Page 57 of The Alpha Dire Wolf
“Everything.” She smiled smugly.
“How so?” I wasn’t following her train of thought.
“For starters, now I have the power. All of it.” She was still smiling. “If you want it to be a date, you have to do what I want. Or else it won’t be.”
There were a million holes in that logic that I could drive my truck through, but I let it lie.
“What’s your point?” She had something in mind. But what?
The smile that curled her lips upward was as wickedly delightful as anything I’d experienced before. Various parts of my body threatened to lurch into motion, but I fought them down eventually. Now was not the time for that.
“I want some answers,” she said. “So if you want to know where the candles are, you can start by telling me what happened last night.”
“Last night?”
The smile faded. “Don’t. Just don’t with me, Lincoln.”
“It was a wild animal,” I said, not happy with the half-truth. It might not be an outright lie, but it certainly wasn’t the full truth either. “I never did find out what. I tracked it deeper into the forest but never could pinpoint what.”
She looked at me, obviously trying to decide if she believed me or not.
“I know it’s not that exciting,” I continued. “No bogeyman in the middle of the night to grab me and possess me.”
I let my words slow and slur near the end while also drooping open a corner of my mouth. Then, lifting my arms straight out in front of me, I took a lurching step toward her.
“Brraaiiiinnssss,” I moaned.
“Very funny,” Sylvie said, crossing her arms and trying to sound serious.
The giant smile on her face betrayed her completely.
“Brraaiiiinnssss.”I took another step toward her, my arms bouncing in front of me, reaching for her.
Sylvie rolled her eyes.
“Caannddddllles,” I moaned, now only one step away from her.
Laughing outright now, Sylvie pointed to the next room over. “Left drawer of the hutch in the dining room. There should probably also be some matches in there too. But they aren’t for eating. Or shoving up your nose. I’m not sure you could spare thebrraaiiiinnpower.”
I stopped and looked at her. “That was bad, Sylvie. Bad.”
She just laughed again as I sauntered off to find the candles for our date-not-date. They were right where Sylvie had said, and in no time, I had them set out in some lovely crystal holders, two little flames flickering softly.
“It’s my turn now, you know,” I said, returning to the kitchen to help supervise dinner, knowing full well if I didn’t, Sylvie wouldn’t believe that all the food I’d brought was for dinner alone.
“Your turn?”
“Tell me more about you leaving town,” I prodded.
“You’re pretty fixated on this for it being such a simple thing. I was ten, my parents said we were leaving. I think they said it wasfor better job prospects, but I didn’t really care. I wasn’t happy. I was young, what can I say, and upset.”
“Everyone else was fine with it?” I asked, checking on the beef simmering on the stovetop as it mixed with the taco seasoning to fill the kitchen with deliciousness in every sniff. “What about your grandmother?”
“Why are you asking about her?”
I glanced over at Sylvie to find her staring at me strangely.
Glancing around the house, I shrugged. “Seems like you two were close. That’s all.”
