“I believe you,” Declan had said calmly. “I want to help you prevent that from happening. But you can’t do it like this. From what you’ve said about him, this is only going to make him salivate even more at the thought of snapping up your packthe second your grandmother is gone. We need to try another tactic.”
No one, unfortunately, had any idea what that new tactic might be.
Lydia let out a wolfish chuff in lieu of a sigh and went back to poking her nose through the grass, idly following an intriguing scent-trail. She wasn’t sure if this jaunt through the woods would help her think of anything groundbreaking, but it at least had to be good for her blood pressure.
She had almost decided that it was a raccoon she was smelling when another, muskier scent spiked through her senses. It set off primitive alarm bells, and her hackles went up instantly.
That’s not pack,her wolf growled.
No, Lydia agreed.It’s a wolf, but it’s not pack.
And she had a sinking feeling that she knew exactly who it was. It was like Reeve hadsensedher starting to relax and had popped up to ruin her day.
All she could do was try to cover up her growing panic with an icy calm. She took off towards the new,rankscent, determined to make it clear that Reeve had to get out of their woods right fucking now.
Either challenge me, kill me, or back down, Lydia thought grimly.But don’t slink around stinking up our territory.
She crested a small rise and saw him down there beneath her.
Lydia always forgot how unsettlingly huge he was. Most werewolves’ shift forms looked like ordinary wolves, but it wasn’t unheard of for features to be heightened. Sometimes werewolves had sharper, brighter eyes. Silkier fur. Louder howls. And sometimes, sure, they were a little bigger.
But not this big. Reeve was like a wolf on steroids. And his size wasn’t the only thing about him that was alarming. His eyes were an unusual red-brown, the color of a fresh bruise. He worehis thick, shaggy coat like it was armor, obviously savoring how much an opponent would have to struggle to bite down through it.
And then, of course, there was the blood dripping from his muzzle.
Anger muscled in alongside Lydia’s fear. She growled at him, and he offered her a skin-crawling wolfish grin, his lips wrinkled back from his yellowed teeth.
She shifted back so she could tell him exactly what she thought about this. If he thought she was too dignified to stand outside screeching her head off at a wolf, he had another thing coming.
“You have no right to hunt in our woods! If you were a pup, or if you were desperate, I’d let it go. I’d even take you in, if you needed a home. But you’re just a poacher.”
She stalked towards him, the fallen leaves rustling beneath her feet. He didn’t look the slightest bit intimidated by her, and she probably had no chance of changing that, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to show that she was intimidated byhim.
“I know you’re daydreaming about making all of this yours,” Lydia spat at him, “but even if you’re right, even if you win—it’s not yours yet. So back.Off.”
He looked up at her with those unsettling maroon eyes and then slid back into his human form.
He was just as intimidating in this shape, and Lydia had to fight the instinctive urge to take a step back. It was one thing to get all up in a wolf’s face, but it was another thing entirely to find herself a few scant inches away from a man who was looking at her like he could rip off her arm like it was a chicken wing.
Somehow, she kept her feet planted where they were.
“Get off our land, Reeve. Or I’ll have you arrested for trespassing. These woods are technically private property. Everyone in town would back me up, and so would the law.”
His upper lip curled in a sneer. “You and your lawyers. You’d throw me in a human jail cell?”
“I’d throw you in any cell that would have you,” Lydia said honestly. “Why shouldn’t I? You’re breaking human lawsandwolf laws by being here right now, and you know it.”
To her horror, Reeve stepped even closer.
“Andyouknow,” he said in a low voice, “that there’s nothing you can do to make me. You’re too weak to fight. It won’t be long before I make you back down.”
Lydia raised her chin. “It’s not today.”
Reeve’s sneer turned into a smirk. “I like you all feisty like this. Tell you what, Lydia ... if you care so much about keeping your pack safe, why don’t you stay with them? I won’t agree to have a co-alpha, but I’ll agree to have a mate.”
What really made Lydia’s blood run cold was how, for a split second, she actually considered it. She was almost desperate enough to sell herself to Reeve Steele for the chance to at least mitigate the worst of his effects on her pack.
It wasn’t even pride that stopped her. It was sheer pragmatism. Reeve wouldn’t listen to his wife any more than he would listen to anyone else. If anything, he would listen to herless. Mating with him wouldn’t help her pack, it would just make a trap snap closed around her.
