Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
“Nothing happened because you’re not going anywhere, and I don’t know why you’re not dropping it,” he gritted out.
I poked him right in the chest again. “I’ll go wherever is best for him, and I’m only asking you to be nice to Ilya so I can sleep better at night knowing I have another option.”
If I’d thought he’d been mad before, he was seething then. “Here is your only option!”
“No, it’s not!” There went another poke. “I can’t stay here if I don’t get married, Henri. You know that as well as I do. He promised me—” He growled, but I ignored him, so frustrated I could spit. I really could. Right in his eye too. “I’ve got no promises here and—what the hell are you growling at me for?” I snapped.
Henri’s eyes were bright, his nostrils still wide, and now he was breathing heavily.
He was so mad!
I looked him dead in the eye anyway. “You were my first choice, and I’ve made that clear. I’m not asking you anymore. You don’t want me? You don’t want me—”
A loud, rough guffaw exploded out of him. He sounded… he sounded like a psycho, honestly. That was the sound I made when I was about to snap, and hearing it made me narrow my eyes.
“What’s so funny?” I demanded, confused. I hadn’t done anything to him, dang it.
“I’m not laughing, Nina,” he said through clenched teeth, still doing it.
“It sure sounds like a freaking laugh.” I squinted at him. If he didn’t want to explain it, I wasn’t going to beg. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. “Look, Fluffy, you kissed me, and you’re always so nice, and you’re over here rubbing your face all over me and I let you, but let’s get one thing straight. To keep my family safe, I’ll find someone who wants me, and that someone might be in Alaska,” I told him in another hiss. “Understand?”
Henri Blackrock’s eyes skewered me, that not-a-laugh gone with the wind. His skin was tight over his features, eyelids dropped low over those incredible amber irises, and I’d swear something about him changed right in front of my eyes.
Henri wasn’t standing in front of me anymore.
The Great Wolf was.
And he said, “I understand, all right.”
He didn’t look like he understood anything. And from the step he took toward me, those boots bumping into the toes of mine, I was sure he didn’t.
I didn’t let myself break eye contact. I had to say what I had to say, do what I had to do. If I had any chance of making things work here….
I retreated, one step at a time. The words burned in my throat and in my soul, but they had to be said. I’d promised myself. “You’ll always have my loyalty, Fluff, always, but we can’t keep doing this.”
“Can’t keep doing what?” His irises moved over my face.
I gestured to the space between the two of us as I took another step away from him. “This. It’s hard for me right now because I have feelings for you. I know you know. And that’s not fair to whatever my future holds.” I swallowed. “Whoever my future holds. You’re a good man, Henri, but you don’t need to worry about me. Duncan and I will be fine. Please don’t do anything to ruin our chances though.”
His face clouded with every word out of my mouth. He looked… he looked…. Pink lips parted, and I could see the argument forming in his mouth.
But it was like all the airline safety talks implied, you had to take care of yourself first before you could take care of someone else.
“Look,” I sighed. “I don’t want to fight with you right now. I don’t want to fight with you ever. You’re getting mad over a hypothetical situation that I hope I never have to pursue. I don’t want to move to Alaska. The days are too short, and I wouldn’t like being locked up indoors all day for months. I respect people who can handle it like champs, but I’m not cut out for it. I don’t like the snow that much. And right now, I have other stuff to figure out. I need to go wake up Franklin—”
He reared. “What was that about?”
“Ilya hinted that he knows who my father is,” I admitted.
“Franklin?”
I nodded. “I’ve thought he was suspicious from the moment I met him. He’s very watchful. Very thoughtful. I don’t know how to explain it.” I shrugged, a small part of me relieved we’d changed the subject. “He has a bracelet like mine. Did you know that? It’s made out of gold.”
Henri nodded at that, his expression pensive.
“Do you know what he is?” I finally blurted out, not sure what I was hoping for. I didn’t know his background. He could be from a dozen different mythologies and folktales. Chances were, I might not even recognize whatever name anyone could use to catalogue him.