Page 37 of To Keep A Wolf
I can’t help but crack an eye at that. “You think she would be on our side if she knew.”
“Absolutely,” he says firmly. “Your mom is a lot of things, but she loves you, and she’s never going to be okay with a plan that involves you getting hurt.”
Part of me wants to argue with that. To point out that she willingly helped orchestrate my engagement to Jadick. My entrapment, really. She helped make sure I’d have no choice but to agree, and then she made sure Jadick won the challenge to become alpha. Every action she’s taken in the last few weeks has been wholly against what I want.
I don’t say any of that. Mostly because it won’t change anything. The path I’m on now no longer involves her. In fact, I’m pretty much on my own from here on. Parentless.
A hollow ache forms in my chest, and I blow out a breath. “I guess we’ll see.”
We cross into West Virginia, turn off the highway, and wind up in the hills on back roads that become too narrow for more than one car at a time. My curiosity piques.
“What kind of secret man cave are you taking me to?” I ask.
“Not a cave,” Levi says. His brow furrows. “Well, I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s not a cave.”
“Why don’t you give me the location, and I’ll Google Earth it to be sure?” I ask innocently.
“Not a chance.”
I huff.
“Mac, you’ve always sucked at surprises,” Tripp says with a chuckle.
“Or maybe it’s the surprises that sucked,” I shoot back. “Remember my eleventh birthday?”
He groans. “Do not remind me.”
“What happened on her eleventh birthday?” Levi asks.
“Tripp bought me a Barbie.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“It didn’t have a head.”
Levi looks both confused and disturbed at once, which is pretty much on par with my own reaction at the time. “What—”
“I wanted her to have something that she could relate to. So I made the head interchangeable with a wolf head. So her Barbie could shift.”
Levi tries—and fails—not to snicker.
“Tell him where you got the head,” I say.
“From your Twilight figurine collection,” he mutters, shoulders sagging with fresh guilt.
Levi laughs outright. “You didn’t.”
“I thought she’d be stoked. She loved Barbies. And she loved Twilight. Perfect combo.”
I can’t help it, I laugh too, and Tripp smirks. “I told you we’d laugh about it one day.”
“And I told you I’m going to get you back one day.”
“Seriously? The statute of limitations on something like that must be up by now.”
“Never,” I say, eyes twinkling with the promise in my words.
He shudders when I aim the expression back at him. Smart.
