Page 65 of The Wolf She Shouldn't Desire

He simply grunts at me in a way that clearly indicates he doesn’t agree with me. Stubborn ass wolf.

Several hours later, I’m showered, dressed, and heading out the door intending to look for Talia. Maybe she’s at her little garden hide away. But of course, it won’t be that easy.

“Yo, Jordan!” Lochlan and the usual three that are always with him plus Eric are heading towards me. “We’re headed out for a drink at Depraved. Join us man.”

“Can’t. I’m going to patrol through the city. Make sure nothing is amiss.”

“Ah, come on man,” Ronan groans. “Come have some fun with us. You’ve been at it nonstop for two days and deserve a beer. Besides, there are plenty of others in the pack already on patrol. They can manage without you.”

I can tell they aren’t going to let this go, but damn, I really wanted to find Talia and make sure she wasn’t getting lost in her head about us now that we haven’t seen each other for a few days. I take too long thinking with no response and see Eric raise an eyebrow in question at me. He knows I wouldn’t deny Ronan’s logic any other day and jump at getting a beer after the last couple of days we have had. I don’t need him becoming suspicious or concerned there might be a threat I’m aware of but haven’t told him yet though. Or come anywhere close to guessing the real reason behind my hesitation. “Alright, sure. A beer sounds a lot better than patrol anyway.”

“Damn straight,” Lochlan hoots.

The group is rowdy and joking around as we make our way through the city to club Depraved. I’m laughing and smiling, feeling slightly more relaxed by the time we walk through the doors of the club. We grab drinks and sit in our favorite booth off to the side of the dance floor. I glance towards the booth nearby where I’ve seen Talia and her group of vampires sitting in the past, but only see unfamiliar faces, none of them belonging to Talia or her usual group. Where is she?

Ronan, Lochlan, Reed, and Jax eventually make their way either to the dance floor or other areas of the bar, all where females have captured their attention. I smirk and shake my head as I watch Reed glue himself to one female and gyrate on her on the dance floor.

“Is there something going on that I need to be aware of?” Eric says to my left, loud enough for me to hear over the music but not loud enough to leave the space of our booth. My muscles feel like tensing, but I force myself to remain relaxed. I glance at him and see him sipping his drinking with a quirked eyebrow. The same one he threw at me earlier when I was trying to leave the house and hesitated too long in responding to Ronan.

My mind whirls with various thoughts trying to figure out if there is any way he could know or suspect about Talia and I. If anyone could, it would be my second in command. He knows everything on my calendar, the weights put on my shoulder in being alpha, and has known me since we were kids. But I can’t think of anything that would have clued him in. Yeah, I’ve disappeared a few times and come home pissed with no explanation but that could be attributed to anything. I highly doubt he would guess it would be due to vampire who has captured my attention…among other things. “What do you mean?”

“You seemed like you were trying to find a way out of coming out for a drink with us earlier. Just wondering if there is something I should be concerned about, especially if it concerns the pack.”

“Nothing going on that concerns the pack that I haven’t already talked to you about. You think I would keep something from you, especially since you’re my second?”

“Maybe for a brief amount of time until you had all the facts or had determined if it was a legitimate threat or not.”

I nod my head to acknowledge what he said is true. “I’ll give you that, but no, there isn’t anything to be worried about at the moment other than what we have been dealing with in the north side of the city. I’m just on edge with the vampires attacking wolves and was pretty set on patrolling the streets to make sure they didn’t try anything tonight. They’ve been quiet for a few days but that doesn’t mean they just decided to leave us alone all of a sudden.”

“I noticed that.”

What I told Eric isn’t a lie. I was on edge with the break in pattern of no daily vampire attacks on wolves. Plus, while looking for Talia, I would have been keeping an eye out on the city as I went.

“You think they’re planning anything?” I ask after I take another drink and scan the room to check on our fellow pack mates and look for a certain beauty.

“Possibly, but we worked for two days preparing Brenden and his wolves for anything we could think of. They’re as well prepared as they can be in such a short amount of time. We’ll have to wait and see.”

“And continue to help where we can.”

Eric drops his volume to barely audible. “If only that vampire bastard would drop dead. Simple, easy, and no fingers could be pointed at us.”

“If only,” I grumble just as low. “Have you heard—”

A commotion to my right catches my attention. “What do you know about her whereabouts?!” The voice is laced with anger and frustration. It also sounds familiar. Looking, I see Danny pinning a poor soul against the wall, who looks as if he is about to piss himself under the terrifying glare Danny has aimed at him.

“I told you! I. Don’t. Know!”

“He’s a dead end, Danny,” one of Danny’s companions says, who I recognize but don’t recall his name. He places his hand firmly on Danny’s shoulder. “Drop him.”

Danny glowers at his victim for another second, and then hisses in frustration before dropping him. “Go before I rip your head off for being useless.”

The dude runs off as if there is a fire under his ass causing me to smirk slightly before its completely erased with the next words I hear coming out of the vampire’s mouth.

“We’ll find her Danny.”

His words hit me like a knife to the gut. Without thinking, I jump up from my seat. Tension fills me, but I take a deep breath as I make my way over to the group of vampires. I can’t go charging in demanding answers without risking them becomingdefensive, tight lipped, and suspicious. That definitely won’t get any answers to the questions racing through my mind now. I hear footsteps closely following behind me and know Eric has my back covered while I talk to Danny.

“I hear you’re missing someone?” I ask once I’m close to Danny.

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