Bitter Beloved (Bitterroot Book 2) by Heather Hildenbrand & SM Reine

Author:Heather Hildenbrand & SM Reine [Hildenbrand, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Paranormal romance
Publisher: Heather Hildenbrand, LLC
Published: 2017-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

~~~

Outside on the lawn, the day had already come to life. Construction was pretty much finished on the arena now, so most people were back to the day-to-day business of waiting for the counsel to decide the time had come for Charlie and me to compete. Which meant a lot of standing around, whispering, and staring at me as I passed.

“Hey, Carter,” I said as he passed by on his way up to the house, a stack of rolled papers clutched in one hand. Probably on an errand for his dad to nag mine again.

Carter stopped at the sight of me. His jaw dropped open. “What happened to you, Vuk?”

“Nothing,” I said, feeling suddenly self-conscious about my wardrobe decisions. I forced my hands to my side to keep myself from folding them over my chest. I had nothing to hide, and I wasn’t going to show any submissive postures around my pack. There was no reason that the alpha couldn’t look pretty every once in a while—or whatever version of that I’d managed. “I’m going into town with Charlie today. I want you to keep an eye out on things while I’m gone.”

It seemed to take him a moment to realize I was talking.

“What kind of things?” he asked, expression immediately turning a mixture of covert and suspicious.

I shrugged. “Just … things. Anything off.”

“Gotcha,” Carter said, even though he obviously didn’t.

I could feel him watching me as I walked off, and I permitted myself a small smile. I felt good. I felt like … Charlie.

As if summoned by my thoughts, my sister walked out of the woods. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair was tied back, and she was in sweats.

She looked startled to see me.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked, glancing around as though she expected someone to be watching. There were actually a lot of someones watching. The pack always seemed to materialize when Charlie and I stopped to talk these days. I could see Leonard, master carpenter and expert tobacco chewer, leaning around a tree to spy on us.

“We were going into town today. Remember?” I asked.

“Oh! Oh, yeah, I remember. I guess I got caught up in my morning jog.” She gave a sheepish smile. “Sorry. You don't mind if I run and change first, do you? I’m sure I stink.”

She backed away and disappeared inside before I could argue. I frowned and rubbed my toe into the dirt, with no choice but to wait. A few minutes later, Charlie re-emerged with hair still dropping from the shower dressed in jeans and a soft yellow blouse.

“Much better,” she said with a smile shadowed by an apology. “Thanks for waiting.”

“Sure. Let’s go,” I said. I didn’t have the heart to tell her the shower wouldn’t have helped much if she’d picked up anything strange from her run. Even on two legs, our sense of smell was naturally heightened. I could have picked up all kinds of interesting information about her jog if I wanted to, like where she went and what kind of animals she ran into, but that would have been rude.

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