Page 2 of Same Difference
The room smelled of fur now, and inside of her, Delta’s wolf was whining. Nate was dominant. Of course he was dominant. He had been Second of the Coeur d’Alene Lake Pack.
“You’ve been talking to someone since we left Coeur d’Alene.”
“I told you, it’s business. Do you really want to go back?” he asked. There was a fire in his eyes that she couldn’t comprehend.
“I…I want to be near Nory. She is my friend.” And especially if he had another woman he was talking to. She didn’t want to be alone with what was happening.
Nate ran his hand down his three-day scruff on his jaw and grabbed her duffel bag, tossed it onto the bed, and rushed out, “Then we have to go. Now.”
“W-what?”
“You have two minutes to pack—”
“Nate, what’s happening?” she asked, standing.
He had turned to his own duffel bag on the floor and was shoving his discarded pair of jeans in there and zipping up his luggage.
“Hey,” she said, approaching him slowly. He was upset with her, and she couldn’t stand it. “We don’t have to go back if you don’t want to.”
“It’s not that,” he gritted out. “We just have to go. Right now, Delta. You have to—”
“Nate, what is going on?”
“Do you trust me?” he barked.
She hesitated for a second. Did she? She’d only known him for a couple of months, and right now she didn’t recognize him at all.
“Do you trust me?” he asked again.
“Yes,” she whispered, praying there wasn’t a lie in her voice. There wasn’t. She did trust him.
“Then please, Delta. I’ll explain later. We just need to go. If your choice is to go back to Idaho, we have to leave now.”
He was rushing around the room grabbing stuff and shoving it into her duffel bag. Her instincts were blaring as she jogged to the bathroom to grab her toothbrush and facewash.
Nate grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door, and she had a moment as she looked down at their connected hands. It was the first time he’d held her hand like this.
“Shoot, I forgot my shampoo in the shower,” she said, halting.
“Leave it. I’ll buy you more,” he gritted out. There was a growl to his voice, and she didn’t understand. She really didn’t understand.
She hadn’t seen him like this before.
Breath hitching, Delta climbed up into his truck as he tossed their bags into the back.
She watched him climb behind the wheel and start the engine of his truck. His eyes were glowing so bright, but he wouldn’t look over at her.
Something was wrong.
“Are you okay?” she asked low.
“I hate when you ask me that. I’m fine. I’m always fine.”
The response stung her. It was his go-to response that always put her at a distance, and while she’d tried to be patient with the walls between them over the past couple of months, tonight the ‘I’m fine’ response felt unacceptable.
Clearly, he wasn’t.
He hit the gas, and her heart felt like it pushed into her throat as she scrambled to buckle her seatbelt.
