Page 4 of The Strongest Wolf

“You don’t beat around the bush, do you?” I mutter. Having pulled on a pair of comfy gray sweats, I sink into the seat beside her.

“Don’t have time to waste. Savannah is watching the twins at the house, but only me and Dayne can get Angel to stop screaming, which could start up any minute.”

I nod. Raising twins can’t be easy, especially when one of them screams louder than a freight train. Patrick, the quieter of her month-old twins, is the sweetest. But when Angel is awake… well, let’s just say you’re lucky if you can hear yourself think.

“Well, you’re wrong. I’m—” Before I can complete my lie, which I can already tell Talis isn’t buying, the cell phone on the table vibrates.

Reaching over, I snag it. A glance reveals it’s Galen’s beta, Dom, calling. “Hey, Dom. What’s up?”

“Is Galen around?”

I pause. I’ve spoken to Dom several times now, and he’s always been polite and, if not chatty, then a lot more talkative than now.

A frown creases my brow. “No, he’s gone on a run. Is something wrong?”

“Oh, nothing. If you could just ask him to call me when he gets back, that would be good.” His voice smoothes out, so relaxed it’s as if he doesn’t have a care in the world.

But I know betas. If they don’t want you to know something, they can hide it better than anyone. Bowen was the same way, and I’ve learned that Luka, the amber-eyed Blackshaw pack beta and Eden’s soon-to-be mate, is just as good at hiding the things he doesn’t want you to see.

“Sure,” I say, making a mental note to talk to Galen about potential problems in his pack later.

“Right, I’d better...” His voice trails off as if a thought just occurred to him. “Why aren’t you running with him?”

Damn betas.

I feel Talis’ stare heat the side of my face as I fumble for a lie at this unexpected question. “I was soaking in the bath.”

“And he couldn’t have waited for—”

“I have to go,” I interrupt briskly before hanging up. It makes me look guilty as hell, but with an already suspicious alpha sitting right beside me, Dom can wait his turn for my next lie.

“You know,” Talis murmurs as I return the phone to the table, “you’re going to have to talk about it eventually.”

Sitting back on the couch, I fix my gaze on a photo frame on a half-empty bookcase. In it, the Blackshaw pack, Eden included, gather in front of a lake, wide grins spreading across their faces. Since the twins are so tiny in Dayne and Talis’ arms, the photo must have been taken at least a couple of weeks ago. Maybe shortly after they were born.

The sun beams down on them, and a smoking BBQ is barely visible in the right corner of the frame. It looks like it was a beautiful day.

Everyone is smiling. And Eden… my eyes fix on the grinning dark-haired woman with one blue and green eye. Luka stands behind her, his arms wrapped around her middle. “I’ve never seen Eden smile like that before.”

“She’s happy here,” Talis says. “So is Kier.”

I nod again as my eyes find Kier next. He never smiled in the Stone pack. I remember him always glowering, always looking out for the newest threat to Melody. But we all failed to protect her, and he left Dexter, Wyoming, shortly after.

With his arm snug around his mate Hallee, a pretty woman in her early twenties with long, umber-brown hair and a playful grin, there’s a deep well of happiness in him I can practically feel through the photograph.

My wolf stirs within me. She feels it too.

And she wants it.

“I’m glad,” I murmur distractedly.

“You know, you could find the same contentment.”

I turn from the photograph to find her full attention on me. “Here?”

She shakes her head. “The place isn’t important. I guess you might find it here, but I have a feeling that unless Galen stays too, you won’t.”

Probably not.

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