“What did you say to her?” Jeremy snarled at Wes.Moments earlier, he’d watched Isabella run from the party like someone had lit a fire beneath her boots. Something had spooked her, and considering Wes had pulled her into a sudden—albeit brief—dance moments before that, he had an idea exactly who the culprit was.“Nothing awful. Just told her if she crossed you, I’d turn her in myself.” Jeremy glared at Wes as if he were about to rip his head off.Wes frowned. “She’s Wild Eight, Jeremy. That’s my game, and you know it. What do you want her for anyway?”Since the Wild Eight’s dissolution, Wes had been in charge of the few prisoners who’d surrendered themselves to the pack. They were attempting to reintegrate them as Grey Wolves, but it would be a long process before they were fully involved in pack life.Lifelong allegiances didn’t disappear overnight.Jer

“Who told you?” Jeremy snarled.Anger radiated off him, feral and palpable. The tension between them was so thick, Isabella could have cut it with the knife at his belt.“Who told you?” he growled again.“So you’re not denying it?” Her worst fear was confirmed. A complicatedswirl of emotions hit her. Anger, hurt, fear, pain. How could he have been lying to her this whole time?“I may not have been forthcoming from the start, Isabella, but I’m no liar.” The vein in Jeremy’s temple ticked a strained beat. He looked ready to tear into something, to maim, to kill.She didn’t know how she hadn’t seen it before. The violence in him he barely contained, the rage of an alpha male. It was so Wild Eight; he reeked of it.“No one living knows about this. Not Maverick. Not Sierra. Not even Wes, and the man’s my brother.”Isabella harbored more than a

Isabella wrapped her jacket around herself as she eased out into the dim lighting of the porch. The pale-yellow glow of the overhead light cast the covered wooden wraparound in shadows, and several flies buzzed near the porch light. Save for the cold of the Montana spring nipping at her hands and feet, the rustic, country feel reminded her all too much of the low twangs and smooth talking of the South she’d once called home.Save for the virile and handsome cowboy leaning against the porch railing with his back to her.She drew her jacket tighter around herself to brace against the chill. With Austin cared for and stable, she’d put her bloodstained nightgown and robe in a bath of cold water in hopes of getting the blood out, and then she’d changed back into her clothes. The screen creaked shut behind her.“I expected you’d be asleep by now,” Jeremy drawled.It was only a few hours until sunrise, and she’d been makin

They lay tangled in each other’s arms until, ironically, Isabella was the one who finally fell asleep, tuckered out from their night together. Jeremy lay there for a long time, listening to the sounds of her steady breathing as she snuggled against him. Eventually, he forced himself to ease out of the bed, rising and putting on his clothes. After the results of last night, there would be plenty of work today, and he needed to find out if Blaze had managed to recover any of the leftover data.As he eased the door to his bedroom open and started to slip out into the hall, he glanced back over his shoulder. This woman—the only person on the planet who knew everything about him and accepted him, who cared for him anyway— was perhaps the closest thing he’d ever had to a true friend, even closer than his packmates. He cared for them, too, but it wasn’t the same. Not when they’d never known the truth.As he stood there, watching her, the vo

Isabella found Jeremy in his temporary office inside the cabin. He didn’t turn toward her when she entered. He was standing over his desk, his hands on the polished wood and his back toward her as he stared down at a stack of papers. She watched as his shoulders shifted and tensed, each movement highlighting the sinew and muscle that lay beneath his shirt.She closed the door behind her. When the latch clicked shut, Jeremy turned toward her. She was already shaking her head at him.He frowned. “I see Sierra and Layla told you the news.”“They did.” She nodded. “I was surprised you didn’t deliver it yourself.”He cast the papers in his hand onto the desk. “It seemed like it would be easier if I didn’t.”“Easier? For you or for me?”Jeremy watched her for a long beat before making a show of scanning over his paperwork. She wasn’t sure whether he was trying to brush