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)
I was going to die of shock, I figured out right then, when his mouth pressed against my palm. “If they were anyone else”—Henri lifted his eyes, his lips grazing the broken skin of my hand—“I’d be following you back right now.”
Every part of my body seized up.
“Tell me you understand.” It almost sounded like he pleaded.
Something happened in my chest. Right in the middle. Right in the center where my heart was. And I found myself nodding, giving him a smile that probably looked near death but was more overwhelmed than anything.
Because I finally understood that we had scared the shit out of him.
This man I felt so much for, who I knew I needed to feel less for, closed his eyes for a second before he opened them again. He pressed his lips to my palm for the second time in the sweetest kiss I’d ever experienced, and it wasn’t even on my mouth. “Go get warm. I’ll find you as soon as I can,” he seemed to promise in a harsh whisper.
I nodded more out of reflex than anything.
A hand on my thigh brought me back to the girl who had touched me, her head ticking toward the clubhouse in a reminder of what I needed to do, and I gave her a weak smile of agreement as I took a step away from Henri.
From the frown he gave me, he didn’t seem to like that very much but….
When the three of us were halfway to the clubhouse’s back door, I stopped and peeked over my shoulder.
Henri was where we’d left him, watching us, with Shiloh and Pascal whispering to each other behind him.
I tried to give him a little smile, but it felt hollow.
By the time I made it to the building where we lived, Agnes was holding the door open for me.
No matter how stoic she came across, she’d gotten the shit scared out of her too. My mini wolf. But before I could say more than “thank you” after I went through the doorway, she asked in that high voice that was young and old at the same time, “Why’d you do that, Nina?”
I slowed down until she was beside me. “Do what?” I asked her.
“Save them. They’re not yours.” The way those sentences came out of her mouth was so matter of fact, they might have broken my heart if it wasn’t half-frozen.
I didn’t touch her often, but I couldn’t help but nudge her shoulder. Her eyebrows were almost touching from how hard her face was. I smiled at her, one that wasn’t bitter or confused, just as we made it to the end of the hall and turned right. “They’re all mine, Agnes.”
Duncan glanced at us, and I winked at him.
But of all the things Agnes could have replied with, what she actually did say would’ve been on another page, in a different book altogether. I wasn’t even sure she did it willingly when her eyes went slightly wider afterward. She asked it though, and there was no taking it back.
“Me too?” came out of her mouth.
It was so innocent, so curious….
I almost freaking melted. My mouth and the rest of my body were on top of it though. I nudged her again, smiling wider than I would’ve expected I had in me considering the day, and said, “Of course you too, Mini Wolf.”
There was no way I could ever go to Alaska now. I’d have a polygamous relationship with every gnome to stay here. I wasn’t going to be one more person to disappoint this child, I promised the universe at that exact moment.
And my thoughts were repaid a moment later when the little girl stopped when we got to the staircase to go upstairs and an arm wrapped itself around my thigh.
She might as well have hugged my heart.
And in a rush, she whispered what sure sounded like a deep, dark, dirty secret. “I was really scared.”
I didn’t want to touch her too much and send her scrambling away, but I set my palm on the top of her head. “I’m sorry, Agnes,” I told her, imagining how deep she’d had to dig to admit that out loud. And because she could, so could I. “I was too,” I told her. “It’s a crappy feeling.”
“Yeah, it’s shitty,” she agreed.
I stared down at her head. I wasn’t going to be the one to say anything; hadn’t I been meaning to talk to her about snitches? Instead, I pet her head while I made eye contact with the bright red eyes watching us intently from the first step on the stairs.
“Love,” he told me, and I blew him a kiss.
I waited until the arm around my thigh loosened and Agnes had taken a step away from me before I moved. She didn’t make eye contact again, but when she started walking, so did I. We went up the stairs together and into the bedroom. I crouched after I closed the door and gave Duncan another hug while Agnes dropped my wet clothes into my laundry hamper.