Page 24 of The Strongest Wolf

I want to believe him… and I would, if this hadn’t come on the heels of my overheard conversation. The thought of going on a date with Galen Hunt—my first date ever—makes me want to grin up at him like an idiot because it sounds… nice. Better than nice. Sweet.

I hadn’t thought I’d ever be interested in dating. Revenge against the Stone pack took all my focus, and I’d always believed that if I survived it and escaped, I’d spend the rest of my life living quietly, as far away from alphas as humanly possible, and not interested in any male attention ever.

Turns out I was wrong.

The only thing is, alphas aren’t sweet, which means there must be something more going on here. Something I’m not seeing.

Eden doesn’t have a response for him, but I do. “I’m not wearing shoes. Give me five minutes to get some.”

And hopefully, buy some thinking time to work out what he’s really up to.

“Don’t worry about that,” Luka calls out. “Talis never wears any in town, so no one will even notice.”

Damn it, Luka.

I turn to glare at him. He waves with an innocence I don’t trust for a second. “Enjoy your date.”

Does he know where Galen is taking me? My eyes narrow. Is he in on whatever this is?

Galen nudges me, drawing my attention back to him. “So, let's go,” he says with a smile so secretive, alarm bells start blaring that I need to keep all my wits about me.

He’s up to something. He is most definitely up to something. But I get in his truck because what else am I going to do? Tackle him to the ground and make a run for it?

Tempting. But… I shoot him another glance. He smiles innocently at me.Tooinnocently.

But by then I’m in the truck, so I’ve missed my opportunity to do any tackling.

When my legs are inside, he slams the door shut behind me before rounding the front to the driver's side. My eyes meet Eden’s through the window, and she’s looking just as confused by this morning’s events as I am. The Galen she remembers must bear little resemblance to this one.

Guess he never took Melody on any dates.

But that would have been years ago. Galen was still a teenager when he and Melody were together, so Eden must barely recognize the man he is now.

Eden waves as Galen starts up the truck and pulls away from the house for our breakfast date in town.

Galen doesn’t speak until he’s driven us off Blackshaw pack land and onto the main road. He turns left, and we head down the mountain toward the tiny one-stop street in Hardin.

“I met Dom first. Pissing in a Boston alley, if you can believe it,” he says, his focus on the empty, winding mountain road lined by dense forests on either side of us.

I glance at him in surprise. “Uh, okay.”

“It was one of his first nights out after he left the Marines, so he wasn’t exactly looking for a friend. Neither was I. We were both hiding from our demons at the bottom of a bottle. Unfortunately for the guys who were looking for a fight that night, they assumed we’d be easy targets for a mugging.”

Do all dates start like this?

I clear my throat. “Uh, Galen, what are you talking about?”

He darts a glance at me. “Telling you about the pack.”

My brow creases in confusion. “Why?”

“Because I’ve realized that I haven’t exactly been forthcoming about them.” He gives me a long look. “And you haven’t asked me about them once.”

I look away.

I knew there was going to be more to this breakfast date.

Another moment passes in silence. “So I thought it was about time I learned to start sharing.”

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