Page 37 of The Wolf Guard's Mate

“For the love of all that is holy, pick a new nickname.” His lips brushed my ear, his forehead resting against the side of my face.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s argue about my job instead, because I know you’re going to have something to say about that,” I countered.

He wrapped his arm around my waist. “I’d rather you do something that doesn’t involve making every male who walks into the bar horny. But if bartending is what you like, I won’t ask you to quit.”

“I don’t have any other skills outside of tattoos, and I don’t want to go back to that, so bartending is really the only option. Plus, I have a lot of medical bills racking up interest.”

Hunter made a noncommittal noise. “I could give you a better job with the pack right now. You’d be great at assigning rooms and houses. No one can stay mad at you, and they’re always pissed with me. There are a handful of similar tasks that are always ignored for as long as possible, and you could handle some of those too.”

“You don’t have someone else in charge of that already?” I asked.

“No. My brothers and I like to handle everything ourselves.”

That wasn’t even a little surprising. Hunter was a control freak, but his brothers were too.

“How much would the pack pay?” I checked.

“How much are your medical bills?”

I elbowed him in the gut, and he made a noise of complaint that told me I hadn’t even almost hurt him. “Don’t pretend you haven’t already hacked into my account to figure it out yourself.”

“Fine, I did. I didn’t pay them, though.”

“Why would you pay them?”

“You’re my mate. There’s no reason for you to keep paying interest on loans you took out to keep yourself alive when I can pay them off.”

My nostrils flared. “I don’t need help with them.”

“Olive.” Hunter’s lips brushed my ear again, and I nearly shivered.

“What?”

“I’m really fucking rich. If I want to pay your bills, I’m going to do it. I figured I’d just warn you first.”

“Asshole.” I smacked his arm, but there was no heat behind the motion.

Being out of debt would be a relief. A huge one. I was barely making the minimum payments with my bartending job, and I was going to be in debt for the rest of my werewolfly-long life at the current rate.

“What do you want for our life together?” he asked me.

The question made me smile. “That’s giving me a lot of freedom.”

“I’ve been told to stop being a hardass and let my mate make some decisions.”

“Did Clay or Enzo tell you that?”

“You did, Ol.” He nipped my earlobe, and I smiled.

“I just want to enjoy life. Go running in my wolf form. Watch sunrises. Have sex in random places. Do a bunch of crazy-hard hikes. Jump off a waterfall. I don’t know—I just don’t want to look back and realize I wasted my second chance at living.”

“I’m not opposed to any of that.” He paused. “Except maybe the waterfall thing. That sounds dangerous.”

I patted his arm. “You can research the waterfalls around Crimson River and find a safe one.”

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