Page 3 of Cowboy Wolf Christmas

Silas shook his head again. “Wes once warned me you’d do this. Said you’d test me.”

“And what else did my second say?” Maverick frowned.

“That if I didn’t follow through, it’d be my life.”

For a moment, Maverick didn’t deign to answer, until finally he said, “I’mofferingyou a life, Silas. A different one than you have now. A better one. A chance for you to be a part of this pack.” Maverick cleared his throat. “Take it or leave it.”

Silas blew out a long breath before raking his hand over his beard. What was a few hours? A day spent haunted by his past? Would there even be a difference?

He already lived side by side with his ghosts. What was one day more?

“Fuck.” His jaw clenched. “When do we leave?”

“Tonight.” Maverick reached inside his desk drawer. “It shouldn’t take more than a few hours. The pack leaves for our yearly shift-and-run to Bozeman first thing in the morning. You’ll need to be back by then or the whole pack won’t be together on Christmas.”

Silas lifted a brow.

“It’s tradition,” Maverick said.

Tradition. Christmas. Of course. All his misery linked back to this godforsaken holiday.

“So that’s it then? Follow the pack’s mechanic to Missoula and play bodyguard?”

“And then you’ll havestartedto earn my trust, and the pack’s too.” Maverick tossed him the keys to one of the pack’s many trucks. “And Silas,” Maverick gave him a pointed look. “I expect you to take good care of her.”

Her?

Silas was about to ask whichherMaverick meant, before the door to the packmaster’s office flew open, bringing with it a gust of cold wind, and from the way his wolf suddenly stirred to attention . . .

No. Fuck no. Absolutely not.

Anyone but her.

Immediately, a flash of fiery red hair caught his attention, and then as if a ray of sunshine and warmth had whipped through him, the scent of sugar cookies hit his nose like a force. Like someone had dangled a whole damn tray beneath his wolf muzzle until all that he smelled, all that he tasted was vanilla, sugar, and the smallest hint of peppermint.

Enough to make him salivate.

Silas pressed his lips into a hard line, feeling his jaw grind stone, even as his cock gave an eager jerk. Suddenly, the words “take good care of her” made more sense.

Because Cheyenne Morgan, Grey Wolf—and apparently the pack’sonlymechanic—was not for him. She was one the pack’s most beloved females. To appearances, a tender-hearted she-wolf, adored by all and coveted by even more. Gorgeous. Sweet. Brilliantly smart. A beautifully scattered, head-in-the-clouds dreamer, if he were the kind of wolf who bought into that whole adorably naïve bit. Even now, as she strolled into the room, she didn’t seem to be paying attention to what was two feet in front of her, because why bother to look where she was going when the whole of the pack was always there to catch her?

Itshouldhave made him sick.

No one was that nice, that kind. Not unless they wanted something.

But whathethought didn’t matter.

Because the whole pack believed it.

And if the fact she was the pack’s smiling ray of red-headed sunshine wasn’t enough to keep him away, the unfortunate truth that she’d once saved his life would have been. No one did anyone any favors. Especially him. Not without a price.

And that didn’t sit well with him.

Because he wanted her, badly, and he hated it. Almost as much as he didn’t trust her.

And it was at that moment, thanks to her daydreaming, that she literally fell into his lap.

Or sat there, by accident, as it were.

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