Page 22 of The Alpha Dire Wolf (Bloodlines & Bloodbonds #1)

Lincoln

“H mmm.” I rifled through another cupboard, listening carefully for the reaction to my rather nondescript mutterings.

The slow draw of air through her nose was all I needed to confirm that Sylvie was all but grinding her teeth in mild irritation. I didn’t say anything more. Instead, I just waited to hear her response.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

Somehow she refrained from adding the word “else” to her question.

That showed some serious willpower because I had been testing her, seeing if I could provoke her.

Doing so could be extremely dangerous to my well-being, but if it revealed that she was just acting, keeping up a facade until it broke, it would be worth it.

But she didn’t crack. Didn’t even give a whiff of being anything but who she claimed to be. And with every further poke and probe, my wolf became more convinced that it had to have her. That I had to have her.

And I was losing reasons to deny it.

“You have no candles,” I told her, opening yet another cupboard.

“Why would we need candles for dinner?”

I turned and looked over my shoulder at her, watching the way her perfect face scrunched up, bringing the dimples in her chin to the fore. I enjoyed it when they were visible. Something feminine about it just struck me.

“No,” she said, shaking her head as she clued in at last, without a word from me. “Nuh-uh. This is not a date. Remember?”

I stared, letting my eyes linger on her lips and trying not to focus too hard on what they would taste like.

“ It’s not a date,” Sylvie said with a bit more force.

“It kind of is,” I said, turning my back on her to continue looking through the cupboard, well aware it would irk her. “We’re two people, spending time together, to get to know one another, with heavy undertones of physical—”

“Will you stop rifling through my grandmother’s stuff!” she yelped before I could finish my sentence.

Not that I needed to. She knew what I was getting at.

I knew that she knew. And around and around it went.

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw it all play out on her face too.

I had said the quiet part out loud. The closest we’d come yet, to acknowledging …

whatever lay between us. I had broken that barrier.

Confessed to being interested in her. Wanting her.

She had no idea just how badly.

A sly look came over her face just then. “You want this to be a date.” She was nodding as she spoke, her head moving faster as the words came out. “You aren’t just teasing me.”

“Did you think I was lying?” I asked, curious where she was going, and what the look represented.

“Maybe I didn’t believe it,” she said with a shrug. “But now I do.”

“And what does that change?”

“Everything.” She smiled smugly.

“How so?” I wasn’t following her train of thought.

“For starters, now I have the power. All of it.” She was still smiling. “If you want it to be a date, you have to do what I want. Or else it won’t be.”

There were a million holes in that logic that I could drive my truck through, but I let it lie.

“What’s your point?” She had something in mind. But what?

The smile that curled her lips upward was as wickedly delightful as anything I’d experienced before. Various parts of my body threatened to lurch into motion, but I fought them down eventually. Now was not the time for that.

“I want some answers,” she said. “So if you want to know where the candles are, you can start by telling me what happened last night.”

“Last night?”

The smile faded. “Don’t. Just don’t with me, Lincoln.”

“It was a wild animal,” I said, not happy with the half-truth. It might not be an outright lie, but it certainly wasn’t the full truth either. “I never did find out what. I tracked it deeper into the forest but never could pinpoint what.”

She looked at me, obviously trying to decide if she believed me or not.

“I know it’s not that exciting,” I continued. “No bogeyman in the middle of the night to grab me and possess me.”

I let my words slow and slur near the end while also drooping open a corner of my mouth. Then, lifting my arms straight out in front of me, I took a lurching step toward her.

“ Brraaiiiinnssss, ” I moaned.

“Very funny,” Sylvie said, crossing her arms and trying to sound serious.

The giant smile on her face betrayed her completely.

“ Brraaiiiinnssss.” I took another step toward her, my arms bouncing in front of me, reaching for her.

Sylvie rolled her eyes.

“ Caannddddllles, ” I moaned, now only one step away from her.

Laughing outright now, Sylvie pointed to the next room over. “Left drawer of the hutch in the dining room. There should probably also be some matches in there too. But they aren’t for eating. Or shoving up your nose. I’m not sure you could spare the brraaiiiinn power.”

I stopped and looked at her. “That was bad, Sylvie. Bad.”

She just laughed again as I sauntered off to find the candles for our date-not-date. They were right where Sylvie had said, and in no time, I had them set out in some lovely crystal holders, two little flames flickering softly.

“It’s my turn now, you know,” I said, returning to the kitchen to help supervise dinner, knowing full well if I didn’t, Sylvie wouldn’t believe that all the food I’d brought was for dinner alone.

“Your turn?”

“Tell me more about you leaving town,” I prodded.

“You’re pretty fixated on this for it being such a simple thing. I was ten, my parents said we were leaving. I think they said it was for better job prospects, but I didn’t really care. I wasn’t happy. I was young, what can I say, and upset.”

