The Bucklin Wolves Next Generation: Revelations Read Free Page B

just ride on my back.”
    Maribel curled her arm around her stomach and looked up at him. He knew she was feeling self-conscious about her size. It had probably been a stupid thing for him to say, but she had to know that he wasn’t going to let her fall off a cliff or break her ankle on a tree root in the darkness. “You’re a wolf, not a horse. I can’t ride on your back.”
    “You’ve never seen me shifted,” Seth said. “I don’t think you realize how large a shifted wolf is, especially an alpha. You’re in for a treat.”
    Her eyes grew wide with excitement before returning to normal size as she turned to reenter the house. “Just wait for me here. I’ll pack up.”
    “Maribel?” he asked, looking back at his truck. She turned and looked at him as she got to the doorway. “You haven’t even gotten the pack from me yet.”
    “Oh,” she said. Her mind was starting to wander again now that it was time to go. Was she really that disturbed about going into the woods alone with him? He knew females had mood swings, but who had ones this wild?
    Seth walked back to the truck and grabbed the pack before heading back up the stairs. Maribel tried to block his entrance into the house, but he pushed his way past. As he entered the kitchen he froze, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. She was alone now, but she hadn’t been alone this entire day. The scent was an affront to his nostrils. He could feel his muscles involuntarily flex. The offending party hadn’t gone much farther than the door and his stink didn’t cover Maribel, so there’d been no foul play sexually. What the hell did Jacko want with her and why had he been in her house?
    Maribel’s eyes grew wide as she stared at him. She knew exactly what he was smelling and that was the reason she had tried to prevent him from entering the house. Was he being set up? Was Maribel part of their plan?
    He looked back at her, studied every inch of her face as she stood behind him. No. She hadn’t betrayed him. If there was a plot against Seth, she was not involved. The fear in her eyes as she studied Seth’s reaction was all the convincing he needed.
    “What did he want?” Seth asked quietly.
    “He and Ms. Wilson stopped by,” Maribel said hastily.
    “He must have scared you pretty bad for you to lie to me,” Seth said, turning back to face her. “You think I wouldn’t be able to smell her whore’s perfume?”
    “It was nothing,” Maribel said, grabbing the pack from him and heading for the bedroom. “I swear. Nothing happened.”
    “Did he hurt you?” Seth asked. His question made her freeze in her tracks. Her head turned slowly to face him. “He’s bad news, Maribel. Let me know if he hurt you and that’ll be the end of him.”
    “No,” she said, her words barely squeaking out of her throat. “He didn’t hurt me at all.”
    “Did he threaten you?”
    “No.”
    “You don’t have to lie to me. If he did anything to you, then I need to know about it. I’ll make him pay.”
    “You should stay away from him,” she whispered. If he’d been a normal man, he wouldn’t have been able to hear her words, but his enhanced hearing picked her voice up perfectly.
    “He should stay away from me,” Seth corrected.
    “No,” she whispered again. “Stay away from him.”
    “I don’t fear him.”
    “You should,” she said.
    Her words hit him in the chest like a battering ram. She left him standing in shock as she disappeared into the back of the house to gather her belongings and prepare for the trip. Seth couldn’t believe the words she had said to him. He was an alpha wolf and he feared no man or beast. So why couldn’t he shake the feeling that she was right and he should be more careful around Jacko?
     

Chapter 3
    The drive to the forest was so silent Maribel thought she would pass out. When she had finished packing her change of clothes and spare shoes, she had found Seth waiting in the truck. When she got in, he had looked