“Right.” Rhett pushed away from the truck. “Okay then.”
On the fifteen-minute drive to town, Malachi tried to mull the problem of the rogues. Instead his mind veered back to April’s pale eyes, so deep and beautiful yet so haunted. To the sweet citrus scent of her, which he’d have to live with for the foreseeable future. In his home. Filling his senses. Stoking the fire in his blood that blazed whenever he thought about what she was to him, what he had to ignore as though she were only a random house guest.
As if the alpha housed random guests.
As if April were someone other than—
My mate!
He gripped the steering wheel. There it was again. Not a groan this time but a shout of triumph, his whole body alight with an urgent yet pleasant fire, his heart flooded with pure, petrifying joy. He drew long breaths. He blinked a few times. Maybe the discomfort of the contacts would distract him from this depth of feeling he couldn’t box up and put away.
His stop at the hardware store was simple and quick. He found the doorknobs, chose a sturdy-looking option, and headed for the checkout lanes. Every human he passed, male and female alike, gave a silent shudder. A few glanced at him, then away. A toddler in a shopping cart stared up at him, pointed, and said, “Giant, Daddy! Look at the giant!”
What many people wouldn’t believe—Malachi didn’t mind.
Yes, his relationships with humans outside his pack were limited. Yes, he left people uneasy if not downright frightened. His mother’s description of his eyes was one of his clearest memories of her voice.“Hideous, frightening eyes.”
But he wasn’t lonely. He was an alpha wolf with a pack to serve, lead, and love.
He left the store with the single item in its rustling white bag. Then, a thought crystallizing in his mind, he stopped at the electronics store across the road and made a significantly more expensive purchase. As he drove home, his body hummed with the anticipation of seeing his mate again though he’d been parted from her less than two hours.
As he got out of his truck, Rhett’s scent was heavy, close. The wolf stepped from seemingly nowhere and nodded to him.
“Didn’t have to kill anybody,” he said.
“Disappointing for you,” Malachi said.
Rhett bared his teeth in a grin that held a tightly-reined appetite for bloodletting. He let Malachi see it only because Malachi already knew about it. The day they’d met had been memorable.
“How is she?” No use pretending April had any privacy with a wolf near the cabin.
Rhett paused to consider, his eyes on the cabin. April’s signature scent was clear and calm. She hadn’t left the library, and in Rhett’s pause, she turned a page.
“Took her ages to pick a book,” Rhett said. “And she hums.”
Malachi’s jaw tensed at the intimate detail observed in his absence. Protectiveness against Rhett was unnecessary, yet while he waited to claim his mate, another wolf’s close knowledge of her felt like a threat.
Rhett crossed his arms. “You asked.”
“I did.” Malachi rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve been working out strategies for protecting her from them. For protecting all the pack.”
“They might not bother. Might not be able to track her if they try.”
“That alpha won’t quit until he finds her. He’s coming.”
Rhett cocked his head and studied Malachi a long minute. At last he said, “Seventeen-percent instinct, huh?”
Malachi growled. He couldn’t explain his certainty, but he wouldn’t ignore it either. When he knew something like this, on a gut level like this, he’d never been wrong.
“I could camp out nearby, in case you need backup.”
“She says there are only six of them.”
Rhett flashed a grin that, this time, held an impish sort of violence. “Yeah, never mind. You could take six wolves with one arm.”
“Possibly, but I’ll have two.”
He dipped a nod of respect and acknowledgement that meant a lot, because Malachi knew him. “I’ve been thinking too, while standing around listening to your mate hum to herself.”
