Page 92 of The Weakest Wolf

I stare at him. “You’re staying to fight them. Alone.”

Before he can answer, I shake my head. “You can’t. There’s too many. They’ll kill you.”

“It’s time I finished what you started.”

“No. I know I said I hate you, but that didn’t mean I want you to sacrifice yourself for me. Do what anyone else does when they mess up. Apologize.”

He sits me down on the edge of the bed and crouches in front of me, his eyes probing mine. “That’s not enough. I don’t deserve your forgiveness, not after what I said to you, and not after the way I treated you. There’s only one way I can make things right. You deserve even more than that, little wolf, I—”

“That’s a ridiculous nickname. You make me sound like a child,” I snap as panic churns my belly.

One corner of his mouth turns up in a smile. “There’s no use pretending you don’t like it. I know you do.”

“How?”

He leans close. “The same way I know how to make you orgasm with my tongue. I knowyou.”

A furious blush sears my cheeks, and I look away. “No, you don’t.”

His hand on my nape forces my face back to his. “I do. Just as I know that you’re a protector. More of a protector than anyone I’ve ever met in my life. The world needs more of you.”

I search his eyes as tears fill mine. “But less of you. Is that what you’re saying?”

He doesn’t respond.

He’s going to his death, and he knows it. I can read it in his eyes.

I shift the cell phone to my other hand and grip his wrist. “We can leave together. You don’t have to do this.”

He shakes his head. “No, this pack needs to die. It’s lived far longer than it should.”

I’m still shaking my head when he pulls his hand free and gets to his feet. “Galen, wait. Just—”

“No time. Can you walk?”

He doesn’t wait for me to answer, just takes one look at my face and I’m in his arms without knowing how I got there.

A door crashes open in the hallway. I’ve heard the sound enough times to know that it’s the front door. Only this time, there’s more than one set of footsteps that move toward us.

Galen takes one look at the bedroom door and stalks toward the window. After shoving it open, he clambers out before moving at a fast jog toward a matte black truck parked a few feet away.

No one follows us, but all around us, howls ring out, and I know Galen was right. Bowen has gathered the pack, and he’s set them all against us. Against him.

I grip his shoulder tighter because no matter how good a fighter Galen is, he can’t fight nearly sixty wolves at once. No one can.

When we reach the truck, there’s still no sign of the pack. Galen pulls the driver's side door open and helps me in. The keys are already in the ignition, and he leans into the truck and starts the engine.

And then he turns to me.

He doesn’t say a word. Just studies me in silence.

With a touch that I barely feel, his fingers graze my jaw. “I think my wolf chose you about the same time as the man did.”

I feel the impact of his words like a punch to the gut. “What?”

Shaking his head, he releases me and takes a step back. I don’t let him. I grab his shoulder and hold on. “What did you say?”

When his eyes soften, my breathing turns heavy. “I—”

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