Page 23 of Nanny for the Wolf Daddy

He gritted his teeth, then did his best not to bristle against his friend.

“Send up some people in the morning,” Nox ordered. “Tell them to avoid the cameras and report back.”

Roland patted his back, his hand remaining.

“Did you hear what I said?” he whispered.

Nox turned to him briskly.

“I heard you, Roland,” Nox snapped.

Roland lifted an eyebrow, a small smirk growing on his face.

“That tells me that you didn’t,” he said softly. “If she is your mate, then she is going to be as strong as you. This proves that she is.”

His words in the dimming night melted Nox’s resolve. He still felt a bit angry at himself, but Roland knew him better than he knew himself. He touched his friend’s shoulder and squeezed it.

“Thank you.”

Roland nodded, then stepped away to give the orders to the pack.

That night, Nox stayed at a motel near the mining road. He barely slept, wondering what was going on with his beloved, hoping she was being treated well. He worried that she was scared, anxious, or even remotely uncomfortable. The wolf inside him whimpered, begging for her touch and love.

He dreamed on and off, tasting her on his tongue, feeling her body beneath his as they made love. Every time he woke, he reached over to the side of the bed, his hand stroking the empty space.

His heart was going to burst in his chest as he lay in the dark staring at the ceiling, needing her like air, like food, like the earth needed the sun.

SIXTEEN

KELLI

Kelli sat in the van, feeling her skin sweat as Archie drove out of the lot. In the blackness behind the blindfold, she envisioned Nox holding Violet, helplessly observing her disappear into what may as well have been the ether. She found that her fear came more from the prospect of losing them rather than the fear of any harm coming to her.

“My business is that of a precarious nature,” Archie said from the front seat. “It’s top, top secret, so you can imagine why I have to take all of the precautions afforded to me. You understand, yeah?”

Kelli nodded without hesitation.

“It’s certainly something different,” she said, laughing nervously. “But I can understand why you would put these … precautions, as you say, into place.”

She imagined him nodding and grinning, his brown-stained teeth glistening ghastly in the afternoon sun. It was better for her to act only a bit stupid because even though he wasn’t a shifter who could easily see lies, he wasn’t as dim as his appearance would imply.

Balancing the line between truth and lies was where she had to walk for the time being.

They drove for what felt like an hour or two, mostly in silence, with Kelli asking every now and then when they would get there. He gave her a short, semi-cordialalmost there, which was starting to feel like a big fish story.

Kelli’s mouth was parched, and her stomach began to grumble. She hadn’t eaten much that morning, knowing that she had to play a part with Nox and Violet. She cursed herself when she felt plastic abruptly press against her lips, and she nearly choked on the water being forced down her mouth.

“Drink up, missy,” Archie said. “We’re almost there.”

Kelli adjusted her mouth around the rim of the lid, wondering how Archie was both driving and holding a water bottle to his subject’s lips like a cow holds its teat to a calf. She drank generously, though, ignoring the splashes of water spilling on her plaid getup.

“That’s enough,” he said, removing the bottle.

Kelli tried to giggle, to meet him at least halfway to the point of where his sanity left him, but she ended up coughing for a good solid minute.

“Keep your shit back there,” Archie griped.

Kelli giggled again, covering her mouth with her hands.

---