“That doesn’t surprise me.”
* * *
Poppy knocked—pounded—on Wolfe’s front door, yelling, “It’s Poppy and Noelle! Open up. It’s freezing out here.”
I snorted. “You could have just rung the doorbell.”
“Shouting was more soothing to my soul.” Poppy hitched a shoulder in a casual shrug. “Every once in a while you just have to let out some frustration.” The woman did have a lot to be frustrated about.
“Yell again, I guess. He’s not answering for some—”
The door flew open, almost coming off its hinges if the screeching was anything to go by. Wolfe stood in a pair of soft, black pajama pants and a black T-shirt with his company logo on it. The tops of his bare toes peeked from under the edges of the long pants. His wide golden eyes pointed directly at me as he stammered, “What in the hell? How did you get here? Your lips are blue! How long have you been outside? Get your ass inside now!”
My head whipped back as he grabbed my shoulders and hauled me inside, his golden eyes roaming over every piece of exposed flesh he could see. “Are you hurt? You look awful!Why aren’t you speaking?”
He kicked the door closed.
I blinked like an owl. “Poppy’s still outside.”
“Wait, what? Poppy’s here?” The wolf-man shook his head. He paused to sniff the air and froze. “Dammit. I only smelled you.”
Apparently, he only saw me too.
If my teeth weren’t chattering, I would have laughed.
Knock. KNOCK.
Wolfe quickly opened the door, his eyes still on me, while he rumbled absently, “Apologies, Poppy.”
Poppy stepped inside, shutting the door behind her. She shook her head in amused disbelief. “I can’t believe you didn’t see me. I was standing right Next. To. Her. That has to be the most focused I’ve seen a shifter on a mate in a long time.” The redhead patted my back once. “He’s definitely a keeper.”
“Yeah, I’m figuring that out.” I winked her way and then peered up at the wolf-man still scouring my body for injuries. “I’m okay, Wolfe. I’m just cold. We’ve been out in the woods for a while trying to find your house.”
Wolfe rubbed my arms hard, attempting to warm them. His golden gaze didn’t leave me even for a second. “Poppy, grab a blanket from the living room behind me? She’s as cold as ice.”
My head jittered back and forth from his fast caresses.
Poppy snickered under her breath as she went in search of the living room. “I’ll grab her one. And myself one. I’m fine, too, Wolfe. Thanks for asking.”
He didn’t even hear her. “Your lips are still blue, Noelle.”
“Because I’m still cold. I’ve only been inside for a minute.”
“What were you doing out there? You could have contacted me, and I would have picked you up from the hotel!” He shook his head, his soft, gray hair brushing over his shoulders. “There was no need for you to wander around and get lost. I have over ten thousand acres. That’s a lot of ground to get lost in.”
My teeth finally stopped chattering. I sighed and let my head fall back to stare at the wooden, domed ceiling of the entryway, knowing the wolf-man would not like what I was about to say. “We were with Joshua Striker. He dumped us off somewhere here on your land.”
“You werewhat?” Wolfe bellowed. “What the fuck!”
Out of the corner of my eye, Poppy did a quick pivot on her feet, with two blankets in hand, and tried to head back into the living room.
“Poppy!” I barked. “Don’t you dare run away.”
She stopped in her tracks. Her shoulders lifted and sagged back down with a heavy breath before she turned around to face us. Poppy had finally garnered Wolfe’s attention, and it wasn’t the pleasant kind.
His lips pulled back from his teeth with a full-on snarl. “What did you manage to rope her into?”
Poppy blinked. “Speaking of rope, and before I forget to tell you because you’re going to be yelling at me a lot, Joshua Striker stole five ropes from a hardware store. I doubt it’s for anything good.”
