Page 28 of The Strongest Wolf

Sighing, I return my gaze to the view and get busy enjoying my breakfast.

Later, when I’ve eaten more than my fair share of the pastries and muffins, I’m too relaxed to complain when Galen hooks his arm around my waist and draws me against his side, pressing his lips against my hair.

I don’t remember closing my eyes, but I must, because when I peel them open, I’m laying with my head pillowed on Galen’s chest and his arms wrapped around me. With all the tall trees around us providing shade from the bright morning sky, it’s impossible to tell how long I’ve been asleep, or even if it’s still morning. “Galen?”

“Hmmm?” His voice is husky enough that he must have dozed off as well.

“What time is it?”

His arms tighten around me. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”

“But—”

“No buts. What I’d like to know is what you overheard me say that had you running earlier.”

Still half-asleep, his question catches me completely off guard. I don’t have a chance to prepare an answer, so I just freeze.

Which is probably exactly what Galen had hoped would happen.

I’d suspected a trap, and it looks like I just stepped right in it.

“Sierra?”

I continue to say nothing, all the while praying for divine intervention to save me from a conversation I don’t want to have. Now or ever.

6

GALEN

The silence extends as Sierra lays frozen in my arms.

And then I make a decision.

I roll over, get to my feet, and hold my hand out to her. “We’re going for a run.”

She blinks blearily up at me. “What?”

“Strip. We’re running.”

Bleariness turns to alarm, which she quickly masks. “Now?”

“Now.”

“Or?”

I gaze soberly down at her. “Not everything in life comes with a threat, Sierra. I’d like to go running with the woman I—” Sierra’s face tightens. Not enough that anyone but me would notice. But more and more, I’m getting to know the woman who craves happiness and wants nothing more than to move on from the horror of her past but is afraid someone will rip the rug from right under her. “—like. The woman I like.”

Her face relaxes. “It’s daylight. And we’re in a public forest.”

“Yes,” I agree. “But we’re in a Colorado town so small, I’ll bet no one has ever even heard of it. Unless the squirrels and deer we run into decide to tell the people what they see, I think we’re safe.”

Amusement flickers in her silver eyes, but she doesn’t laugh. “Galen…”

“It’s me, Sierra.Justme. I want to run with you.”

She still doesn’t move.

Instead of pushing when it’s what I would have done in the past, I silence my wolf, who wants to bully her into agreement because the idea of a run with Sierra is as exciting to him as it is to me. I wait, hand held out, for her to decide.

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