“Sorry. I’m Juniper Hollis. You can call me June. It’s nice to meet you, Levi,” I added, trying to sound less terrified than I felt.
He cocked an eyebrow and grinned at me. “We’ve already met. On a summer night a long time ago, if I’m not mistaken?”
My cheeks flushed, but I didn’t let his words rattle me, even as I remembered how his lips had felt against mine.
“I guess that’s true,” I mumbled. “You know, you didn’t tell me you were famous back then.”
“Am I famous?” he asked, looking like he knewexactlywhat I meant and was being purposefully obtuse.
“The Demon Wolf?” I said, exasperated at how this was going. “The ancient ageless shadow that stalks the forest, abducting poor unsuspecting rejected shifters. Doing God knows what with them.”Sacrifices? Orgies? Food?I thought to myself. “That’s pretty famous. You’re known for almost a hundred miles in each direction. The nearest seven packs all have stories about you.”
He tilted his head, accepting the description. “I guess that makes sense.”
Turning his eyes to me again, he gave me a strange look. It felt like he was peering straight into my soul. There was nothing lewd or sexual about it, even in my state of undress. It almost would have been better if he’d looked at me like some lascivious scumbag, because that I could have understood. This was…weird.
“Primroses,” he said at last, the words light on his lips.
“Excuse me?” I said, frowning.
“When I was trying to get you warmed up, you said something about primroses. Why did you say that?”
What a weird thing to ask about. But then I remembered thinking I’d seen flowers. I didn’t want to tell this guy I’d been hallucinating.
“No idea,” I said, shrugging a shoulder.
Sitting back, he ran a hand along the stubble of his chin, looking a little disappointed. Turning, I glanced at the entrance of the cave and gasped. The snow was blocking half of the exit. It kept the wind out and helped hold in the heat from the fire, but if it kept going like that, we’d be stuck here until the snow melted.
There was no other way around what I needed to ask. Might as well get it out now, since we wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while.
“I came out here to look for you,” I said, shifting closer to the fire.
The look he gave me was inscrutable. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to figure out if I was telling the truth, or if I was simply pulling his leg. There was no smile on his face as his eyes bored into me, sending strangely pleasant tingles through me. Again, I remembered how his mouth had felt on mine, howintensethat kiss had been. My first—and the most legendary—kiss of my life.
Sitting here with him, a weird sense of connection filled me, like a tug deep in my chest. I remembered feeling that samething the night he’d found me crying in the woods. Now, I sensed it again, and it was impossible to ignore.
“Do you want to tell mewhyyou came looking for theDemon Wolf, as you call me,” Levi said. “If I’m that scary, why go trudging into the forest in the middle of a blizzard?”
“First of all,” I said, clearing my throat, “it wasn’tsupposedto be a blizzard. The forecast said an inch or two at most.”
“Fair enough,” he chuckled.
“Second, I came looking for you because I need your help.”
“My help?” he said, eyebrows shooting up, thumb pressed to his own chest. “What can I do for you?”
Here came the difficult part. After taking a deep, steadying breath, I explained what had happened the night before, as well as how Anders had always looked down upon me for not having a wolf. I told Levi how Ineededto become Anders’s mate to stay with my grandparents, to keep my home, and my friends. When I was done, I wasn’t so cold anymore.
Levi fed more wood into fire. As he leaned forward, he was mere inches away. He smelled of woodsmoke, sawdust, of clean soap, and the same minty toothpaste I recalled from our kiss that night.
“Let me get this straight,” he said. “This Anders guy has treated you like shit your whole life, and now youwantto be his mate? Why?”
I groaned in frustration. “I told you. If I can’t change his mind, I’ll be exiled, and I won’t be able to see my family again. They’re all I have.”
“I get that,” he said, but he sounded less convinced than I’d hoped. “That still doesn’t change the fact that he sounds like an asshole.”
Very true. Sure, a lot of the pack wasn’t happy that he’d become alpha, but he was kind enough to everyone. He was even cordial and nice to Beatrice and my grandparents. I was the onewho brought out his dickish, prejudiced behavior. It all stemmed from me not having an inner wolf, and if I changed that, then maybe he would treat me the way he did everyone else. I’d never be able to bring myself to love him, but I could stomach being his mate if it meant I’d get to stay in Idlewild and take care of my family. When I explained that to Levi, he let out a derisive snort.
“Sweetheart, if a man doesn’t treat you right, he doesn’t deserve your time. He acts like you are dogshit to be scraped off his heel, and you want to convince him to take you in and be your mate?” He grimaced in disgust. “And how are you going to get him to take you back? He rejected you in front of your entire pack. And you still haven’t explained what I have to do with all this. How am I supposed to help you?”
