Free The Wolf on the Hill by Jorja Lovett

pretty good.”
    Rory plucked Emily from his person and handed the sleeping bundle to her mother. “When?”
    “Sometime today while I was out.”
    Waiting on me.
    “In broad daylight?” Rory scowled as Caleb nodded. “Someone’s obviously watching your every move. Someone who’s trying to send you a message. Any idea what that could be?”
    Caleb didn’t shy away from the blunt line of questioning. “Rory, I haven’t seen anyone here in eleven years. I have no idea who’s doing this. If it’s one of the locals holding a grudge from something I did when I was a kid, surely they’d want me to leave town as soon as possible? Not screw up my chances of a quick sale.”
    Mia braved a suggestion, “What about your father? Is it possible someone is taking their anger out on you over something he did?”
    Both men looked at her with puzzled expressions but for very different reasons. Rory couldn’t understand why she would besmirch their past alpha’s character, and Caleb couldn’t know how much insight she had into his father’s true nature. Witnessing the brutal beating John Jackson had dealt his son was a secret she had kept for many years. It gave her some understanding of Caleb’s strained relationships with those around him, and also made her question what else his old man had got up to behind closed doors.
    “I don’t think he made many enemies, outside of his own family.” A shutter came down over his features with the mere mention of his father. Obviously it wasn’t a matter up for discussion and Mia immediately sensed that she should back away from the subject. For a proud man like Caleb, any hint that she had seen him at his most vulnerable might shatter their fragile relationship.
    “I’d like to take a look at the damage. Do you want me to call it in?” Rory got to his feet, raring to go.
    Caleb stopped him. “I don’t mind you coming over, but I don’t want anyone else.”
    Rory didn’t argue and the two left in companionable silence. They understood each other on a level neither of them appreciated. Mia wanted to bang their heads together.
    “Are you okay?” Naomi, quiet during the discussion, now approached, carrying her babe in her arms.
    “Yeah. Just upset for Caleb. Anyway, do you want to put her down in the bedroom rather than take her back out into the cold?” Spots of red bloomed on Emily’s cheeks. Guilt would have eaten Mia alive to send her out into the frosty air.
    “Do you think Rory would mind?” Naomi shifted the dead weight from one arm to the other, looking as exhausted as her daughter.
    “Not at all. Put her down in the back bedroom and I’ll put the kettle on for another cuppa.” She could do with the break—dealing with all this emotion and testosterone was exhausting.
     
    * * * *
     
    It didn’t take long to survey the damage. It lay at their feet in plain sight. Rory wore the same serious expression as he had done the first time around.
    “You’re staying at mine tonight.” He was probably used to barking out orders, but Caleb sure as hell wasn’t used to following them.
    “No.”
    “Yes.”
    “You’re not my alpha.” This lone wolf belonged to no pack.
    “No, but I do want my sister safe.”
    Shit! Caleb could tell by the steely gaze pinning him to the spot that Rory knew exactly what they’d been up to in the cottage. He didn’t need a lecture when everything in that look said, ‘My sister gets hurt, I’ll kill you’.
    Caleb didn’t intend to apologise for something that wasn’t any of his damn business. “Whatever this is, it has nothing to do with Mia.”
    “This fucker obviously has anger management issues, whoever he is.” Rory jammed his whole fist into one of the new wall decorations. “How do you know he won’t come after you next? Or someone close to you?”
    Caleb could look after himself, he’d spent a lifetime doing so, but could he stop Mia getting involved? He doubted it. What chance did he have of protecting her when