sat beside him and kept hold of the glass. “Maybe she had to leave, but she’s trying to get back here as fast as she can.”

“Then she’d text.”

A low purr-growl said he didn’t want to admit to being stumped.

Ten more minutes passed. Then the red hatchback pulled up and parked behind Rhett’s truck. His wolf heart seemed to begin beating again, and his feverishness receded, at least for now. Then her scent crashed into his senses—black tea and praline coated in sour salt.

Rhett’s body forgot his illness as possessive rage became a volcano. He was on his feet. Snarling, fists tight, ready to track the vampire down and rip his throat out. Now. Right now.

Trevor blurred in front of him, blocked him with both arms across Rhett’s chest, and pushed him up against the brick to one side of Vivian’s front door. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Rhett. Ease up. Vivian’s here and she’s fine.”

“My mate,” he growled.

“Yep. Yours. I know the smell is a lot, man. If it were on Kelsey, I’d react too.”

“Mine.”

“Right. I’ll just keep you here until you can say something else.”

“You havegotto be kidding me,” Vivian said, stepping around Trevor to glare at Rhett. “I smell like Blaine, don’t I. That’s what’s got you snarling. Well, guess what, you don’t get to do this after you break up with—”

Trevor said, “Vivian, this isn’t—”

“My mate,” Rhett growled.

Vivian’s mouth fell open. “Excuseme?”

“Mine.”

“Viv,” Trevor said, “if you want a lucid conversation with him, you might need to go shower first.”

“Who says I want a—?”

“Look, I volunteered to drive him, not fight him. I’m asking you as a favor, please go wash the vampire off you.”

Nonsense. He wasn’t going to fight Trevor. If he wanted to break the wolf’s hold, he’d have done it already. He tried to calm the protective rage, to slow his breathing. But when Vivian stepped away, Rhett’s wolf heart seemed ready to burst from his chest and follow her. He needed to keep her in sight.

“No,” he said. “Stay.”

“You’re trying to fight Trevor because of my scent.”

“No.” He gripped Trevor’s arm. “I’m okay.”

Trevor cocked his head with patient skepticism.

Vivian studied Rhett a long moment, then said, “Let him go, Trevor.”

When Rhett nodded, Trevor sighed, released him, and stepped back. “On the plus side, I think the fever just burned itself right out of you.”

Rhett grunted.

“Now I’ll go for a drive, if it’s okay with you, Viv,” Trevor said.

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