Solstice Heat by Leila Brown

to the bed, she would. There was no way she was going to sleep with him again. Not tonight. Not ever. For the second time that day, her wolf agreed. Before she closed the door, she said in a very quiet voice that did nothing to hide the tears she refused to shed, “I’m trying to figure out if you’re hiding here for the good of the pack, or because you’re scared to even try.”

Chapter Six
     
     
     
    Jason watched her walk out of the room. He wanted to go after her, but she was in no mood to listen to him. What could he say? He’d had no idea she or her wolf was strong enough to stand up to Toni without fear. The strength of your wolf was determined by how strong a person you were.
     
    There was no way for him to explain this to her without sounding insulting. If she had truly been the woman he’d been e-mailing, he would have been able to read her strength through the e-mails. Through her responses to his commands, he would have known her wolf would have been Alpha mate material.
     
    He slowly wheeled over to the door and listened. He heard the soft whimpering and knew she was crying. Those tears were his fault. Each and every one. How was he supposed to make this up to her? Sorry just wasn’t going to cover it. He had no clue what would.
     
    Instead he wheeled to the kitchen and finished preparing lunch. He fixed her a plate and wheeled it to the room. “I’ve got some food. I’m going to leave it here.”
     
    “I’m not hungry!” she yelled.
     
    “You need to eat. I’m going to leave it here. You don’t need to talk to me or eat with me. Just—”
     
    “Fine.”
     
    He was surprised when she stepped out, grabbed the plate, and walked over to the bar in his kitchen. He was not expecting that.
     
    “Feeling better?”
     
    “No. I’m not feeling better. I haven’t let anyone make me feel ashamed of who I was since high school. But I trusted you and… Never mind. It doesn’t matter. I was stupid. I won’t be again.”
     
    She didn’t say she was stupid for trusting him. She didn’t have to. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. What could he say? Trust me now. I won’t let you down again . He closed his mouth and just wheeled away from her.
     
    “Don’t starve your wolf to punish me. She’ll get stronger and pop out on you at the wrong time.” The second the words left his lips, he knew it was the absolute wrong thing to say.
     
    “Don’t worry. I think we’ll be just fine. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll be sleeping in the guest room tonight.” She picked up a forkful of the salad and pushed it into her mouth. She chewed, but she didn’t look like she was enjoying it.
     
    “So you’re not going to talk to me anymore?” The time left until the solstice was going to drag on forever if all they did was ignore each other.
     
    “If by talk you mean sleeping together, then no. We won’t be doing that. But talking? It doesn’t make sense to walk around each other and not talk.”
     
    The fact that she wasn’t arguing with him anymore and didn’t sound remotely concerned worried him. Maybe they just needed to change the subject completely. It wasn’t like they didn’t have things to discuss.
     
    “We need to get out of this house. Maybe we can do a little damage control.” He watched her as he said the words. Her body stiffened at the mention of going outside. “We can go into town and meet some of the pack before Toni has time to do much damage. But…”
     
    “But what?” she asked, putting her fork down.
     
    “But you’re going to have to pretend you actually like me. If you’re standoffish at all, they’ll know something is wrong, and Toni can be really convincing. She had me fooled for over a year.” He knew he shouldn’t have added the last part. Mentioning his ex was not going to help Gio forgive him.
     
    “See, I don’t understand that. From the second she opened her mouth, I had her pegged as a power-hungry conniver.