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“What are you doing?!”

He stomps up the steps. The door slams, rattling into the jamb before he puts me down. The cottage is warm. He must have stocked the fire while waiting for me to return.

I gaze up into his beautiful blue eyes and swallow. “Oops.”

“Oops indeed,” he says. “Someone has been very naughty. Worse, you have put yourself in danger. I could have had a couple of pack members search for Greta; you know as much. Instead, you charged off into the woods with nothing but Blue for protection. What would have happened if a bear shifter had turned up?”

“I don’t know.” My confidence wanes under his disapproval.

“Blue would have been hurt, maybe died, trying to protect you, and you would have been snatched—pretty young lass out on her own. I do not claim to like the world we live in nor the predatory nature of the bear bastards whose lands adjoin ours, but it is what it is. There were also bandits spotted at the old castle only last week. You are cleverer than this, Fawn.”

I perk up a little that he called me pretty, but I also recognize that searching for Greta alone was not the best thought out plan. Worse, I have disappointed Wolf.

“I thought you were my good girl. I thought you were a sensible young lady who could be trusted to live on her own?”

No, I do not like the direction of his words. He is thinking about sending me to the village again, maybe putting his case to Flint more stringently.

Wolf

Fawn is a brat. How I restrained myself from pulling her pants down and petting her hot, slick cunt yesterday is nothing shortof a miracle. She is too young, too human, too everything that I am not. It doesn’t help my determination to stay away when every unmated male in the pack has his eye on her… probably every young lad in the village, too.

I want to rip the eyes out of every one of the bastards.

I told myself she needed a husband. That was a lie—what she needs is a mate.

My hand itches as I think about connecting it with her plump, bare bottom in the way we both need.

Then there is her compelling, aroused scent. In the past, I convinced myself it was nothing more than a young lass who was naturally sensual. Yesterday, I could not pass it off as anything but arousal—directed at me and only me.

It is unusual for a human beta to respond so enthusiastically to an alpha wolf, but it is not unheard of. It was all I could do not to toss her among the furs she layers deep on her bedding nook and plow her sweet cunt.

She will need to be trained, I reason. That is not a problem. I am a patient male. She is hungry for dick, and I have one more than willing to serve her. Maybe after a good plowing, she will lose this rebelliousness that has increased of late.

What happened to my good girl?

She has turned into a bad girl who needs a firm hand.

There is a lot going through her pretty head. I see a myriad of emotions passing through her eyes.

Then her lips quiver. “Please do not send me away, Wolf. I should hate living in the human village.”

Her eyes—big, brown, pretty, and brimming with tears are my undoing.

Ah, fuck!As if I did not already recognize my looming fate, those tears hit me like a punch in the gut.

Fawn

“Come here.” He opens his arms, and I run to him.

Sitting on the side of my bed, he settles me on his lap. “I only spoke to Flint because I was worried about you. I’d have spent half my time checking on you at the damn village if you’d gone anyway, just in case you had tripped over your own shadow.”

Everything about this feels different. I’m on his lap—he’s not shouting at me. Further, I want to believe he regrets asking Flint to send me away. “You don’t need to worry about me,” I hedge, wanting to shift his attention from all the reasons I’m a calamity living on my own. “I’ll do better.”

“You will,” he says ominously. “And a firm discipline will help.”

I blink up at him, confused by this development when he seemed to be softening.

He smirks. I don’t think I have ever seen Wolf smirk like this before, full of teeth and wicked promise. He has always been so virtuous.