Arielle and the Three Wolves (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read Free Page B

have had the night before. It was strange that she had never been a good cook until after she lived on her own. In the last two years she had actually turned herself into a top chef. Of course this was just her opinion. She rarely fixed a meal for anyone else. Her sister, Bethany, and her husband, Adam, had told her she should open her own restaurant and give up her vet practice, but of course they just joked around. Then when her mother and father had visited in the winter, she got her mother to make the supreme sacrifice and admit her oldest daughter had actually become a better cook than she was. Other than that, no one had ever tasted anything she cooked, and maybe her family was biased in her favor.
    The chicken teriyaki with broccoli and the Caesar salad were, in her opinion, excellent. She even poured herself a glass of wine. She had almost gotten used to a meal alone and really didn’t mind it anymore. On this night she would run down the hall after every second bite of her chicken. Each time she entered her bedroom, she found the wolf asleep.
    The dishes were an easy chore since she just had a single person at the table. She removed them from the dishwasher and hand dried them and placed each neatly back in its proper place in her cupboard.
    Outside there was still another hour of daylight left. She thought briefly about a walk in the woods behind her house, but quickly discarded the idea. She was still too enamored of the wolf in her bedroom. She wanted to be there at its side when it woke up. Besides, she was tired, and tomorrow she had to start the weekly grind all over again at the clinic in town.
    She took a brief but warm shower and then hopped into bed. With the remote on her bedside table she flipped on her TV mounted on the wall at the foot of the bed. The comedy on the cable station was one she had seen at least two dozen times. Her attention alternated between the flat screen, the sun about to set over the Tetons outside her window, and the wolf on the floor not six feet away from her.
    Her favorite part of the comedy played out and she had let herself become engrossed in it for five minutes. Also the first signs of sleep overtook her, and she thought with any luck she would drift off for the night in another few moments.
    There was a muffled bark from the floor, and Arielle threw herself up beneath the covers. The wolf was awake. His eyes were open. He stared up into the bed at her. She took a minute to let the heart palpitations calm inside her chest.
    “You frightened me,” she told the animal. She threw back the covers and cautiously approached him. Because of his bad leg, he would not be able to move, so she was in no danger as long as she kept her distance. The muzzle over his fangs also gave her comfort. “How are you feeling tonight?” she asked him and knelt down to the carpet to be at his level.
    This time there was no doubt about the stare out of his eyes, or the deep-seated intelligence. He didn’t seem to mean her any harm. He seemed gentle and kind. She would have removed the muzzle because she knew it was uncomfortable, but the wolf was just too damn big and she was too big of a coward.
    She reached out an unsteady hand and touched him, allowing her fingers to play over his coat. He was soft and even smelled good, raw, like the forest. Beneath the layer of soft fur, she could feel the muscles. They were hard and strong.
    He moved his head back to her skin and nestled his face against the bare underside of her arm. All the time his eyes never left her own. She chanced a longer glance into his eyes. He blinked at her as if he tried to tell her everything was okay.
    “Try not to move your leg,” she admonished him. “Don’t move it at all if you can help it. The less you move it now the better and faster you’ll heal in the next few weeks.”
    He blinked at her over the leather folds of the muzzle he wore. It seemed cruel and unnecessary. His eyes were so kind and beautiful. Surely