Page 12 of Wild Wolf
And then dread replaced anticipation as she recalled the real reason she’d left. He might be alpha, but he had no idea of why she’d fled in thenight…
Jordan shrugged to hide her trembling. “Guess we’ll see aboutthat.”
Nolan’s expression turned hard. He pulled a cell phone from his pocket, shot off atext.
“I have chores,” he said in that deep voice. “Erica and Shirl will be up from the cabins in a few minutes to feed you. I’m sure you want to see them. Try not to breakanything.”
Not an insult, almost an endearment. He used to say that all the time when he left her alone in the lodge, a grin on his handsome face. No grin now, only that cold, hardexpression.
And then he turned and walked out thedoor.
Just as she had six yearsearlier.
3
SeeingJordan again shattered his hard heart all over again. Nolan forced himself to walk away slowly, fighting old emotions. Once outside, he dashed down the hills to the forest, avoiding the path leading to thegrapevines.
He leaned against a tree and dragged in deepbreaths.
Gods, that was tough. Almost as tough as the day he’d buried hisfather.
All the joy and misery rolled into one great ball in the center of his chest. Little wild Jordan, the cute Lupine who had turned into a sultry, tempting teen. His best friend who turned him upsidedown.
The woman who’d broken his heart and came back into his life so he could be the gallant wolf and save her cute lilass.
And burn his biscuits, it was the cutest, plumpest ass, the kind a male could grip and squeeze tight as he dove in for a long kiss and an even longer bout oflovemaking.
Nolan bent over, bracing his hands on his knees. His breath came out in a long whistlingrush.
“Damn,” he muttered, breaking his own rule about swearing. No one around to hear him, but still, rules wererules.
Without them, pack fell apart. And now he took one of the fiercest rule-breaking Lupines as a mate. The wild wolf who captured his heart when she was barely a cub, and now became a fine-lookingfemale.
Jordan was the loveliest woman he’d ever seen. With her clear blue eyes, carnation pink mouth, clear, pale skin contrasting with the rich, deep redness of her hair and brows, she carried the mark of her ancient Celticancestors.
Other women, both Skin and Lupine, wore cosmetics to enhance their looks. Jordan needed no makeup. Neither did she style her long, red hair. It lay in waves against her shoulders, tumbling down her back in a ripplingwaterfall.
With that mass of red curling hair, those cornflower blue eyes that could turn sweet one minute and flash with passion the next, Jordan was aheartbreaker.
Broke my heart.He rubbed his hands against his jeans, and gave a bitterlaugh.
He’d never forget the day she’d left. Spent all day searching for her, and then caught her scent at the driveway’s end. Jordan had been carrying a bag, and she didn’t stop when he called hername.
She’d only stopped when he drove the truck onto the road and blocked her way. Then she’d glared at him and told him she’d left a note in hisroom.
“Get out of my way, Nolan. I don’t love you and never will. I just fucked you to see what it was like to fuck an alpha’sson.”
As he’d stood there in shock, she’d run off into the woods and disappeared. And then thatnote…
More hurtfulwords.
Nolan took a deepbreath.
Minutes later, he headed for the vineyard. Several pack members worked trimming the vines, plucking ripe grapes. Most of the grapes grown here were sweet muscadine. Nolan squatted down, sifted soil through his hands. Soil needed more lime, but they’d had a good summer with plenty of rain to make the grapes grow fat andjuicy.
He loved it here among the vines, the vineyard that had been in his family for three generations.Tradition.
Home.
