Page 53 of Adored By the Wolf

“And we’ll back her up too,” Luc said. I looked behind Sandy, and there stood all of my brothers, minus Bruno.

Brandon must have read my mind because he said, “Once Bruno is awake and he learns that he was dating Lira this whole time, he’ll side with us. And you know how Bruno gets if anyone in his family isn’t happy.”

“Ugh.” The last prank he carried out to ‘liven up the family’ involved spreading shaving cream all over our faces while we were sleeping. I could still smell it on my pillow after numerous washes. “But what am I supposed to do? Camp out under her window? And that’s if she hasn’t moved already.”

“That’s a start,” Sandy said.

I stared at my family, incredulous. They weren’t going to give up. I groaned.

“It is Christmas Eve tomorrow. Think of something you can do for her,” Brandon said.

“You lot are incorrigible,” I said, picking up the ax again.

Sandy immediately grabbed my arm and said, “We really have more than enough wood.” She pointed to the stack I had made and then to the building behind the stack. The door was open, and I could see rows and rows of stacked wood. “Dad wants you to stop wasting resources.”

I hmphed and let go of the ax.

“We’re not going to let this matter go, Jacob,” Dredge said for good measure.

They each came up to give me a slap on the arm. Luc said, “I’m alpha now, and this task is a command—go get your mate back.”

His power washed over me, and I knew there was no backing out of it now, no matter how scared I was to approach Millie again. I had no choice but to obey my alpha, but as Luc walked away, all I could think was how many times I had bested him before. I’d have to get with Bruno one day and come up with a prank to get him back for this if everything turned out the way I hoped.

Millie

The tears wouldn’t stop falling.I’d had to stop and start packing up my things so many times because I had to catch my breath, blow my nose, or just sit down and bawl my eyes out. My need for Jacob was all-consuming, and I didn’t know how to make it stop. He was just a guy who I had just met. Why was I feeling like I had lost a part of my soul?

I climbed over some boxes in the middle of the living room to open a window. I could hardly breathe with the amount of crying I was doing, and who cared if it was snowing right now? As I pushed the window open, I saw movement to my left—a black flag waving in the snow on the sidewalk across the street. It was swishing back and forth like it was a tail.

I squinted, wondering what it was doing there, and then realized there was a white wolf with a black tipped tail sitting under the tree right next to my car. I instantly screamed, then slammed the window shut and ran for my bedroom.

After taking a few deep breaths and trying to calm my pounding heart, I realized how silly I was running from a wolf who was outside in the snow when I was . . .Or could he?If it was Jacob or one of his family, they could shift. Why couldn’t he also jump up four stories? I shook my head, telling myself I was going crazy.

But curiosity soon overcame fear, and I tiptoed back to the window. Standing to the side where I hoped I wasn’t visible, I peered outside to see if he was still there. But there was no sign of the wolf anywhere. Not even an imprint in the snow. Had I imagined it all? That meant I really was going crazy and seeing things because I wanted Jacob so badly.

Shaking my head again, I went back to boxing up my belongings.

Jacob

“What have I missed?”Bruno asked, awake and sitting up for the first time.

I was so happy to see him conscious. After the last time we’d spoken, Miti had kept Bruno asleep while she administered the cure for the tonic.

“I went to see Millie at her condo,” I told him. “As my wolf.”

“How did it go?” Bruno asked.

“Terrible. She ran screaming as soon as she realized who I was.”

“And how in the world did no one else run screaming from you? You were in the middle of town, weren’t you?”

“Yes, but I was under a tree, and it was snowing. I didn’t shift till I made sure no one was around. If Millie had come to the window a minute sooner, she would have seen me instead of my wolf. I shifted back as soon as she ran away.”

Bruno shook his head. “We need to do something. That cure Miti gave me was brutal. I feel like a scrubber went through every organ and cell it could find and scrubbed as hard as it could until it killed whatever trace of that tonic was in my system. I’m completely drained. You do not want to go through this, brother.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “I believe in you. You can win her back.”

I felt my eyes widen. “Wow, you’re overly sentimental right now. You sure Miti didn’t put something into your drink that made you more caring?”

“Ha. Ha. Funny, Jacob. You know I’m capable of caring for my family.”