Chance Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire 6) by T. S. Joyce Page B

loped toward her, looking uncertain. But right as he reached her, he changed his mind, turned away, and took off running with long, graceful strides. At the edge of the woods, he skidded to a stop. He stood with his back to her for a long time, but finally, he spun slowly and sat in a pile of remaining snow. Lifting his nose, he let off another howl, and this one sounded sad. She felt the sound down to her bones. She felt the hollowness and the despair. He was singing a song for her because her human vocal chords couldn’t do justice for what she was feeling.
    She doubled over the pain in her middle and squeezed her ribs tighter, just to keep her heart from escaping as his song lifted and fell, then lifted again.
    He was giving her a gift, and maybe it was the most meaningful one she’d ever received.
    Chance’s wolf-song was the perfect goodbye.

Chapter Seven
     
    Emily hadn’t even been afraid of him.
    Chance turned his cell phone in his hands, end over end.
    He’d approached her as a test, trotting closer and closer, and Emily hadn’t even smelled scared. She hadn’t flinched. She’d just sat there, smelling of sadness, her eyes full and her shoulders hunched like she was carrying the weight of the world.
    Chance gritted his teeth and leaned back onto the wall behind his cot. He had to stop this obsessing. She was a Hell Hunter.
    But…she burned her father’s things. And she swore not to hurt you. She swore.
    Chance laughed harshly at his wolf’s ability to justify a relationship with a trained werewolf killer. If Kate and Dalton knew what she was, they wouldn’t be pushing a relationship with Emily. They would be just as wary as him. This wasn’t about his happiness, but about what was best for the pack. Link would back him up.
    But you heard her last night. She called her trainer a liar on the phone. She said fuck his mission, like it was never a mission she chose. She was born with bad blood, just like us. Just. Like. Us. Not her fault.
    Chance shook his head hard to punish the wolf. If he gave her an inch, she would take a mile. He could feel it, the elusive bond he thought he would never feel with another person. It was there in that first shock when their skin had touched at the gas station. Giving into the urge to connect with her could kill not only him, but the people he loved. His pack. The Silvers. Elyse’s boy cub and Nicole’s girl pup, the baby Kate was growing.
    Emily could destroy everything, and he would have no one to blame but himself for letting her in.
    But you saw her eyes. When she was burning her father’s belongings, you saw the look in her eyes. So sad. So betrayed. She isn’t a Hell Hunter. Not anymore. She’s ours instead. One of us.
    As much as he hated admitting it, and as much as he wanted to fight it, his wolf was telling the truth about the look on her face.
    She wasn’t just giving up the memory of her father.
    She was giving up a part of herself.
    What was he supposed to do? She was the biggest risk he’d ever encountered and he was actually considering this?
    She’d done that fucking adorable dance on the bar top, then asked if he was falling in love with her. Those words had scared the shit out of him. In that instant, he’d felt the honest question, and his own answer was terrifying. Yes. With every moment he’d spent with her, watching her tease and laugh with the people who meant the most to him, he’d imagined her as his. He’d been proud to have her looking so devotedly at him all night. She was the prettiest woman he’d ever seen, and her attention was drawn back to him time and time again, like a paperclip on a magnet. And he’d bathed in that feeling, the sick fuck that he was. He’d reveled in her attention and the affectionate pets and brushes of her hand. They made him feel special and cared for. They made him feel stirrings in a heart gone cold long ago when he’d watched Dalton wither under his ex’s poisonous love.
    Emily made him feel