AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When he realizes that he might’ve gone a step too far in making himself feel better, Aleks does try to apologize. Coming from a male who once told me that he could count the number of times he’s ever apologized on one hand, I should’ve been honored to be the recipient of a second one.
At least, that’s obviously what he thought.
Me? In as polite of terms as I could manage, I told him to shove his apology where the sun don’t shine.
Tonight, I’m off from work. I spent the whole afternoon keeping myself busy with errands: grocery shopping, heading out to buy replacement jeans, even stopping to pick up take-out for dinner. Then, like I’ve been doing every night since Hailey gave me that envelope, I called my mom and talked to her and my dad for a little bit after I hid out in my bedroom.
Aleks doesn’t have to leave for at least two more hours. I can sense him just down the hall. Call it petty as hell, but though I couldn’t keep myself from picking up dinner for him, too—we often ate Chinese together—I pointedly told them not to include any sauce packets.
Ha. Enjoy eating your plain white rice without your added duck sauce, pal.
It’s the little things, I think as I change from my clothes into a sleep shirt and shorts.
It’s still early, barely past ten, but I’m ready to climb into bed. Following Aleks’s lead, I’ve enjoyed borrowing a few of his finished paperbacks. I’m in the middle of a murder mystery, and without Aleks to talk to or Ryker to keep me… entertained, I decide to turn in and read until I’m ready to go to sleep.
I’m so busy trying to see if I can figure out who the killer is that I lose track of time. So engrossed in my book, when a blood-curdling wolf’s howl rips through the night, so loud it reverberates against my closed window, I jump so high that I nearly fall out of my bed.
What the hell—
Scrambling out of my bed, I toss the paperback behind me as I race for the door. I throw it open, rushing out into the hall as I try to trace the echo of the howl.
Aleks is standing in the middle of the living room, glasses dangling from his grip. He must have moved out of his room while I was reading, and from the dark outfit he changed into—different from what I saw earlier—I’m guessing he was getting ready to leave.
Without his reading glasses, I can see that his pale green eyes have flared to a brilliant shade of red.
Yup. He’spissedpissed.
“What is your wolf thinking?”
“That wasn’t Ryker.” I have no idea who made that awful noise, and though I know instinctively that’s a shifter, not a true wolf, I’m even more sure that it’s not Ryker’s howl. “It’s a shifter, but it’s not him. I’m going to go find out who it is, though. Maybe I know them.”
Aleks blinks. It doesn’t do anything to fade the angry red, but at least he doesn’t argue with me. “You go. You’ll handle this better than I would.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll get in touch with Roman. Let him know we have a breach.”
“I’ll be right back,” I promise.
I’m kinda surprised that Aleks is letting me go on my own. As I run in my bare feet out of the balcony door, ignoring the way the pitted steel tears into my soles as I race toward the ground, I think about how most males would find an excuse to hold me back.
Another peace offering, I decide. An apology without the words.
Whatever. I’ll take it.
As soon as my feet hit the sidewalk, another howl erupts into the night. I immediately turn toward the source of it. Unless I’m wrong, it’s coming from the park.
Makes sense. In my experience, most shifters in Muncie end up gravitating toward the only stretch of greenery inside of its borders. Ryker did, before he had his townhouse. I did, as soon as Aleks’s fang wasn’t tamping down my shifter nature.
And now it’s his turn.
Wolves in the wild communicate with howls. In my skin, I can’t really translate what this guy is saying, but I know it’s meant for me.
I’m right. Sometimes it’s really a fucking curse to be right, like now. Because, when I track the source of that howl, I find a fully dressed Shane Loup leaning lazily up against a solid oak tree as if he’s been waiting for me all his life.
Only my shock at coming face to face again with him for the first time in almost two months has me holding back.
Not my wolf.
She bares her teeth at him, ready to continue the fight we’d been in before four of his former packmates unwittingly got between us. She’s sure she would’ve had him, and I’m thinking she’s right about that, too.
“Gem. There you are. I was wondering if you’d answer my call.”
