Page 15 of Ruthless Wolf

"Great. I wanted to hear you say that. Fine, I'll come with you to the Festival. Gosh! I have to hire an old woman's outfit so I can smell like one. Actually, old Mrs. Patty downstairs won't mind helping with that. She smells of cats. I'll have to smell of cats."

I break into a smile. "Thank you, Jacqueline."

Chapter6

Adeline

Iwake slowly, not willing to relinquish the hold on sleep. Those are the hours where my dreams are full of a man fucking me until I’m quivering with pleasure. A man who watches you with hot eyes as you climb, then flares with satisfaction when you tumble right over the precipice. Every moment is divine and I don’t want to leave.

But being a member of my pack means everything good always comes to an end. I fling my eyes open as the first sound of someone racing down the corridor clatters through my room. Something thuds to the ground and I hear one of my brothers yell. “Twenty seconds! Woot! Lawrence smashes it again!”

I jump out of bed and storm out of my room, missing a collision with Lawrence's husky wolf body by a hairbreadth. I snarl at him as he halts and turns around to face me.

"Will you stop with the noise?" I cry.

My brother morphs into his human form as he approaches me. His fur vanishes while his muscled body narrows into a less intimidating one. He stares at me, a derisive smile crawling up his lips.

"Look who’s awake," he sneers.

"I just want to sleep. Is that too much to ask?" I ask, throwing my hands out wide. I want to be lost in my dreams of Luke.

Lawrence sighs and brushes a strand of hair from my face. "It's fine, sister. I'm just training. How was your night?"

I look at him like he had just sprouted two horns from his head—though, I won’t be surprised if that happens. Lawrence has never asked me about my night.

“Uh, fine.”

Lawrence wags a finger at me. “That’s not what I heard.”

His words hit me like a violent wave. Lawrence was deeply drunk last night. I’d assumed he wouldn’t remember confronting Luke. But if Jake told him, or if he remembers, I’m scared of what he’ll do to me. He hates seeing me with guys.

“I rang Lindsey this morning,” Lawrence is saying and I have to stop my hand from flying to my mouth. I hadn’t expected her to betray me. “She said you ate every last spoonful of her moose track ice cream.”

Relief washes over me. Lawrence is still the pathetic drunk he is. If he’d stripped himself naked and danced in front of the whole world yesterday, he still wouldn’t remember a thing.

“Maybe.” I turn back to my door. “Can you just train quietly, please?"

Lawrence's body rakes with laughter. "It's impossible, Addy. You know I have to train my wolf form to be faster and stronger. We don't know what enemies are out there, lurking."

I cross my arm. "Isn't High Ridge Pack the safest pack in the area? Why are you bothered about enemies?"

Lawrence doesn't look me in the eye when he answers, "Just go back to sleep. I'll train outside."

I know when my brother is lying. He's keeping something from me but I don't pressure him to tell me. To be fair, I’m hiding something from him too. Luke.

"It’s too late now,” I huff, those moments with Luke now nothing but a memory. I turn back to my room. “Like you care, anyway,” I mutter.

Damian, my other brother who’s keeping records of Lawrence's sprints, frowns, "Enough of the drama, Addy. If you want to go back into your room, do so and stop whining."

I roll my eyes and go back into my room. Lawrence and Damian appear to love giving me a hard time. I wish Jake was out there with them. He always backs me up.

My brothers don't involve me in all they do and I’ve come to live with it. The Pack has its way of subjugating the female wolves and sidelining them when it comes to important issues. I stay in my room for hours, trying to finish up the latest romance novel Lindsey bought me some days ago. Sometimes, I hear the howls of my brothers outside the walls of the mansion we call home and I stop to watch them train in the woods with others in our pack.

Even then, the hours crawl slowly. In the end, I’m proud that I don’t start to get ready until an hour before the Strawberry Festival. I refuse to be some silly teen who spends hours on what to wear or flustering over her makeup.

Still, I hurry into the bathroom and scrub myself clean. I spend extra minutes brushing my hair to a gloss. I spin one way, then the other in the mirror, appraising my snug jeans and top with tiny strawberries printed on it.

Rolling my eyes at the flush in my cheeks, I grab my cross bag and sneak out of my room. My brothers are still in the woods. By the time they get back, they'll find me gone. I don't want to tell them where I’m headed. Lawrence and Damian will ask unending questions and probably lock me up in my room if I don't provide satisfactory answers.

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