“I got that. But why are you mad at me? What did I do now,Ness?”
I clicked on the keyboard, then moved the cursor to the nexttab.
“Goddammit, don’t ice meout.”
I finally leaned back in the chair, crossed my arms over my chest, and stared up into Liam’s narrowed eyes. “Did you ask August to leave townagain?”
His pupils pulsed and pulsed, and then his eyes turned yellow as though his wolf was about to leap to thesurface.
Finally, he shook his head. “I asked himifhe was planning on leaving soon. I didn’t ask him to leave. Excuse me for wanting to know what my wolves plan to do with their lives! Especially when so much is fucking happening around Boulder. Did you hear that some Creeks pissed all over Julian’s fucking hedges? Same wolves Lucas smelled around myhouse.”
I blinked frenziedly, feeling suddenly petty for believing this had been about an amoroustryst.
“So no, I wasn’t chasing your mate out of Boulder. I was trying to figure out if we could count on him if more Creeks arrived.” Liam growled all of this, and his growl intensified the scudding of myheart.
“I’m—I’m sorry, Liam. I just assumed.” I shivered, feeling as though someone had spun the AC to its lowestsetting.
Liam didn’t storm out like I was expecting him to. He just stood there, jaw clenching and unclenching, making me feel even morefoolish.
I dropped my arms onto the armrests, then pushed myself up and walked toward him, laying a hand on his forearm, hoping he’d construe my gesture as a ceasefire. “What can I do tohelp?”
“We don’t need your help,” he bitout.
My hand slipped off his arm and landed on my waist. “But you need August’s? You’re not actually planning on making me watch from the sidelines, areyou?”
“It could get dangerous.” He rubbed his twitchyjaw.
“I’m notafraid.”
He snorted. “You might not be, but Iam.”
Did he mean for me or for thepack?
“We have no clue what they’re thinking, and their Alpha can’t be bothered to pick up the damn phone. Robbie’s dying to go to Beaver Creek to meet her, but Julian says to stay put. Like me, he’s afraid it’s a ploy to lure some of us to them.” He stopped rubbing his face, but the hard lines of his posture didn’t slacken, which told me he was still pissed. At me or at theCreeks?
“Maybe itisworth sending some of us to meether.”
His Adam’s apple jerked in his throat. “Some ofus? I hope you’re not planning on volunteering, because my answer would beno.”
“Why?” Iexclaimed.
“Because you don’t know the first thing about Creeks or diplomatic visits betweenpacks.”
“Then teachme.”
“It can’t betaught.”
“Bullshit! Everything can betaught.”
“I’m not sending you out there. I’m not sending any of my wolves out there. The Creeks want to talk, they come here. We are stronger on our turf than we are ontheirs.”
Slowly my hand slid off my waist and found purchase on the desk beside me. “What if they all come? All one thousand ofthem?”
“They wouldn’t leave their territoryunguarded.”
“Even if half their pack came, they would grossly outnumberus.”
“It’s not always about numbers. They have many children and fe—” He stopped talking so suddenly that I sucked in abreath.
