Page 32 of Nanny for the Wolf Daddy

Violet’s parents, sitting there, their eyes drooping like sad dolls, breathed in and out weakly. Kelli wondered if Archie hadn’t fed them well and what other horrid conditions they had been placed under.

She knew that the act of being put on display like a circus animal was humiliating enough, but she reached out and touched Nevel’s head. His fur was soft, slightly knotted due to the wretched conditions.

“Hi, Ludo,” she said softly.

He lifted his eyes up to hers, and it brought up a lump into Kelli’s throat. He looked so much like his brother. It was surreal. The pain in his dim emerald eyes was palpable, and she would do anything to alleviate it.

She wished that she could be like the shifters and relay to them that she was Nox’s mate. With all of her human intuition, she tried to send them that message with her voice and kindness, but it was limited. Archie pulled her away when she lingered too long, nearly sending her tumbling backward.

“That’s long enough, missy,” he said. “Give someone else a turn.”

Kelli was startled and enraged to see the parents who brought their children on stage to touch the creatures as common as some poor elephant chained to a concrete floor. Kelli wasn’t nuts about normal circuses, but Archie managed to take the idea of unethical to a whole new level.

“So?”

She looked at him, narrowing her eyes. “Hmm?”

“Will you do it?”

He was holding a piece of paper and a pen in his hands. She stared down at it, wishing that the answer would come to her like magic or some kind of telepathy from Nox.

“This here is a gag order that you will tame these beasts but keep the idea of my show here hush-hush. In legal terms, that is.”

She picked up the pen and hesitated, knowing a gag order was a joke in this situation. “One condition,” she said.

His eyes narrowed to a squint aimed at her. “What?” he growled.

“I want to be able to see my husband. I miss him something fierce,” she replied, calling to mind all the movies she’d seen with “country talk.”

Archie’s lips pursed as he stared her down. Sweat broke out between her breasts, but she held her ground.

Suddenly, a huge smile ripped into his face. “We got ourselves a wolf tamer!”

Everyone cheered while acid rose in her throat.

TWENTY-TWO

NOX

Nox received a few bumps and bruises from the battle, but it wasn’t anything he hadn’t experienced before. After some brief rest in his hotel room, he set out to find Kelli once again. He had been invigorated from fighting and needed her desperately.

Roland informed Nox that Gerald had submitted to them due to most of his pack being dead now and told them where the performance was taking place. They raced to one of the abandoned hidden mines, bursting in with guns blaring.

But the mine was empty beyond a platform and a few cages sitting beside it. Nox slammed his wolf paw against the side of the cage, rattling it so that it echoed madly through the cave.

Swallowing his frustration, he caught Kelli’s delectable scent. His heart and loins ached for her, and he used the pain to search the cave, leaving his pack to assess the rest of the mine.

The scent flowed away from the main area, fading into darkness. But it seduced him with its alluring fragrance, leading him down a narrow pathway to a point where he was completely sure his love was on the other side.

The cave tapered to a small door, one that blended in with the cave’s gritty pattern. He pushed on it, and strained light emerged below his feet.

“Who’s there?”

His heart almost exploded when he heard her voice whispering through the damp air, enchanting his very soul.

He snuck through the little door, coming into a very small cabin room that had one window. He seemed to be under a desk and looked up to find his beloved with her hands lifted into the air.

She had been putting her hair into that sexy bun he adored so much. Her face was that of ghastly shock but faded soon into desperate benevolence.

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