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)
Dang it, just the reminder of my loved ones made me tear up all over again.
Change was good. Good change was great. We had gotten what we needed being allowed to live here.
What was going on with me? First, I was acting like the magic in the forest was catnip. Then I was acting like I’d never seen a man before while I was in Henri’s presence. And now I was weepy?
This was a lot, and anybody would cry over everything that had happened and everything that would continue to happen over the next few months or years, I told myself, trying to feel better about why I was so all over the place emotionally.
I had to be strong and… I couldn’t drive if I couldn’t see through my tears, dang it.
Henri’s sigh filled the cab, but his voice came out almost as gentle as when he was talking to the kids. “Why are you really getting upset, Cricket? Because of Matti and Sienna?”
He was making it worse being so nice. I scratched my throat. “Y-Yes and no.”
Didn’t I know better by now? It wasn’t that I didn’t think there was no one in the world who cared about me, there was, but those people had chosen to be there. Worked to be there. More than anything, they wanted to.
And then there was everyone else.
When you stayed away from people, you didn’t give them the opportunity to push you away.
Being alone-alone was different than feeling alone in a place surrounded by people who didn’t want you there.
Having to pretend to fit in when you knew you didn’t, and so did everyone else, was hard. No wonder I couldn’t stop my eyes from watering. Stop it.
“In two blocks, there’s a diner on the right,” Henri said, still using that same soft voice that was quickly turning into a weakness of mine. His cousin’s way of making me feel better was to make me laugh. Sienna’s methods included tickling. Henri wasn’t the person I expected to actually be nice. “Pull in the parking lot.”
There was no asking; he was telling me to. There was a clear difference between the two. But…. “I’m fine,” I promised, using my shoulder to dab at my face. “I just need a sec. I can still see.”
A big hand came out of my peripheral vision, and for a moment, I thought he was going to put it on the steering wheel and try and take control.
But this man, who I knew and yet didn’t know, set his fingers over mine and gave them a little squeeze. They were warm. “I’m not asking if you’re fine or if it’s safe for you to drive right now. Pull over at the diner,” he ordered in his sneaky, bossy werewolf voice that made me feel like I needed to listen to him.
The annoying part? It worked. Sniffling, I drove the next block, finding the sign for Howling Hill Diner—was that on purpose?—and I turned into it. I hadn’t even realized we were already in Lobo Springs, the small town closest to the ranch. We were on the outskirts of it, but we were in the limits, I was pretty sure.
The second I put the truck into Park, Henri reached for the keys, turned them, and followed that up by undoing his seat belt. Then he reached over, undid mine and sat back.
“When a pup is upset,” he started to say, widening his legs as much as he could once he’d leaned back into place, “a cuddle usually makes them feel better.”
I… I was no puppy, and I almost told him that, but it wasn’t like he didn’t know it already. Butttt I was never going to say no to affection, especially not from someone I knew, much less when that someone looked like Henri, and gave off the kind of comforting, stable vibes he did. The man was built to snuggle.
Which then reminded me about asking Matti why and how he was so big compared to everyone else. Amarok were bigger than every other kind of wolves I’d ever met, but Henri was twice the size that Matti’s dad had been, and he’d been full Amarok.
“I don’t want you to throw up on me,” I told him instead of sliding across the bench right then and there. “It might break my heart if you did.” Then I would have to consider moving away immediately, which I would have to reconsider because I wanted this to work for Duncan, and after that, I’d be forced to avoid Henri at all costs for the rest of my life.
He narrowed his eyes. “Why would I throw up?”
I tapped the tip of my nose, not really wanting to say the words out loud again.
A slow breath slipped from his lips. His head tipped to the side, those amber eyes regarding me carefully. “Nina,” he was back to using his gentle voice, “I like the way cinnamon smells.”