Page 44 of Big Bad Wolf

It was then that Rafe realized it was far too early for Ruby to be done with work.

“What’s wrong?” He scanned her with his eyes, searching for any signs of injury. But all he found was the gorgeous face he’d already been hypnotized by; her dark hair swept up off her neck, her usual black sweater, the sleeves slipping over her hands, her short black skirt, black tights over thick thighs, the boots he loved so much. She was all Ruby and she looked perfectly fine.

Exceptionally fine.

Incredibly fine. Physically anyway.

Her lips pursed at his once-over.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine. Why are you here? What happened?”

Ruby put a hand on his arm to calm him down, but her touch only ramped up his heartbeat even higher.

“I wanted to ask you to go check on Lena.”

“What happened to Lena?”

“Well, nothing yet, but that guy came back to the bar.”

“He what?” Rafe’s voice dropped into a low growl.

“It’s okay. Macy got rid of him.”

“Did he touch you?” If that bastard touched a hair on this woman’s head, Rafe would tear this entire world apart.

“No! He didn’t even see me. But…” Ruby hesitated like she wasn’t sure if she should tell him the next part.

“Ruby,” he growled. He was barely holding on to his humanity here. He needed to know what happened. He needed to assess just how many people he needed to murder and how painfully.

“He was asking for me. He wanted to apologize about the other night. Oh, and his name is actually Wyatt.”

Wyatt. He frantically tried to think if he knew of any Wyatts in the Highlands pack. No one sprang to mind, but he was having trouble thinking about anything other than Ruby.

“What else?”

“He was asking about Lena, about this one particular story. She kind of knew something before it happened. She predicted it, I guess? It’s become a bit of a town legend, and he was asking about that too.”

“You told me she doesn’t have visions.”

“It wasn’t a vision! It was a feeling.”

Rafe bit down on his frustration. None of this was Ruby’s fault, but Wyatt returning to the scene of the crime was definitely not a good sign. The Highland pack wanted something from the Bellerose sisters, that much was clear. And they wanted it bad enough to send some of their pack into County territory more than once. Even after Rafe had fought him off. It was an insane thing to do.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think it mattered at the time. I don’t know what the hell is going on or why he came back or what he wants or…”

“Ruby,” he whispered. He grabbed her arms and tugged her closer. A whimper escaped her lips as she leaned into him, her face pressed against his chest. He let his arms come around her, and she melted against him.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Okay,” she sniffled against his shirt.

He dared to run a hand over her back, along the softness of her black sweater, over the lines and curves of her. She sighed, her arms coming around him too, curling into the back of his shirt.

God, she was a good hugger.

It was such a human thing to do, hug. He’d never seen the appeal until right now.