Page 32 of Wolf's Reckoning
I blinked, thrown by the anger in his tone. “Not helpful,” I muttered, breaking the stare.
Wolfe gave a careless shrug. “I didn’t say it was advice, just truth.”
Silence fell between us like a trap snapping shut. My chest felt tight, and he lookedcontrolled.Too controlled.
“Why are you here?” I asked him softly. “Did you hear about this and come to gloat?”
He didn’t react, but his head tilted as he considered me. “I didn’t know,” he answered finally. “About what was being planned for you. The offer to”—he huffed with displeasure—“toofferyou.”
My laugh was sharp and bitter. “Of course you didn’t. Because I’m not a person in this, I’m astrategicmove.”
“Haven’t you always been? Isn’t that what you told me you’d always be? That youwantedto be.”
The way he was looking at me. The old wounds flared open. Bled. “Not like this,” I snapped.
He didn’t answer that. I never expected him to.
“I need to move,” I told him, my shoulders drooping. “Before they come for me and find me out here.”Alone with you.
“You mean with me?” he asked, the mockery in his eyes palpable.
“We’re older than who we were before,” I said quietly.
“Isn’t everything?”
“Wolfe.” I felt tired, exhausted. “I need to go. Can you just…can you just leave?”
He stepped closer, and I didn’t back up. “No.”
Wolfe was tall, so much taller than me, I had to tip my head right back to look up at him. I wasn’t small; I stood at five nine, but Wolfe towered over me. His dark hair fell over his eyes, eyes the color of the darkening sky before a storm. Sculpted cheekbones, a straight nose, and a sharp jawline with a constant five o’clock shadow, with full lips… Ten years had aged him from a boy to a man.
My palms itched to reach out and run over the taut biceps, smooth across his chest, but I forced myself to remain still. He’d always had the power to affect me. But when you looked like Wolfe, many females would react the same.
“Why are you here?” I asked again. “If not to witness my embarrassment.”
“Maybe you should pick the prick with the blond hair; he sounded as conceited as you do.”
I stepped back at the venom in his voice. “You’ve changed.”
Wolfe smiled slowly. His whole stanceshifted,and he looked more like a predator than I’d ever seen in the wild. His eyes danced with wicked amusement as he looked down at me. “You have no idea how much I’ve changed.”
“What would you do?” The whispered question was out before I could still my tongue.
His answer wasn’t in words. It was just a look. One long look that made my skin prickle and my tummy turn somersaults. My breathing became shallow, and I saw the flare of interest in his eyes.
Goddess, what the heck was that? I stepped back, squaring my shoulders, fighting the urge to shake my head.
“You shouldn’t have come back.”
“Maybe not…but the alpha of the Stonefang Pack wants to create alliances.” Wolfe hadn’t moved, but he broke the stare and looked at the trees beyond us. “And this was once my home.”
“You left.”
He looked back, eyes unreadable. “You told me to go.”
I had. I told him a lot of things. Meant every damn word at the time too. Regretted them a few times too.
“The pack is undergoing change,” I said, forcing the words out past the ache. “Your alpha should visit when…” I swallowed. I couldn’t finish it. Not with my father’s scent still fading from the walls. Not with the weight of goodbye already pressing into my bones.
