Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55491 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55491 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Which was fucking crazy.
Still, the idea of some other guy offering that comfort set my teeth on edge. No fucking way. But that was just because I didn’t like the idea of having strange men near my house. Not when I had a little girl here.
I wasn’t jealous at the thought of some random would-be comforter to my neighbor. I was just being a protective dad.
Yeah, that was it. I ran a hand down my face and sighed.
Rain beat against the windows and roof. Lightning flashed again at the same time the thunder boomed.
My wolf let out an instinctive growl, ready to protect and defend my family against the storm. I cut through the house and peeked in on Remy. I didn’t need a candle with my wolf eyesight to see her tucked beneath her lavender comforter, her hand thrown up over her head.
The wind gusted, making my windows rattle. All of a sudden, I heard a loud crack and the sound of shattered glass.
A female screamed.
Joy.
Fuck. What had happened?
One last look at Remy ensured she was out cold, and I bolted across the house and threw open the sliding door. It was pitch black outside, but my wolf eyes adjusted to the dark as I sprinted next door. The heavy rain pelted my face.
I was headed to her house once again soaking wet.
“Holy fuck!”
An entire tree–one that had been in her backyard–had blown over and landed on Joy’s roof. The roof and part of the adjacent wall had caved in, smashing the glass to her window. A huge tree limb was half in, half out of her house.
Fuck!
“Joy?” I shouted at the same time thunder cracked again.
She wouldn’t hear me. She was human. She could be hurt.
I didn’t run around to knock on her door. Didn’t wait for permission or an invitation.
Fuck that.
I just leaped straight through her broken window, scaling the tree limb to get there. When I kicked the broken glass in to get through, Joy’s scream sounded just below me and to the right.
“Oh fuck!” I plunged through the broken window, landing in a pile of debris on a bed. “Joy?”
She was under the rubble, pushing her way out.
Fate, no.
“Joy!” I lunged for her, hurling the broken sheets of drywall that had come down from her ceiling out of the way to get to her. The tree limb wasn’t moving as easily, but it didn’t pin her, thank fuck.
She scrambled off the bed, landing in the tiny space between it and the wall. “Oh, my God! What happened?”
Rain came in along with the wind, which whipped her curtains around.
Fate. Had she been…on the bed when the ceiling caved in on her?
I jumped off it and yanked it toward me and onto its side, so I could get to her. I forgot not to show her my superhuman strength. Forgot everything but getting to my fragile neighbor before she was badly hurt. Maybe she already was, and I didn’t know it yet.
She could be cut. Bleeding. Worse.
“Joy, come here.” I snatched her up, carrying her out of the bedroom and away from the collapsing roof.
Her arms came around my shoulders, and my wolf calmed down. I got a clean hit of her honey scent, and lightning struck again–this time inside my body. It was like all my cells woke up at the same time. I became electrified. A switch turned on.
Fuck, she smelled good.
She smelled…right.
I never thought anyone–human or wolf–smelled wrong, but this was right.
I suddenly found it impossible to swallow.
Equally impossible was putting Joy down. She wasn’t safe here, in this broken house. We were both soaking wet and covered in plaster and debris. Worse, she might be concussed or cut and bleeding.
I needed to get her to my place to look her over. No way were we staying here.
Without saying a word–not unusual for me–I stomped out her back door in my bare feet and carried Joy in through mine. I picked up the lit candle from the kitchen table on the way to my bathroom. I only paused to peek in on Remy, who was still sleeping and was missing all of this. Then, I lowered Joy gently to her feet and set the candle on the vanity to start picking chunks of wood and plaster from her hair. I kept one hand on her elbow because her legs seemed unsteady.
“A… a tree fell on my roof.” Joy was clearly in shock, still trying to assimilate what had just happened.
I wasn’t one for extraneous words, but I forced one out because the situation called for a response. She deserved my response. “Yeah.”
“My roof is… My house…” She appeared dazed.
“Are you hurt?” I raked a gaze over her. Her blonde hair was soaked and sticking to her face, covered in the white powder of plaster from the ceiling. Her arms and legs were covered in more debris that hadn’t washed off in the rain. Her pajamas were tiny sleep shorts and a snug camisole. Neither hid her lush shape. The fact that they were both wet through meant I could see her nipples. Every bump. I knew their size. Their color.