Page 48 of Wolf's Providence

For that reason, I looked at every pack member we passed until they dropped their stare.

This was Cannon’s pack, but I was still an alpha, and I would be shown respect. If I wanted to hold my woman’s hand, I would.

“Are you intending to melt the snow by glare alone?” I teased her as we walked further from the town.

“Will it work?” she asked, forcing lightness into her voice, but she failed to hide the bitterness from me.

“No.” Pulling her closer, I looked down at her. “You can never please everyone,” I told her gently. “You’re letting other people’s prejudices rule you.”

“I know why shifters would want to keep quiet,” she spoke quietly, keeping her voice deliberately low to avoid shifters’ hearing. “But, having met a few of you, I didn’t think thatIwould be considered the threat.”

“Mm-hmm, you’re definitely scary, especially without your morning pot of tea.”

That earned me an elbow to the ribs. Which, as usual, was ineffective.

“Do you think they really are after you, and I was nothing more than bait?” She was already frowning as she thought about it. “It makes no sense. It’s so random to pick me to target.”

It did seem random. Until you thought about it and realized there was no one left that I cared about.

But I cared about Willow.

Even those first few weeks, I hadn’t been able to stay away. The drawings mattered and were the reason I was in Whispering Pines, but the reason I kept returning? It didn’t take a genius to work out it was because of the woman beside me.

I hadn’t wanted to admit it then. Hell, I’d fought it with every part of myself. But now? With the way her scent was wrapped around me like a drug I couldn’t quit, the truth was inescapable. Willow was more than a human woman I should have stayed away from.

She was the reason I couldn’t leave.

I glanced at her from the corner of my eye, watching her as she picked her way through the snow. She was trying to keep up with me, not knowing I was moving at a fraction of the speed I would normally walk over this snow. Her careful steps, the look of concentration on her face, the shadows under her eyes as her body still healed from her wounds, even with all that, she still made the world around me seem…softer. Less harsh. And for a while, I’d been so sure of myself that I could keep her untouched by everything in my world. That I could keep her safe by keeping her in the dark.

But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I’d dragged her into this, and whether I liked it or not, she was part of my world now. My enemies knew it. And they would use her to get to me; they alreadyhadused her.

The trashing of her home and store lured me off Shadowridge Peak. Running her off the road and putting her in the hospital brought me out of the shadows.

They used her to get my attention, and that’s why I wouldn’t—that’s why Icouldn’t—walk away from her again.

The very thought of her being hurt again…of losing her…twisted something deep in my chest. I already carried the guilt and shame of what I had done to her. My claws covered in her blood would haunt me for my lifetime. I knew that. I accepted it.

I’d suffered loss, more than I should have, but losing Willow? When I felt like this for her…it terrified me in a way that nothing else had.

“You okay?”

Her soft voice brought me out of my thoughts, I looked down, seeing the concern in her eyes. “Yeah, just thinking.”

“Looked painful,” she quipped.

Her squeal of laughter as I chased her with a handful of snow made me laugh.

I saw the Jeep, and soon we were both in. Willow immediately adjusted the heater after I started the engine. I knew I couldn’t get lost in my head. Right now, I needed to focus on keeping her safe. There were still too many unknowns, too many threats to her.

But later, when the dust settled…when the danger was over…what then? I knew there was no future where I could just walk away from her. The joy of being with her outweighed everything else.

Surely this was what the Goddess wanted.

Right?

FIFTEEN

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