Page 50 of The Alpha Dire Wolf (Bloodlines & Bloodbonds #1)

Sylvia

“A re you sure about this?” I asked, leaning against the doorframe and staring into my grandmother’s sitting room.

I didn’t go in. With the big oak gone now, the second-floor sunroom had lost some of its former aura.

Now when I glanced out the window, all I saw was the blackened grass and empty place where the tree had once stood.

So many happy memories now overshadowed by the evil thing that had burst from within.

At least we had solved the mystery of the bones that fell from it. After leaving his pack, we had come back to the house to stay while we tried to come up with a plan for what to do next. Lincoln had continued to burn the remains, and in doing so, had come across a memorial plaque.

The tree had been planted many years ago over the grave of one of my great-great-grandmothers. We weren’t sure how many generations back since there was no date, just a name. Florence Anne Wilson.

I knew that Anne was a common middle name in our family, but seeing it there was a little eerie, knowing I was connected that far back.

“Yes. We can’t stay here for much longer,” Lincoln said. “We should keep moving.”

“You make it sound like we’re fugitives.” I sighed, scanning the room one last time.

My eyes landed on the table next to the window. There on it was my grandmother’s journal. It had fallen there after the lightning strike, and I had never moved it. I entered the room now, picking it up and turning my back on the window so I didn’t have to see the image outside.

I carefully thumbed the pages, but as always, I came back to that final entry. The one I had been reading when everything, my entire worldview, exploded in one giant lightning strike.

Is that it, Grandma? Is that why you couldn’t just up and tell me what was going on? You knew I wouldn’t believe it. That I would, as you said, call you crazy. You were right. Again.

I absolutely would have labeled the message as crazy if it had said something like “go into the woods and find the man who can change into a wolf, and look out for the tree-monster that will try to snatch you in the dark. Oh, you also have magical powers.”

My grandmother knew me better than that. She was fully aware she’d have to slowly lead me to water, that I couldn’t be trusted to make the connection on my own. Who could blame me, though? It still felt crazy two days later.

I looked at my hands once more, turning over the one not holding the journal, as if the other side would somehow hold clues.

I’d not been able to replicate a single thing I’d done that night, despite trying until I gave myself a headache and sore throat.

I still possessed my sense of danger, but that was it.

Nothing more. It was in there, but I couldn’t access it.

“We’re not fugitives,” Lincoln said, coming to the doorway. “I just don’t trust some of the pack not to … follow us.”

“You fear they’ll act against you.”

His jaw worked. “I don’t know. That’s the problem. With me gone, Noel will have assumed the position of alpha. I can’t trust him, and that alone is good enough reason to move on. For now.”

“Or,” I said, pointing a finger suggestively, “you could just go back. Leave me here.”

“ No .” Linc grew angry every time I suggested it. “I’m not leaving you, Sylvie. You’re my mate.”

“But your pack needs you!”

“So do you. At least you want me here.”

I shook my head. “I never said I want you.”

“You didn’t have to,” he said, stepping closer and running a finger along my cheek.

I shivered pleasantly at his touch, but I didn’t move into it. I didn’t retreat either. I was neutral. Mostly.

“You just keep fighting it. Refusing to accept that there’s a connection between us. One that’s irresistible, impossible to ignore. I can wait a little longer.”

I didn’t hear the last words. I was too busy pulling up my grandmother’s journal.

“Listen to this,” I said, reading aloud. “ To do that, you must find the guardian. They will be drawn to you—a partnership, a call impossible to ignore. Find the guardian, Vi-vi.”

I finished reading and looked up. Lincoln was staring at me, silent, watching. There was no surprise on his face.

“You’re the guardian. Aren’t you?” I asked.

Lincoln’s mouth curled up, speaking a million wicked intentions without a single word.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked. “You aren’t answering my question.”

He stepped forward. “You just admitted something I find much more interesting than that talk.”

“I did? What’s that?”

“You find the call of me impossible to ignore,” he rumbled quietly, his mismatched eyes twinkling with dueling flames. “You find me impossible to ignore.”

“Because you don’t shut up.” I tried to counter with some wit, but he wasn’t having it.

He shook his head, his eyes never leaving mine. “No, not this time, Vee. Not this time. You’re nervous. You’re scared. I understand that. I respect it. But you’re letting that hold you back. From me. From us .”

“I told you. The day I arrived here, I found out my ex had cheated on me. I’m not ready for this.”

“Yes, you are,” he said, stepping firmly into my personal space, his wide-bodied, um, body, blocking out everything else around me.

My thoughts were scattering. Shattering into millions of incoherent stammerings that settled in my knees, robbing them of strength and coordination. I wobbled ever so slightly.

That was all Linc needed. His arm snaked around my back, his hand dropping to my rear, where his fingers spread wide and found a grip to hold me upright. By my ass.

He was grabbing my ass. Just like that.

Heat exploded from … from … from everywhere, all at once.

“You want me, just as badly as I want you,” he said, leaning in close to all but purr the words into my ear. “And, Vee?”

“Yes?”

“I want you badly ,” he said, stoking the flames to a roaring fever pitch between my legs, a growing heat that was spreading its numbing touch through my body.

He wasn’t wrong. I did want him. From the moment I’d seen him in the forest, I’d been drawn to him in some manner. But logic said—

“I’m going to show you how much I want you. How much I need you,” Linc growled.

“Oh …”

You know what? Screw logic.