Page 21 of Running with Direwolves
“Then we leave at five. Get to the station and board the moment we can.” He nodded at her floor-to-ceiling cupboard. “Pack warm and pack anything that can’t be replaced, butremember you’ll have to carry it in a rucksack.”
She nodded and racked her brain. She’d take the jewelry her adoptive mother had left her and some photographs from childhood. There was aZoologymagazine she’d had a report published in, that was precious, but other than that there wasn’t much. She didn’t hold sentiment to inanimate objects, she was more interested in the living.
Grady rubbed his belly and let out a sigh. “That pizza was good. Thanks.” He nodded at the bedroom area with the curtain hanging in front of it. “You mind if I lie down? Haven’t been sleeping so well.”
“Go for it,” she said. “I have to pack.”
“Yeah, I’ll help Sienna,” Tarl said. “Get some sleep, Grady, you need to recover from your starvation.”
“That was self-inflicted, I might add.” Sienna raised her eyebrows at him. “You had top quality chicken and beef you could have eaten.”
“And break a direwolf oath?” Grady stood and huffed. “Never.” He wandered to the curtain, looking far too big for her small apartment, and pushed the curtain back. The bed creaked when he dropped onto it.
Sienna set about organizing a rucksack to take what would be her worldly possessions in her new life.
Tarl cleared away the pizza boxes and bottles then stood at the window peering into the darkness.
A while later Grady’s steady, slightly rough breathing could be heard. He was sleeping soundly.
“He always sleeps better if he knows I’m awake,” Tarl said as looked out the window.
Sienna put her bag by the door. She didn’t reply.
“And he needs this rest before we travel,” Tarl added.
She studied his long back, his long legs, and the way he held himself as though ready to spring into action, attack ordefend. He was a man of strength and beauty, yet he’d deceived her.
“What’s wrong?” he said, suddenly turning.
She scowled, how had he known her irritation was rising?
“Tell me.” He didn’t move from the window.
So she went and stood next to him, stared out at the Empire State Building, which was lit up with the image of a wolf as a nod to the direwolf being in New York City.
“You had me believe you were single,” she said quietly, even though the words were big. “You lied to me.”
“What?”
“It’s clear you and Grady are an item.”
“Sienna, it’s not what you think … really.”
Chapter Six
“So, what is it like?” Sienna asked. “Between you and Grady?”
“He’s an alpha, my alpha, and he’s also…”
“What?”
“You saw us, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know what you mean?”
“In the shower.”
She pressed her lips into a tight line and looked down at her feet.
