Page 8 of Snowbound with the Alpha Wolf
If he put his hands around her waist and pulled her close for a kiss, would she balk? Slap him? Or surrender as sweetly as she’d had the last time two years ago, when he’d stolen a kiss in themoonlight?
We shallsee.
“I could argue that your arrogant attitude in ordering me around isdisrespectful.”
“I’m not the one who stole anything,” Adrian pointed out. Hehad no desire to argue with her. “Did Glenda supply you with the clothing youneed?”
Darcy nodded. “Seems as if there’s a warehouse of clothes in your pack. I don’t mind secondhand clothing as long as it’s in decentshape.”
He liked that about her, admired her honesty and her no-nonsense attitude. Adrian anticipated knowing much more about her by the time they returned fromColorado.
Most of it had to do with her preference of sexual positions. But he also yearned to know about her childhood, the background she’d always skirted around when they’d conversed in thepast.
She knew almost everything about him, from how he’d ignored the advice of his parents and refused to move with them to Alaska to start a new pack when Lars threatened to kick them out for beingpurebloods, to how his challenging Lars resulted in a brutal fight that broke nearly every bone in Adrian’s young body, to his determination to offer refuge to Lupines who had no place else togo.
Darcy even knew that he could have his selection of eager, willing females in his pack for a mate, and he’d refused. She did not knowwhy.
Adrian was determined to make Darcy into his lifelongmate.
“Come with me. I want you to meet someone,” he toldher.
Darcy remained at his side as he detoured through the garden to a lavish playground bordering hismansion.
A cool breeze rustled through the slash pine boughs overhead, lifting the fresh scent of earth and flowers. Adrian inhaled, pleased at this choice he’d made for the pack. Florida was safer than North Carolinafor his Lupines, and no threats followed them here. He’d made certain ofthis.
Anyone daring to even murmur a peep against his people and he’d tear their throatout.
Adrian would do the same to anyone threatening Darcy. She was under his protection, even though she wasn’tpack.
Yet.
Few children played on the swing sets and monkey bars this late in the day, but Hannah,a spry six-year-old, laughed and chased her older brothers as they batted a soccer ball about. In a chaise lounge set at the playground’s edge, beneath the cool shade of a sprawling live oak tree, an elderly woman rested. Adrian’s pulse kicked up, as it always did when he sawher.
“Peggy.” He bent down and kissed her pale, velvet-softcheek.
He drew Darcy forward. “May I introduceDarcy? Darcy, this is Peggy, the matriarch of ourpeople.”
“Oh posh. I’m no matriarch, just an old Lupine.” Lines like a road map carved Peggy’s careworn face as she smiled. Peggy held out both hands. “Pardon me for not rising, my dear, but my bones ache thesedays.”
Darcy bent down and gently squeezed her hands. “A pleasure, MadamPeggy.”
He could see Peggy liked the title.Peggy was old school, where manners and respect camefirst.
“How are you feeling?” heasked.
Knowing eyes met his. “Today is a little worse thanyesterday.”
Grief pinched him. It pained him to see the elders in his pack growing frail and nearing death. All he could do was make them comfortable and give them the best quality of life he couldoffer.
They sat on the grassnext to Peggy to watch the children play. The contentment on the older Lupine’s face reassured Adrian. Having her descendants close made Peggy happy, and he was determined to make her feel as comfortable aspossible.
Suddenly one of her brothers shoved Hannah. She tripped, fell and banged her knee on the hard wood edge of the teeter totter. An unearthly howl tore from the little girl’sthroat.
Before anyone could react, Darcy was at Hannah’s side, crouching down, examining thegirl.
“It’s not bad, honey. Only a scrape,” Darcy told her. “You banged it, that’sall.”
Hannah howled louder. “It hurts! It’sbroken!”
