Wolfen by Madelaine Montague Read Free Book Online Page A

out.

     

      "What the hell are you doing?” Balin growled from far too close.

     

      Danika jackknifed upright and whipped her head around guiltily to look for him. Con, Balin, Jared, Dakota, and Xavier all stood at the front end of the cabin, scowling at her.

     

      Anger spawned by acute embarrassment descended over her after a moment's surprise. She glared back at them and picked herself up, brushing the seat of her pants. “Not that it's any of your business,” she snapped, reaching down to snatch her bag from the ground, “but I'm going out."

     

      "Out the window?” Con ground out.

     

      She blushed but decided it was probably too dark for them to notice. “I felt like it!” she said testily, daring them to say anything more about it.

     

      The five men exchanged speaking glances.

     

      "I'll go with you,” Dakota announced.

     

      "NO! ... Thank you!” Danika added, belatedly remembering her manners.

     

      "One of us will,” Balin retorted, his voice implacable.

     

      Danika stared at him in disbelief. “Excuse me?"

     

      "You heard me."

     

      "I heard you!” Danika snapped. “I just don't know why the hell you think you can tell me what to do!"

     

      He wasn't accustomed to being challenged. That much was obvious from the taut set of his jaw. “There's a pack of rogue wolves roaming these woods. They've already attacked several people. Use a little common sense, Dani!"

     

      Shock rolled through her and not just because in the space of less than a day he'd picked up the habit of calling her Dani ... as if they were intimate acquaintances instead of complete strangers to one another. She'd seen them when they arrived in town. How was it, she wondered, that they seemed to know everything that had been happening so quickly? Maybe even knew more than she did? She certainly hadn't heard of attacks, plural, only the one, and she hadn't even been able to substantiate that.

     

      Maybe he was exaggerating to get his point across?

     

      "I know that,” she said finally. “It's why I'm here. I appreciate your concern, but I know what I'm doing."

     

      "And that's why you climbed out the window?” Balin growled angrily. “Because you know exactly what you're doing?"

     

      She narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh! Don't even go there! Just because I didn't want to take the chance of becoming embroiled in another one of the macho bullshit battles you guys have got going on to decide who's top dog it doesn't follow that I don't have any common sense. In point of fact, it's because I do that I figured it was better to climb out the damned window than risk getting mixed up in another one!

     

      "I happen to be a grown woman! And I've probably been doing this since you boys were still in diapers, so just run along now and mind your own damned business!"

     

      The expressions that descended over their faces at that challenge to their manhood were downright unnerving. Maybe, she thought a little uneasily, she shouldn't have thrown in that bit about them being kids?

     

      So she'd exaggerated a little bit! She was still older, wiser, and just as damned determined to have her own way as they were to get theirs!

     

      She discovered they'd moved subtly closer while she was distracted by her temper and she found herself surrounded. Amusement vied with the fury glittering in Balin's eyes, she realized. His gaze slid down her length, paused for a long moment at the juncture of her thighs, and moved back up to her breasts for another significant pause before it returned to hers. There was heat besides the anger in his eyes now. “You're an alpha female,” he murmured, his voice husky with a promise that evoked a startling rise of heat inside of her in response.

     

      Unnerved, Danika flicked a quick glance around at the others. What she saw didn't reassure her. They were all looking at her in much the same way as Balin. When she met Balin's