Page 42 of The Weakest Wolf

Hope grabs me by the throat, because this is it.Thisis when I find out where Eden is. “You know what I want.”

“Eden,” she breathes. “You want to know about Eden.”

I nod. “You tell me where she is, and I will deal with Bowen and take back whatever he took from you.”

It’s impossible to miss the rapid beating of her heart.

She wants this a lot.

As her lips part, I force my pulse to slow.

She stares me right in the eye as she speaks. “You’re all the same. The Stone pack couldn’t have chosen a better alpha.”

My grip tightens on her wrist, but she doesn’t even wince, and my eyes narrow. “And you’re not? I thought you were just the same as everyone else.”

She tugs at her arm. “Maybe I am.”

“So Bowen will be just another notch on your bedpost? Is that how the game is played here?”

It shouldn’t bother me to think of them together. Yet it does. My eyes settle on her pink lips, the top fuller than the bottom.

She’s not beautiful like Melody or Chloe. There’s something about her face that’s too strong. But she’s striking. She has the sort of face a man would never forget. Maybe it’s her spirit. Maybe that’s her appeal.

Guys like Bowen and Leo don’t deserve a woman like Sierra.

Yet you do?

When I realize where my thoughts have strayed, I drop her arm as if burned.

Theonlyreason I’m in this rotten pack is justice for Melody, and to find Eden. Sierra Stone is a temptation, and that’s all she’ll ever be.

Sierra takes a step back. “I’ll get the coffee.”

I watch her go. Even after she’s returned with the coffee, cream, and sugar, I don’t pick up my mug when she again slips out. It sits beside my untouched breakfast until I rise from the table and step into the hallway.

She stands with her back against the wall, her arms folded over her chest as she stares into space.

The mask is gone.

Now, she’s just a woman with tired, sad eyes in a coffee-stained t-shirt, her dark hair lying in loose curls around her shoulders.

As if she feels my attention, her eyes snap to me. The mask clicks back into place.

I stalk past her and head for the front door. “I’m going for a run. Clean up the breakfast stuff. I’ve lost my appetite.”

Maybe distance will make her less of a temptation.

* * *

A three-hour run through the Wyoming forest does nothing to drive out the image of Sierra taking Bowen up on his offer.

I tell myself that I don’t care. That if she wants to roll out of Leo’s bed—or be kicked out of it— and land in Bowen’s, it doesn’t mean a damned thing to me.

But eventually, I turn back.

Why is Sierra Stone so determined to hide Eden from me? And why is it that every time I look into her eyes, my instincts keep trying to tell me she’s nothing like the rest of this pack?

I’ve nearly reached the farmhouse when my nose twitches. Blood. So, instead of veering right, I head left, because I know whose blood it is.

---