Page 40 of A Wolf of War
Poppy.
Her heart twisted. Just the thought of her sister sent a pulse of anxiety racing through her chest. Was she safe? Had Arlo hurt her? Was he kind? The not knowing was worse than being held captive.
Still, a small smile ghosted across her lips. Poppy wasn’t the type to go down easy. If anyone could give a werewolf hell, it was her sister.
He’d told her to be ready to leave as soon as possible, his voice crackling with barely contained excitement. That, more than anything, made her stomach twist into knots. Whatever had him this worked up couldn’t possibly end well for her.
Willow descended the stairs slowly, each step a silent protest. And then she paused, her breath caught halfway in her chest.
There he was.
Milo stood at the bottom, tall and broad andcut from shadow and sun, the light slashing across his cheekbones like an artist had sketched him into being. It wasn’t fair. He looked like a god dressed in plain clothing.
He glanced up, catching her stare. Her breath hitched. He smirked.
She huffed, turning her face away with a scowl.It’s not my fault he looks like that,she thought bitterly, willing her pulse to slow.
Willow all but ran down the rest of the steps, stopping at the bottom with crossed arms.
“Well?” she said expectantly,
“Come on. It’s a short car ride.”
***
Willow’s foottapped against the floorboard, almost involuntarily, in time with the music thrumming from the speakers. Something aggressive, industrial—Hatebreed, maybe. She didn’t know the song, but the guttural vocals steadied her frayed nerves.
She was still skeptical of wherever they were heading and whatever he had planned once they arrived.
Milo gifted her silence, eyes trained on the blacktop, hands loose but assured on the wheel. Hedidn’t press for conversation. Didn’t try to fill the space. She was grateful. She had nothing to say to him, and the ache between her thighs was still a low, persistent throb that made thinking difficult.
The SUV shot down the highway like it owned the road. Milo wove through traffic with smooth, assertive movements, passing slower cars with a twitch of impatience. She watched him—the way he commanded the vehicle like it was an extension of himself—and couldn’t help but feel a faint flicker of envy.
Things would be so much easier if she could drive like this.
“Y’know, people are going to do drugs whether you like it or not,” Milo said, voice infuriatingly casual.
Willow’s brows lifted, her mouth parting. He couldn’t be serious.
Apparently, he was.
She didn’t answer right away—didn’t trust herself to. Instead, she let out a low, unimpressed hum, her gaze fixed on the road ahead. The restraint it took not to glance at him was monumental, but she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of her full attention.
“We should really be focusing on decriminalization and programs to help people who get addicted. There’s amarket for it, Willow, and if we weren’t on top, there would be a lot more death. Trust me.”
His voice was quiet, but steady.
Willow kept her expression neutral, eyes still trained on the red sedan in front of them. It would be so easy to believe him, to let the silk-soft cadence of his voice chip away at her resolve and soften her heart. But she didn’t know if it was truth or manipulation, and that made all the difference.
And yet, beneath the mire of suspicion, she wanted to believe that this was the real him. Willow wasn’t going to tell him that, though. Let him wonder.
Let him work for her forgiveness.
The rest of the ride passed in loaded silence, tension hovering thick between them like a fog that wouldn’t lift. Willow’s pulse thumped harder with every mile, quickening even more as Milo flicked the blinker and took the off-ramp with that same unnerving calm. He didn’t say a word, but she could feel the anticipation rolling off him, steady and sure.
He navigated the winding roads of a quiet neighborhood, the kind where the trees stood tall and the sidewalks were cracked and buckling. Eventually, the narrow street ended in the entrance to a park—lush andsprawling, with winding trails that snaked through the green like veins.
And then she saw them.
