Loner (Norseton Wolves #2) by Holley Trent Page B

get what you need. That’s the only reason I was able to keep you with me this long. Remember that.”
    Stephanie had forgotten it, along with so many other important lessons, but she was going to put that wisdom to use now.
    Alpha pushed up one bushy eyebrow then lifted the gate for a delivery truck. “Long walk all the way up here.”
    “I took one of the golf carts.”
    “Ah. Smart. Just to bring me a sandwich? Let me guess.” He lowered the gate and leaned in the open doorway. “Someone in the pack needs maiming, and you want me to do it. Is it Colt?”
    She sighed, and then laughed. “No. I do need a favor, but nothing like that. Lisa can deal with Colt.”
    “That’s what my gut says, anyway. What kind of favor? The last time someone asked me for a favor, I wasn’t so inclined to grant it. Some wolves don’t know what the best thing for them is.”
    She furrowed her brow.
    He waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t mind me. What do you need? Before you tell me, give me the sandwich. I could eat a brick, I’m so hungry.”
    Laughing, she handed it over. “I don’t know much about what you and the pack did before you settled here at Norseton, and I’m not really sure I want to know. Darius doesn’t discuss it at all, but I know your team works well together, and that’s something that shouldn’t be discounted.”
    Adam took a big bite of sandwich and nodded.
    “I’m not suggesting he stop doing what he does, but…I wonder if…”
    “You’ve got the worst hearing of any wolf I’ve ever known,” Darius said softly behind her.
    She cringed. Turning, she found his expression to be a contrived blank, and he pulled his energy in close to his body the same way he always did when he was angry.
    Shit . Is he angry? Her wolf was never really angry for long—at least not with her—but she didn’t want to think she’d hurt his feelings. She was in a unique position to do so, and knew it.
    “You’re the quietest wolf in the pack,” Alpha said to him. “You can’t really fault her for not hearing you.”
    Darius flitted his gaze to Alpha, but said nothing. He didn’t need to. He might have tried to tamp it down, but his discomfort radiated off him like heat off a radiator.
    “Now she isn’t going to ask for whatever she came here for. You couldn’t have waited five minutes? You’re early for your shift.” Alpha took another large bite and stepped out to hail an oncoming vehicle.
    Darius crossed his arms over his chest and ground his teeth.
    “I’m not trying to get you in trouble. I just want to help,” she said.
    “Help what?”
    “Help get you what you need, since you won’t ask for it.”
    “What is it that you think I need?”
    She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you going to act like I haven’t spent the past couple of weeks learning your ins and outs? I may not know everything that has made you the way you are, but I know who you are. By now, you should damn well know who I am, and what I’m capable of.”
    Alpha stepped back in and carefully wrapped his sandwich. “Catch me on the walkie-talkie if you need anything. I’m gonna go see if I can take my lady for a stroll.”
    Darius said nothing. He just watched Alpha leave, and then sat on the low black stool in front of the security video monitors. He adjusted the view on one for a wider image of the westbound road.
    She drummed her fingers on the sides of her arms. “I can tell the difference between good silence and bad silence. This is bad silence. You need to talk to me.”
    “What do you want me to say?”
    “Anything at all is better than nothing. I know I’m enabling you. I think you’re less social now than you were before you took me as a mate.”
    He straightened his spine, and the electric tension in the room raised the hairs on the back of her neck. She needed to calm her wolf. It was a job only she was equipped to do, and that was why she was his mate—why the goddess had chosen her for him. The goddess had