Bride of the Alpha(23)

I shrugged. “Never mind. Let’s talk about practical things, like the fact that I need clothing. My apartment is about two hours drive from here. My car’s parked there too. Should I go and pack up what I need?”

“You can just go into town to the Timber Valley mercantile and get whatever you need,” Maxwell said. “Put it on the Battle family’s tab, if I’m not with you when you’re shopping.”

Outside, slicing through the stillness, we heard the rumble of a truck approaching, with wheels rolling over dirt.

“Hello, who’s come up here to interrupt my honeymoon weekend? Let’s see who wants their ass kicked today.” Max got up and walked over to the pickup truck that had just pulled up front.

When he came back, his face was like thunder – and it looked as if he was mad at me.

“What is it?” I asked, shocked at the expression on his face. What could he possibly be angry about? He’d already found out the worst thing possible, which was that I’d disguised myself as Camille on his wedding day.

“Was there a reason you just asked me if we’re seeing other people?” he demanded. “Or do you just have a really warped sense of humor? Because I’m telling you, Josephine, this isn’t the least bit funny.”

“What are you talking about?”

“My men are telling me that a wolf shifter just pulled up to our front gate. He says he’s here to pick you up for your date,” he said.





Chapter Nine


“My date?” I said, bewildered.

“Peter Fallworth?”

Oh, dear God. My blind date. What the hell was he doing here? He and I were supposed to get together at my home town of River Run, two hours away. How would he even know I was here?

“But…I made a date with him before I knew I was getting married.” That was kind of sort of true, even.

“And you told him to come here?” Max looked outraged. This was serious. This was bad. This was the kind of thing that undermined an Alpha’s authority.

“No, we were supposed to meet in Riverbank, at a coffee shop. I told Bess to cancel it for me. I’ll have to call her to find out what the hell happened. Seriously, Max, Peter had no idea that I was getting married. You know how last minute all of this was,” I said.

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocketbook.

He grabbed it from me. “No, you don’t.”

“Excuse me?” I said, outraged.

“I have had enough of being treated with disrespect by those two troublemakers. He showed up at my gate and made me look like a fool. I am within my rights to issue Peter a death challenge, do you realize that?”

I swallowed hard. He was indeed within his rights.

“I do realize that, and I’m really, really sorry this happened. If you challenge him, Max, you would be killing an innocent wolf. I don’t know how he ended up here, but I swear to you he had no idea I was married. I mean, nobody does. My family doesn’t even know.”

I reached out to grab my cell phone back, and he tossed it to the floor and stomped it to pieces.

“How dare you?” I yelled.

“As long as you are a member of my pack, you will not speak to those two again,” he said, and turned and walked towards his truck.

“You can sleep by yourself tonight, you Neanderthal!” I yelled at his retreating back.

“With pleasure!” he yelled back. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go tell a wolf that he’s not going to be going on any dates with my wife!”

Thank God I was missing out on that conversation, I thought, wincing. I imagined it would involve a lot of groveling and apologies on Peter’s part, and a lot of growled threats on Max’s part. I also imagined Peter was going to be one very, very angry wolf.

That made two of us. I had to get ahold of Bess as soon as I could, to rip her a new one. She could have gotten Max killed. If Max had been the same kind of Alpha that Kray was, than Peter would already be dead.

I watched Max climb into his pickup truck and drive off. Great. Married two days, and already we were sleeping in separate bedrooms, I thought ruefully.

I went back in to the house, picked another bedroom, and locked myself in. Max didn’t try to come talk to me when he got back. Fine with me, I thought furiously.

I waited until I heard him leave again that evening, went into the kitchen and grabbed some cold cuts and a glass of milk, and took it to my room. I spent the night alone, tossing and turning fitfully in my room.

In the morning when I woke up, I heard his truck pulling away. I looked out the window. Sunrise. He couldn’t wait to get away from me.

Well, that was a short honeymoon, I thought to myself. At least he’d dropped the façade that he liked me and wanted to spend time with me. It should make it easier to leave when the time came.