“Everyone else was fine with it?” I asked, checking on the beef simmering on the stovetop as it mixed with the taco seasoning to fill the kitchen with deliciousness in every sniff. “What about your grandmother?”

“Why are you asking about her?”

I glanced over at Sylvie to find her staring at me strangely.

Glancing around the house, I shrugged. “Seems like you two were close. That’s all.”

“Not as close as I might have liked,” she said. “We didn’t visit much after we left. I think she was pretty upset with my dad for leaving.”

“Any ideas why?” I asked. This was a crucial question. What did she know about her grandmother? Had any of it been revealed to her?

I knew that I was pushing it, but I had to know more. I was walking an incredibly fine line with my pack and my personal desires, trying to balance them against one another. If I could prove she wasn’t who they thought she was, then maybe …

“None that I was ever aware of, other than moving away,” Sylvie said with a shrug.

It sounded truthful.

“Did your parents have any remorse about leaving?”

Sylvie shook her head. “I don’t think so. If they did, they never confided it in me before they were killed.”

I nodded in understanding. “Hit and run, right?”

“How did you know?” she asked sharply.

“Small town,” I said, looking around apologetically. “Word travels fast.”

Sylvie just nodded, accepting it as truth. She was entirely oblivious to the fact that we had been watching her and her entire family, unaware of the paranormal world her grandmother had belonged to. Or so it seemed.

How could the elders be so certain about her when everything seemed to point to the exact opposite? Unless I was the problem. If I was tainted by the Chained, somehow blinded to the truth by its power, that would explain it all. Wouldn’t the elders have detected that?

It was all too confusing.

“I hope you’re hungry,” Sylvie said as we set to plating the table with taco fixings, from fresh grated cheese and salsa, to sour cream and diced tomatoes and lettuce. Topping it off was a giant bowl of steaming ground beef that was making my stomach growl.

“Because this is enough to feed me for a week.”

“Starved, don’t worry,” I said with a smile and a wink.

Sylvie blushed, her cheeks pinking in the most delightful way.

Damn. I really hope she’s not twisted by the Chained. She’s just perfect.

If she was, I wasn’t sure what I would do.

The dinner itself went smoothly. No serious topics came up, and the food went down deliciously.

All of it, to Sylvie’s surprise. After doing the dishes, she surprised me by popping a bottle of wine and pouring us both a glass, suggesting we retire to the back porch and watch the sun set over the forest.

Now we sat on the bench, separated by inches of air and a wall of my willpower that was wrought through with cracks.

Being this close to Sylvie for this long was taking a toll on me.

The fires burning inside me could not be quenched, and it was growing increasingly hard to keep my composure when she was so close to me.

I should pull back. I knew that. The vortex around which we spun with one another had only one inevitable conclusion. I was strong, but I was not certain I had the strength to deny her much longer. Not when she wasn’t fully resisting anymore either.

“Thank you for this evening,” she said as the bottom lip of the sun dipped below the trees. “I have to admit, it was unexpected.”

“Was it?”

The challenge was out before I could stop myself.

“W-what?” Sylvie met my eyes, and neither of us looked away, locking us in place.

“Can you honestly tell me, Sylvie, that this was a total surprise? That you haven’t felt anything before now. That there’s no pull between us? That you don’t feel it … here.”

I reached over with my non-wine hand and pressed one finger over her heart, just above her breast. Then I leaned in closer, my mouth nearer to her ear. “Or perhaps … elsewhere .”

My eyes traveled her body as I spoke, making it very clear what I was saying as my internal strength failed me. Sylvie squirmed in place at the attention, in just the way I wanted her body to move when I finally did touch that “elsewhere.”

“Ummm,” she stammered.

“It’s a yes or no question,” I teased. “Can you honestly tell me that you haven’t felt things were headed this way from the beginning?”

Sylvie was silent. At a loss for words. That was fine.

I waited. I was a hunter. Patience was in my blood.

I stalked her now, waiting for her to reveal which way she was going to break.

Then the chase would begin anew. I could outwait her, no matter how long.

Because once she moved, I would have her.

And then I would do what I had been longing for ever since she touched my wolf in the forest.

I would kiss her—the most dangerous woman in town, a true threat to my pack. I was going to ignore all the warnings and the rules, and I was going to kiss her anyway.

Because I was done waiting for permission from them. I wanted her , and I could tell she wanted me too.

“Linc,” Sylvie whispered into the silence between us. Her lips parted ever so slightly as we locked eyes once more, and she knew what was coming.

I leaned across the gap of inches, my mouth headed for hers, ready to finally taste her, to feel her. To take her and claim her as my own, dangers be damned.

Sylvie’s head tilted back, her eyes widening in shock and anticipation. She was caught, and she knew it. I had her now.

Lights lit up the driveway and, a second later, tires crunched over the gravel as a car pulled in.

The spell broken, Sylvie stiffened and pulled away nervously.

“Are you expecting company?” I asked.

“N-no,” she said.

I was on my feet instantly.