“I’m not sure when we’ll be back,” he explained to Micha and Naomi once night fell. “Guard the camp. Call me if you sense so much as a leaf out of place.”
“Will do,” Micha said. “Take care, you two.”
Bill took the request to heart. He couldn’t even look at Loren as she entered his truck and settled beside him. Her scent flooded the narrow space, prompting him to lower the windows to counteract it. Blast the heat. Hold his breath.
It was either that or surrender to his body’s primal reaction to her nearness.
Damn.He naïvely thought her aroma would cease to hold any appeal to him. Obviously, the mating bond had fueled his attraction. He should react no differently to her than he did to someone like Sonia.
Five seconds into the drive shot that theory to hell.
Her scent was driving him fucking insane. He could barely keep his eyes on the road, his thoughts on Lukka and the eventual challenge—or the fact that he was minutes from entering the territory of a rival pack that had made it very clear they wanted him dead.
Ironically enough, if whoever sent the information had planned to set him up, they picked one hell of a spot in which to do so. As it turned out, Wolfie’s was a hole-in-the-wall just off the main highway. A swath of forest surrounded it, threatening to swallow it whole. Coincidentally, the dense underbrush made for the perfect cover for any lycan lurking in the shadows.
Under different circumstances, Bill might have liked the place. The location happened to be a quieter part of Elkton where everyone reacted to outsiders suspiciously and smoked indoors, ignoring the local ordinances. As it was—considering his tenuous relationship to the pack just an hour away—he regretted showing up the second he walked through the door with Loren at his side.
Should a fight break out, there wasn’t a realistic way to minimize any collateral damage. The building was small and square, with a brick façade and few windows. Cigarette smoke flooded the interior, obscuring the wood-paneled walls and stained flooring. Despite it being just after nightfall, only a handful of patrons were inside.
Even so, Bill realized instantly that he had made one glaring misstep. He had spent too many days isolated, forgetting until now how a young woman with unbrushed hair wearing ill-fitting clothing might draw unwanted notice while in public. To her credit, she kept her head held high, her eyes observant.
And his gut tightened with every glance of her he stole while pretending to scan their surroundings.
“We should have a seat and wait,” he suggested, warily eyeing the main bar where a man with a graying ponytail watched them while wiping down the counter. Had he come alone, he might have risked ordering a drink just to blend in. Instead, he picked the most inconspicuous seating arrangement and prayed their contact showed up soon.
Loren followed him to a booth and didn’t speak. At first. He watched her eyes flick nervously around the barroom before darting toward his face.
Like a coward, he immediately eyed the battered surface of the wooden table rather than meet her gaze.
“Keep your guard up,” he murmured. “I can’t guarantee that this isn’t an ambush.”
In fact, this probablywasan ambush. Why in the hell had he risked her life by bringing her here? As she quietly cleared her throat, some of his doubt eased up. She wasn’t afraid.
She was determined.
“I want to be here.”
He nodded, choking back a rebuttal. “How are you feeling? After everything… Breaking the bond can be a traumatizing experience, let alone reliving all those memories.”
“I feel better,” she insisted.
Skeptical, Bill snuck a glance at her face, surprised to find the statement seemed genuine enough. Her eyes were clear, her posture tense, but not unusually so. The only anomaly was that her cheeks were faintly pink.
He winced. If anyone should be embarrassed, it was him.
“I should have warned you of the risks,” he rasped. “I’m sorry.”
“Tell me more about him. The man I saw.”
He groaned internally, conflicted between two brutal realizations. One, he had no right to deny her anything after what he’d done. Still, the second complication was…
He wasn’t ready to talk about this. Though, considering he wasn’t the one who’d submitted to having his mind torn open, he figured his emotions didn’t matter one damn bit.
“He was the Alpha before Lukka.” He swallowed hard, gathering the nerve to look up. When he finally probed those hazel eyes, he didn’t find the anger in them he would have expected. Just a raw, naked need for answers.
“He was a good man. Strict but fair. I… I don’t know why he would have done something like that to you. I truly don’t.”
“I believe you,” she said, but Bill felt as though she’d stabbed him.