Page 36 of Enemy Wolf

Chapter 13

Orson

I checked my face in one of my mirrors and immediately felt foolish for doing so. It didn’t matter what I looked like. Just because Shiloh and I had a truce between us now didn’t mean she was interested in me. We had cleared up our misunderstanding, and that was it. Now I was here, at Stout & Spirit, to do a job. Nothing else.

No matter how much my wolf insisted she was our mate. Now that all obstacles were cleared, he thought now was a perfect opportunity to get up close and bite Shiloh in a visible spot, ideally the neck, so all would know she was ours.

“Not happening,” I said aloud, checking my hair once more—just to make sure I didn’t look that stupid—before walking up to the front door.

After my three knocks, I heard Shiloh call out, “It’s open!”

I let myself into the cozy interior which was empty of people, Shiloh included. She had the back door propped open though, and her head poked out through the jambs.

“Hey! Did you have dinner? I’m making a pizza, you want one?”

“Um.” I inhaled deeply, picking up the scent of dough, cheese, tomato sauce, and all kinds of meats. My stomach growled in answer. “Sure, if it’s no bother to you.”

“Not at all, I ended up with extra dough actually. Come on back and pick your toppings.”

I set my backpack down on the bar before heading toward the back. Shiloh stood at her island counter, topping her pizza with various items set out in small containers. A fire flickered in an alcove in the brick wall across from her.

“I didn’t know you had a pizza oven,” I mused.

“Yeah, I pre-make ‘em and do a limited menu sometimes. It’s tough when we get busy though, but with Riley helping, I might be able to serve them more often.” Shiloh nodded at a round, naked disk of pizza dough next to the one she was building. “That one’s yours. Put whatever you want on it.”

I stared at the thing like it was an alien artifact. “I’ve never made my own pizza before.”

“Well, lucky you, you missed the hard part.” A smile pulled at her lips, and I got the sense that she was teasing me.

“What’s that?”

“Prepping the dough. Stretching it, spinning it. You can get that lesson another time.” She went to a small sink and rinsed off her hands, dried them on her apron, then reached for a ladle inside a tub of tomato sauce. “How saucy do you like it?”

“I like a good amount.”

“Coming right up.”

She ladled a heaping of sauce over the dough, starting at the center and spiraling outward. There was an artistic flair to how she did it, and I would’ve been content to watch her all day. After the first ladle emptied though, she held the instrument out to me. “Your turn. Just like how I did.”

I took it from her and only noticed then that she still had a thick white bandage around her arm. She’d had it on at the human lodge too, and during the full moon. Come to think of it, the only time I hadn’t seen it was my first night here to install the cameras.

“Is that burn healing okay?” I asked, carefully dunking the ladle back in the sauce. “You’ve been wearing that bandage for a couple weeks, it seems.”

Shiloh’s mood shifted instantly, going from warm and friendly to tense and closed off. She brought her arm to her chest and looked away from me.

“No, it’s not so bad,” she said. “I just keep it covered at work so nothing gets into it.”

I tried to keep my face neutral, tried to keep fucking calm while I sauced my pizza as the scent of her fear hit me hard. This close to her, she smelled terrified.

Even as she moved away to monitor a cauldron of something simmering on a stove, the potency of that scent made me want to act. To remove all threats to her at any cost. My wolf was furious. Not even pizza could appease him. He wanted blood, and frankly, so did I.

But what could I do if she wouldn’t tell me what she was so afraid of?

“Are you sure?” I grabbed a handful of shredded cheese, spreading it over my pizza dough in a spiral pattern like I had with the sauce. “Nobody is...hurting you, or anything?”

Shiloh forced out a laugh, the sound nervous and stilted. “Oh no, nothing like that.” She glanced my way while stirring whatever was in her cauldron. “It’s sweet of you to ask, though.”

Sweet is the last thing I’ll be when I find out whoever’s got you this scared.

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