Read Online Warrior by Elizabeth Lowell - Free Book Online Page B

rolled over and was asleep within moments.
    Eden lay awake for a long time, thinking about survivors and listening to the wind rearrange layers of snow over the frozen land.
    *
    “Baby, give them to me,” Eden coaxed.
    Baby moved just beyond her reaching fingers. Yellow eyes gleamed with unmistakable mischief. From either side of Baby’s long muzzle dangled Nevada’s socks. Plainly the wolf had no intention of giving up his prize.
    Eden made a sudden grab. Baby danced backward and then half crouched, his muzzle on his front paws, his hindquarters in the air, his tail waving with delight at having suckered his mistress into playing with him.
    Nevada looked up from stacking firewood next to the hearth, where the heat could dry out wood newly brought in from the snow.
    “Good thing I have extra socks,” he said. “Look’s like that pair is a goner.”
    “Baby knows better, at least with my socks,” Eden said, exasperated. “Guess he figured yours were fair game. Baby, drop.”
    Yellow eyes met hazel ones for a long moment. With a startlingly human look of disappointment, Baby opened his mouth. Socks dropped to the floor, no worse for the time spent in a wolf’s jaws. Eden picked up the socks, tossed them in Nevada’s direction, and rubbed both hands through Baby’s thick neck fur, praising him for giving up his prize. Baby burrowed into her touch in return, stropping himself against her like a huge cat, plainly enjoying the physical contact.
    Nevada watched through hooded eyes, oddly moved by the sight of the big, frankly savage-looking beast being petted by a woman who weighed less than the animal did and was considerably less well equipped to defend herself. As she buried her face in the wolf’s fur, it didn’t seem to occur to Eden that those long jaws and steel muscles could tear her apart.
    You’re a fool, Eden Summers. A sweet fool, but a fool just the same. You trust too much.
    Baby made a sound that was a cross between a chesty growl and a throaty yap as he half crouched again, waving his tail, vibrating with a desire for energetic play after being penned up by the storm. Eden laughed and shoved against the wolf with both hands, sending him skidding across the smooth wooden floor. With a powerful scrambling of legs, Baby stopped his backward motion and romped toward Eden, who was braced on hands and knees, waiting for Baby’s charge. Instead of running into Eden head-on, the wolf turned at the last instant, buffeting her with his shoulder.
    If Eden hadn’t been prepared, she would have been bowled over, but this was an old game for the two of them. She gave as good as she got, throwing her weight behind her shoulder as Baby raced by, sending him scrambling for purchase on the slick wood floor. Eden barely had a chance to recover her own balance before Baby was back for more. She survived a few more glancing passes before the wolf’s greater strength and coordination sent her rolling.
    Instantly Baby pivoted, scrambled for traction and started after his laughing mistress. Eden had just enough time to brace herself again before more than a hundred and thirty pounds of muscle and fur bounded into her. She shoved hard against Baby, knowing she was going to go spinning again but determined to give the wolf a good tussle.
    Before Baby’s shoulder could connect with Eden, she was lifted and set down behind Nevada. The wolf hit the man instead. Two strong hands shoved hard against steel muscles and thick fur. Baby went spinning and sliding across the cabin floor. He recovered, gave Nevada a look of glittering delight, and came full tilt across the cabin floor toward the man.
    This time Nevada waited on all fours as Eden had. Muscular shoulder met muscular shoulder, Baby rebounded and went sliding and scrambling across the floor. When the wolf regained his balance, he gave Nevada a laughing, long-tongued grin and charged once more, holding back nothing of his strength as he had earlier in the game with