Page 11 of Wolf's Vow

Plus, I really,reallywanted to have sex with him.

For all the wrong reasons. It would be so much better if he wasn’t my fated mate. But he was, and if I had sex with him, then the bond would be complete, and I would be tied to his side until death. Perhaps beyond. I was fuzzy on the details, having no one to ask.

Goddess, I missed my dad.

He’d have this sorted within hours of the truth surfacing. But then…if Dad were here, Wolfe wouldn’t be. I hated how that wasn’t a better solution.

I made my way to Sherry’s house. Seeing the door was open, I pushed all my problems aside, gave a tentative knock, and stepped inside.

She was in their kitchen, eyes red-rimmed and tired. She was holding a cup of something, and she didn’t straighten when she looked at me, just gave a sigh, as if expecting me and wishing I hadn’t shown up.

“Sherry—”

“The alpha already told me everything. All packs suffer losses in times of trouble.” She set her cup down. “A simple mix-up, it could have happened to anyone.” She looked past me to the open door, as if she was already seeing me walking out of it. She picked her cup back up, realized it was empty, and I watchedher pour a healthy shot of bourbon into it. “You don’t need to be here, Rowen. I’ll be okay.”

I moved further into the room, pointed to the bottle, and picked up an empty cup. “Care to share?”

She looked at me for a long time, and I saw her fight the urge to sayno, but then she gave a jerk of her head and handed the bottle over. I pulled out a seat and sat down.

We drank in silence. I offered no comfort, and she took none from me being there, but Iwasthere, and for now, for both of us, that seemed to be enough.

I’m not a drinker.

Icandrink, but I really don’t like it; I don’t like losing control. I don’t like the giggly, sloppy mess I become.

The last time I was drunk, properly drunk, was two days after my eighteenth birthday, and I’d come to terms with the fact that Wolfe had left and wasn’t coming back.

It was the same day I lost my virginity.

I hooked up with the son of an alpha of a neighboring pack. Alcohol had numbed the loss of my best friend, and after twenty minutes behind the old storage shed, he got something Wolfe had never pressured for. A tragic story from my youth, the more tragic part of the story was that eighteen of those minutes had been spent getting our clothes off.

While I didn’t make it a point of leading males around the back of the old storage shed anymore, I was no stranger to the occasional hookup, but like alcohol, I preferred it in moderation.

However, I’d spent the morning with a widowed member of the pack. Little had been said, but we’d drunk the bottle of bourbon dry, then opened another. I’d put Sherry to bed andthen stumbled out of her house, pretending I was more sober than I was.

I should have known Wolfe was near when one of his men appeared beside me, careful not to touch or block me as I stumbled over blades of grass like a newborn colt.

“Which one are you again?” I asked him as I looked back at the path that was causing me so much difficulty.

“Axel.”

I squinted at him. “I thought you—” I hiccupped. “Oops. I thought you were at Stonefang.”

He didn’t look at me. “That’s Cody.”

I squinted more as I tried to focus on his face. “You look the same.”

“We really don’t.”

“Rude.” I realized I said it out loud and felt my ears burn. “Um…why are you here?”

“Alpha asked me to walk you home.”

I stopped and looked up at the sky. It was clear blue, the sun high, it was broad daylight. I didn’t need walking home. “Why?”

“He thought you might be tired.”

In the middle of the day?