Page 86 of Wolf's Reckoning
I had crossed the clearing with long strides, ensuring those watching saw there was no doubt I was standing with my husband.
No doubt. Goddess, there was plenty of doubt. Piles and piles of doubt.
I hadn’t looked at any of them as I walked here. I hadn’t looked at the bloodstained grass where Kirk had fallen, eventhough I could still see the gaping mouths of those who’d watched Wolfe make an example of Kirk.
I left the pack hall, where I’d lived since the day my mother put a braid in my hair and told me this was where leaders lived. I made my way to share a room with the new pack leader. Anexecutioner.
Not that he was wrong. Kirk had stepped out of line. Had tried to make a stand against the wrong person.Me.
Still. I couldn’t shake the sight of seeing it. Wolfe had moved so fast. He hadn’t even used a weapon, just his hands.
My pulse was still pounding from the fallout. From the way the pack hadwatchedme after he’d done it. Because now I was part of the man who had declared himself as both protector and punishment.
No one questioned it.
Because Wolfe had just shown everyone, including me, that he didn’t leave space for questions. He gave orders and executed judgments. And now…now he was offering meproximitylike it was a favor instead of a prison sentence.
Goddess, what had I done agreeing to marry him?
I’d lied to his face. I remembered every little thing about Wolfe when we were younger.
I remembered the giddiness I used to feel at the thought of seeing him, of knowing I was going to sneak out of my room and race to our secret meeting spot and spend hours talking to him, sharing our dreams, letting him steal kisses under the moonlight. Until kisses became more, and his touch had been all I could feel the next day. We hadn’t had sex, but we’d done everythingbutsex. He was my first kiss, my first touch, my first orgasm.
We’d been eager to take it to the next level, but then he went and ruined it all when he told me he wanted us to be married.
Ruined it.What a fool I had been at seventeen.
I let out a low breath, slow and controlled, as I tried to pull myself together. What a night. I wanted nothing more than to lie down, close my eyes, and pretend today was over. But I still had to go to dinner, and with another sigh, I knew I needed to change becauseeveryone would be watching, and I needed to let them know that while everything was different,Iwas still the same.
Dinner was served in the pack hall. Same place it had always been. Same creaking benches, same carved beams, same air thick with herbs and meat and the heat of too many bodies packed in too close.
I walked in as I always did, no longer just the alpha’s daughter, now I was the leader’swife.
And apparently, that came with new seating arrangements. Before, we all sat mixed, wherever we wanted, but I hesitated when I saw a long table set apart and barely made it two steps before I heard his voice.
“Rowen.”
One word. Calm. Deep.Commanding.
Every head turned. I saw the flicker of discomfort in Lewis’s expression, the slight frown from one of the pack elders. But no one stopped me when I shifted course toward the table’s head.
Wolfe didn’t look up when I sat beside him. Didn’t smile. Didn’t smirk. Just poured me a drink like we were any other husband and wife. My skin buzzed with the tension. I couldfeelthe stares. Hear the whispers behind hands.
“Did you see her move?”
“She didn’t argue.”
“Do you think it’s real?—”
“She didn’t evenflinchwhen he called her.”
The noise settled just enough for one brave—or stupid—voice to rise above it.
“So…Rowen,” someone called from farther down the table. I didn’t even bother to check who, wondering how, even after what happened with Kirk, an equally idiotic packmate thought this was a game.
“How’s married life treating you?” A chuckle followed. “Wolfe going to be keeping you…busy?”
Beside me, Wolfe set down his mug.
