Read Online Idler (Norseton Wolves Book 3) by Holley Trent - Free Book Online Page B

where he slept, really, as long as it was reasonably safe. Most nights, he found some nice overhang to sleep under with his only company being the stars and the occasional lizard. He was starting to understand what Loner saw in going off on his own so much.
    “Are you running from me? Because it usually happens the other way around. Wolf women do anything to flee their obnoxious mates, so they’ll find any excuse not to come home for the night. Maybe they’re staying late watching someone’s children, so it’s just as well they sleep over. Or perhaps they stay up late working on some chore or craft project so that they don’t have to crawl into bed with a monster.”
    Is that how I’m treating her? He’d been pissed at her cavalier treatment of him, yeah, but he’d never wanted to turn that back on anyone else. That would have made him no better than the institution he hated so much. He let out a ragged breath as he raked his hand through his hair. “You’re not a monster, and you’re not obnoxious.”
    “Just bitchy. And I don’t mean bitch-bitch as in female wolf, because that’s obviously incontestable. I mean insufferable.”
    He leaned against the doorway and crossed his arms, eying her. Insufferable? That word hadn’t come to mind. He’d thought a lot of things in both his forms. First, that if she wasn’t so fucking evil, he’d trot her out like the princess she insisted he not call her. That wasn’t even alpha wolf bullshit—that was just male braggart crap. Any guy would do it if they had a wife like her. Wolf women had a certain appeal in general, but none of them were as showstoppingly captivating as Lisa. And none of them had made him ever second-guess himself. His own mother had been capable of that kind of allure, but his mother hadn’t been the kind of alpha’s wife Mrs. Carbone was. His mother did what she was told and didn’t question anything—not even the bullshit.
    Lisa was sort of an alpha in her own right. Bossy. Take-charge and take-no-shit. Concerned for the wellbeing of others as any good alpha would be, but sometimes critical to a fault. The criticizing was what he couldn’t stomach. Seemed almost ironic.
    “You’re not saying anything. Obviously you think it’s true,” she said.
    He shook his head and closed his eyes to block out the visual stimulation. Her gaze was too dark, too wise, and he couldn’t help but to feel like he had all his sins laid bare and she was sorting through each and every one and ready to ask, “What’s that? And how about this?”
    “You’re not insufferable, but you’re hard for me to be around.”
    She laughed, and he opened his eyes. He couldn’t tell if the laugh was sarcastic, but she seemed amused enough.
    “Well, thanks for being honest. Why am I hard to be around? And don’t tell me you have anywhere to be right now. I have it on good authority that you don’t have to go back to work until Monday. You’ve got the whole weekend off, whether you want it or not.”
    “How’d you find that out?”
    “I’ve got Alpha’s ear. I guess if you’re a little pushy and overly idealistic, he takes pity on you and gives you want you want so you can go be annoying somewhere else.”
    “If you were annoying, he would have said so. Trust me. He tells me all the time.”
    “Well, he didn’t tell me that.”
    “Probably because he doesn’t think it. He likes you.”
    “I’m glad. My last alpha and I weren’t on the greatest terms when I left.”
    “Ditto.”
    She cringed. “Well, not only are you off this weekend, but so am I.”
    He pushed up an eyebrow. “Really? Not gonna bang away on your keyboard all day and swear about capital gains or whatever it is you’re always mumbling about?”
    “I’m caught up for the moment, and all of my invoices are out. Now I just wait for the money to roll in and chase it down when it doesn’t.” She wriggled her eyebrows.
    “Vicious.”
    “It’s not a quality exclusive to the males of