Page 19 of The Alpha and His Enemy Wolf
“Uh—yes.” She did not want to admit that she’d been caught red-handed and buck-ass naked by a Franconia enforcer while failing in her mission.
He snorted and then paced across the hardwood floors. “You can’t seriously want to stay over there, Mila. What if it’s a trap? They could be using you to get to me.”
“Then why would they let me leave to come back here?”
He cocked his head and pinned her with a probing glare. “What do you mean by letting you leave?”
Hell, she shouldn’t have revealed that. Her cheeks burned. She was tripping close to revealing how they’d captured her and locked her up.
“What I mean is if they wanted to grab me and use me like a pawn against you, they could have done so while I was there.” Her words tumbled out as fast as her racing pulse as she attempted to cover up her story. “They didn’t.”
He continued to stare at her and then nodded slowly. “True.”
“Besides, it’s only for a week.” She shrugged and gestured with a carefree wave. “We can hold off on our plans to destroy their resort while I gain more valuable intel. Then we’ll be able to hit them where it will hurt the most.”
“I need to think about this. We’ll talk later.” He dismissed her.
Once she left his cabin, she headed home. Well, she didn’t get a yes, but she didn’t get a no either. She should have expected that. No way would a suspicious shifter like her father think there wasn’t an underlying motive in an invitation from a Franconia.
Yet, she was the one caught up in deception right now. If it helped her carry out her task, then it would be for the greater good of the pack and worth it in the end.
Rafe
“You let her go?” Grayson jerked his head back as his eyes widened.
“Don’t remind me.” Rafe grunted and took a swig of beer. He met up with Grayson after work at Kelly’s Pub, a favorite spot for the après-ski crowd.
“I’m just surprised,” Grayson replied. After he drank some of his own beer and glanced around the pub, he returned his gaze to Rafe. “No, actually, I’m not. If she’s your mate, you may astonish yourself by acting out of character.”
Rafe shook his head and squeezed his lips together. “She’s Kane’s daughter. I could have kept her prisoner here and used that in some way to get back at him. I must be out of my damn mind to let her walk away like that. It defies all common sense.” He rubbed the coiled tension from the back of his neck. “What I should have been doing was thinking about protecting the pack, not consideringanypart of this cursed connection between us.”
“But you are thinking about the pack in attempting to work with her. You said you two would try to find some common ground,” Grayson pointed out. “That’s a good thing. If you two can keep the packs from going to war, we’re all for it. You know how much I want to avoid bloodshed.”
“Yes, I know.”
Grayson hated violence. He had since Rafe first met him, after his parents had been killed in a skirmish between packs. Rafe picked up a mozzarella stick, dipped it in marinara sauce and chewed, contemplating this situation.
“Nothing moves forward with any of this if she plays me and doesn’t return tomorrow.”
“Do you think she will?”
Rafe pictured Mila and how her pretty eyes had darted around when they’d discussed the situation going forward. “I don’t know her one bit, but she’s a Sacco. And that means I can’t trust her.”
And yet, he’d invited his enemy right into his den.
Rafe continuedto question his decision as he paced barefoot over the hardwood floor of his living room that night. He couldn’t sleep as he thought about Mila, so he put on one of his classical music playlists and wandered back and forth through the empty house.
How could she be his mate? He’d always pictured his mate as being someone loving. Someone to share this space with and make it a home. Someone who would look at him with warmth in her eyes, not hatred. Yet, that’s how they’d greeted each other that morning, eyes spewing poison as they had to swallow the bitter fact of their connection.
Still, by the time she’d walked away from him in the mountain village, they were more civil to each other. A layer of her frosty veneer had melted.
And who was he to talk? He’d been just as hateful that morning, in a murderous rage. He’d demanded answers like her name and why she was there before he gave her a blanket to cover her naked flesh.
Picturing her like that again didn’t help. He closed his eyes and envisioned her here with him, welcoming him with open arms.
Hell, thinking about her that way increased his conflict. It was time to get out of his barren house and let his wolf burn off some of this unrest.
He disrobed and exited out one of the French doors to an enclosure off the deck where he often shifted. It kept him from having to walk through the snow on bare feet. He initiated the shift, and the magic rippled through his body, transforming him to wolf form. On four legs, he bounded from his house and into the snow, sniffing at the scents as he headed to the forest.
