Past My Defenses (Taming the Pack series) (Entangled Ignite) by Wendy Sparrow Read Free Book Online Page B

black wolf was gone a moment later.
    “Vanessa?” He knew it was her. He knew it was. It was the only way any of this made sense. He propped the shotgun against the porch. “Vanessa, I’m not an idiot. I know what I saw, and I know it’s you.” He held up his hands to show they were empty. “Look. Come inside. I’ll make dinner.” He pulled his shirt off and dropped it on the porch. “See, you can even dress for it.” He grabbed the gun by the barrel and backed away. “I’ll go inside.”
    When he had, Dane couldn’t help watching through the gauzy curtain to see what she’d do.
    The gray wolf turned and sprinted back into the woods.
    Oh, to hell with it. So much for being certain. Lucifer was right. Apparently neither the wolf nor the woman was about to be tamed.
    Not that Lucifer had said that.
    Not that animals could speak.
    No, they could change back and forth from human to wolf, but speak? Hell no.
    “I am losing my mind.”
    He left the shirt out—just in case she changed her mind—but as the minutes ticked by, his temper ramped up with them. He had no idea what that power struggle had been about, but he knew whom she’d chosen in the end. There was really no reason he was still cleaning, still vacuuming. She’d chosen.
    Not that they had anything in common anyway. She was a wolf part of the time—apparently—and he still wasn’t sure he believed in werewolves, despite what he kept seeing and thinking.
    And they really weren’t anything to each other. They hadn’t even known each other twenty-four hours ago. He hadn’t met her in town so clearly, they didn’t run in the same circles. He smirked and slung the dirty rag he’d been scrubbing with into the hamper. She ran in a pack.
    The only thing that made him think they could be together was this weird attraction he had for her, and that probably meant he needed to go over to the next town and hit on some woman in a produce section or something. He was desperate—that’s all it was. Maybe he could try online dating. It wouldn’t be too much of a commute to Seattle if it meant he could find someone in his species at least.
    He’d already vacuumed and was staring in his fridge when a car’s engine thrummed in the distance. There weren’t many houses this way since his house and the land around it were government-owned. It sounded like a small car—like a girl’s car, probably a lithe little blonde.
    If she’d come back, maybe he’d misjudged her. Maybe she’d just felt like getting dressed. Maybe she was still trying to act like she wasn’t a wolf. Stubborn. She was stubborn.
    He pulled out the salmon fillets. She was part wolf—she probably liked fish.
    “I do not snore!” Slam! The windows all rattled with the force of her entry back into his life.
    He smiled as he stared down, but wiped it from his face when she appeared in his kitchen.
    She held up the shirt. “You left this outside.” She didn’t set it down. She kept it in her hand. It was cute that she was still playing this game.
    And since they were still playing this denial game…
    “I saved the video of you snoring. I can play it for you again.”
    He loved that her eyes narrowed, and she crossed her arms and jutted out a hip. Her arms were wrapped around his shirt—he loved that too.
    Holding up the salmon on the cutting board, he asked, “Do wolves like fish?”
    “I suppose so, but you’re the one who seems to think he’s seeing them.” A blush crept up her cheeks as she uttered the lie, and she looked less hostile and a bit unsure.
    He took out teriyaki sauce and liberally sprinkled it on the fillets.
    Vanessa cleared her throat and took a step back.
    He glanced up. “What?”
    “Was that for me?” She was biting her lower lip in a way that wasn’t helping keep him on the opposite side of the kitchen counter. It was astounding that they’d slept in the same bed, and he was pretty sure they had a future, but he’d yet to kiss her—to sample that full