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 don’t think she’ll be back, but—” He shrugged. “—we couldn’t put the kids at risk.”
Against my leg, the wolf boy poked at me. “She farted she was so scared.”
Every adult looked at the boy who, by that point, was half hidden behind me.
The man, who I hadn’t seen in forever, let his gaze roam the circle around him, locking on every single person, man, woman, and child. The muscle in his jaw tightened in the process. Then he said, using that impressive, demanding voice he seemed to have a master’s degree in using, “Everyone”—those amber eyes again swept from person to person, landing on me for what I felt was a microsecond longer than everyone else—“has some explaining to do.”
Chapter
Four
“This wasn’t exactly how I thought the day was going to go,” I whispered to Sienna before taking a bite out of the piece of beef jerky in my hand. It was one of my best batches, if I did say so myself. Instead of using premixed seasoning, I’d started experimenting with making my own blend. It had either been that or spending a huge chunk of my paycheck buying Duncan treats every month. The idea of underfeeding him was something that kept me up at night; it wasn’t like there was a growth chart on the internet for what I could expect from him.
He was a bougie little donut.
Sienna snickered from her spot beside me on the gravel ground with our backs to the front of my truck, both of us trying to avoid the bugs splattered on the grill, my puppy between us having a stare down with the white mini wolf sitting about six feet away, doing the same thing right back. I’d known he was on the small side, considering his growth had basically stunted after a few months, but in the presence of the white wolf, who was probably five times his weight, it was very, very apparent.
I didn’t think either of them had blinked in a while, but I wasn’t sure considering I’d been eavesdropping the crap out of the conversation that the satyr woman, Henri, and Pascal’s maybe-dad were having as they interviewed Matti and the two boys on what exactly had gone down leading up to all this. From what I understood, the kids had, in the past, taken off on adventures that they weren’t supposed to go on, and they had done it again.
Except this time, they’d come across a “river crone” who had been ready to eat them. The river crone was a mythical being who should not have been anywhere near here from what the escalating body language in the group confirmed—and from the brief conversation that Henri had with someone on a cell phone, telling them to “find her.”
I was a little in awe of him. Who was this man asking for explanations, throwing out orders that people listened to, and demanding searches? He was not the man-boy of my memories that sulked and brooded quietly in the corner, too grown up to deal with Matti’s and my BS.
Ripping a piece of jerky into thirds, I popped one in my mouth, held the second out toward Duncan Donut until he edged his head closer—not breaking eye contact in the process—and took his piece from the side. Only then did I toss the final chunk at the white pup. It hit her on the forehead.
She ignored it.
“What do you think so far?” Sienna whispered as the group conversation got even more intense when the wolf boy said something the adults must have not liked. Even Matti winced.
“I like the drama so far. It’s almost as entertaining as campground parking lot dynamics are,” I told her, letting my gaze drift to the black body between us. His tail was up straight, the flame back to a solid blue instead of the ice-blue one that had taken over when he’d been ready to fight MegaWolf in my honor. It wasn’t that I couldn’t believe he’d done it—I could. But it still shocked me.
This little bitty boy had defended me, outsized and all. He had risked his life for me. Me.
I would do anything for him, I thought once more.
Which was why I was hoping someone who lived here would consider marrying me.
A part of me couldn’t believe I’d actually just thought that.
I was willing to marry a stranger to be here, in this quiet land with fencing, big gates, half-goat half-human children, hairy green monsters that wanted to eat them, and werewolves bigger than my first car who were also my best friend’s family.
I had made a rare being fart. I’d had two children claiming I’d saved them. My boy with red eyes had bitten a werewolf’s tail.
None of the fairy tales my parents used to read me at night could have prepared me for any of this.