Page 15 of The Wolf Guard's Mate

“What are you doing?” He sounded a little less neutral, and a little more irritated.

I took a page from his book, and straight-up ignored him.

Scrolling through his contacts, I finally stopped on the names that started with N, and hit the button I was looking for.

The phone started ringing, and Hunter scowled.

Nova answered pretty quickly, though. “Hey, Hunt?—”

“It’s Olive,” I said, not bothering to wait for her to get through the pleasantries. “I’ve got a problem. A Savage one. And you’re the local expert.”

“I think Aspen holds that title, but why do you have Hunter’s phone? What happened?”

I leaned back and pinched the bridge of my nose. “It’s a long story, but basically, Hunter and I screwed last night. He bit me. I bit him back.”

“What? Under a full moon? Are you fucking insane?” Nova shouted.

“It was a heat of the moment thing.”

“You got yourself permanently mated to your brother-in-law in the heat of the moment?” Nova’s voice raised.

“I am not her fucking brother-in-law,” Hunter growled.

“Anyway, he decided to abduct me while I was asleep after all of that happened, because we’re in Greenview. He won’t tell me why he’s taking me to his mansion, and I don’t even have a change of clothes. Can you arrange a rescue?”

Hunter scoffed. “No one is arranging anything. I am takingmymate tomyhouse until I am ready to see her around other men without killing someone.”

“Sounds like Hunter has everything under control,” Clay said, his voice as upbeat as ever. “We’ve got to go before I make his kill list. Good luck!”

The line went dead.

I glared at thecall endedmessage, and at the map when the message disappeared.

Hunter didn’t say another word to me through the rest of the drive.

After we madeit out of the city and into the middle of nowhere, we finally reached a gate and a large fence. Hunter pulled up an app on his phone (it had been hidden in his pocket) and pressed a button before leaning over to the keypad and typing in a code. I tried to watch, but his fingers moved too fast.

“The code changes every hour. By the time you could get away from me, this one won’t do you any good,” Hunter said, holding the phone out to me.

I took the device and scanned the code anyway.

There were eight numbers.

Definitely excessive. Especially considering his mansion was so far off any main road that no one would ever stumble upon it. Or get over his fence. Or through his gate, even if it just had a normal lock.

I handed his phone back, and he set it down on the Bluetooth charger between us.

Guess he’d decided letting me near a device wasn’t as dangerous as he thought.

I stared out the window, watching the trees and snow as we drove down a smooth, paved road.

When I finally saw the mansion in the distance, my nerves eased slightly.

It wasn’t a stuffy, elegant old structure. It was modern and tasteful, with huge glass windows and stone accents. The siding was black, drawing your eye back to the windows.

Hunter pulled into an expansive garage, and my gaze moved over the line of vehicles.

A Hummer that looked like it could double as a tank.

---