Page 24 of Unforgivable

"Later, baby," Thjis shocks me as he leans in and kisses me. He called me 'baby' twice, and now he's kissing me?

"Maybe when Rhet can be here, yeah?" he murmurs against my lips.

"It's mine!" I can't keep the whine from my voice. I know I was just flipping out a minute ago, but I don't need this male to coddle me into oblivion. I want my mama's letter.

Thjis smirks at my expression as he stands. "Got ya to stop crying, didn't I?" He saunters from the room, completely ignoring my spluttering indignation.

"Asshole!" I shout out.

"Heard it before, baby," he calls out faintly.

I let out a strangled scream. Males are such jerks. It's unbelievable.

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Thjis

I can't keep the idiotic grin off my face. She's fucking cute, that female. Tough as nails, to go through all that shit and still have some fire in her. I know she's got issues, but she's surviving, and it's pretty impressive.

I don't like her, but I respect her. My wolf likes her more than he's ever liked a female before. So, I'll fuck her for Rhet's plan and my wolf. I'll force myself to make this shitstorm work.

"Is she pissed?" Ezra bounds up to me with too much energy, as usual.

My smile falls. "Fuck, of course. You stole her mama's letter, jackass."

"She was hurting herself from crying," he defends.

I snort derisively. "When isn't she crying?"

"You're a real asshole. You know that, right?"

I tug on my boots and shrug into my coat before responding. "And you're jealous. Admit it, that female is going to rip us all apart."

"She won't," he says quietly.

"No? I didn't hear you claim not to be jealous." I throw out over my shoulder as I trudge outside. Ezra hurries after me, still buttoning his coat up.

"I'm not jealous!" he shouts over the wind.

"Yeah, you are!" I holler back.

We don't say anything else as we fight the wind. In the barn, Rhet is unpacking the stored hay bales. Cattle mill around, sheltered from the raging storm outside that will only worsen over the next few hours.

"'Bought time you fuckers got here to work."

"Ez was busy canoodling with the female," I snap, shaking the snow off of my boots.

Ezra ties the rope to the barn hook. We'll use it to get back to the house if we need to.

"Yeah, how's she doing?" Rhet asks with forced casualness.

"Crying over her letter," Ezra says sullenly.

"You let her read it?" Rhet glares, heaving a hay bale into the first stall.

"I took it away," I explain. I walk over to help Rhet haul the hay out.

"That's even worse," he huffs.

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