Wolf on Board (Wolves of Willow Bend Book 14) by Heather Long Page B

you…exactly.”
    “Ummm-hmmm.” The low sound wasn’t precisely comforting, but he grinned at her nonetheless.
    “Seriously, I wasn’t following you…” It wasn’t a lie. “I wanted to be in your path, which is not following so much as lying in wait.”
    Her snort didn’t comfort him.
    “I mean it, I wasn’t following you to invade your privacy or to stalk you. I just wanted you to call me or join me for a meal, so I thought if I were more convenient for you to discover, my charm would do the rest” Because he was exactly where he wanted to be, he grinned wider. “It worked.”
    The heat in her gaze didn’t cool, but she twisted back to the grill and painted a sweet smelling sauce over the meat. “Proud of yourself, aren’t you?”
    “Actually,” he considered his answer before speaking. “Pride indicates I did something worthy. All I did was get damn lucky. So, at the risk of pushing my luck, want to tell me what pissed you off so much you were ready to show tooth and claw on a public street?”
    She added another layer of sauce to the steaks before turning them again. Whatever she coated the meat increased his drool factor. “Since you were lying in wait noticeably like a preening peacock, did you notice the female wolf who left the shop ahead of me? Brunette, olive skin?”
    Letting the not-so-subtle dig at his manhood go, he frowned at her description of another wolf. “I didn’t really pay attention to the people shopping.” It had been crowded in the little village center. Crowded with moms and their little kids, tourists, and a number of local artisans who plied their trade. “You spotted another wolf?” Warning bells clanged in his head.
    “Oh, yeah. Spotted her, made eye contact, and drove her out of the store.” The firm, factual delivery impressed the hell out of him. Mimi Chase intrigued him on levels he’d never experienced before. He didn’t doubt her account for one instant. “Didn’t know her. Neither did Mitch.”
    “When did you tell Mitch?” Aggravation scraped over his spine.
    “On the drive here.” She turned her vegetable skewers then flipped the steaks again. The moves were smooth, and her attention seemed focused. “I didn’t recognize her scent, more it was a scent that didn’t belong. Maybe she’s a Lone Wolf, maybe she isn’t, but with recent events…”
    “The attacks on our packs?” His wolf shivered, prowling close to the surface. Shifting his attention from her loveliness, he scanned the beach below then the foliage shaping around her cottage. Suddenly, their bright, sunshine-splashed spot felt too exposed. He should have insisted on eating inside.
    “Unless you have more recent data to suggest another problem I haven’t heard about yet?” If not for her sobriety, he might have gone for the joke.
    “Not that I’ve heard of…but if you thought she was one of them, why the hell were you chasing her?”
    Mimi removed the steaks from the grill and began piling them onto a plate, but she paused to give him another long stare. The hair on his body rose, along with his hackles. His wolf sensed the danger, even if her scent didn’t change one iota. “I was protecting my territory.”
    The five foot nothing, curvy wolf shouldn’t have to defend anything. She was so precious and sweet, but the gold ring around her irises warned him not to state his observation aloud. He tilted his beer bottle toward her as though in a toast. “You consider the bookstore your territory?”
    “I consider anywhere I’m standing in unclaimed land my territory. I didn’t know her. She didn’t know me. Yet, she walked into that shop and kept her eye on me. I have no idea what she was doing. I also didn’t plan on giving her an easy target. If she was scoping me out for a possible attack? Well, I wanted her to understand I was not going to roll over and play dead.”
    “God, you’re hot when you get all cold-blooded and vicious.” He wanted to wag his tail so she