Free Opposition: Montana Wolves, Book Four (Montana Wolves series 4) by Chloe Cole Page B

sucked in a shuddering breath, shoving his fury aside to focus on Maggie.
    She lay in a heap at his feet, motionless, and he nuzzled her gently, panic lapping at him. Vaguely aware of the last vestiges of the half-hearted battle around him, he grasped the scruff of her neck gently in his teeth and dragged her prone form toward the house. Luckily, the rest of the wolves were far too busy to bother with them as they reached the doorway.
    That was, until Willa leapt in front of the door. She shifted to her human form and pinned him with a probing stare.
    Her mouth was a hard line. “So it’s like that, then?”
    He tried to touch her mind, to let his heart explain what his mouth couldn’t right now, but she blocked him, opting to say her piece.
    “All our lives, it was you and me. Our parents were monsters. The pack was falling apart. We were coerced into becoming betrothed for politics instead of for love. Everything else sucked, but at least I had a friend in you and I knew, some day, I would be by your side to command the pack and bring honor to Big Sky Canyon. And now what, Grey? Now what do I have?”
    She didn’t wait for his answer. Instead, she turned on her heel and disappeared through the trees. The second woman desperate to escape him on this night.
    He would grieve the loss of that friendship later. But for now, nothing else could stand in the way of tending to the woman he loved.

CHAPTER NINE
    “ Y  ou have to go back at some point.” Chandra stood in the doorframe, a bowl of soup in her outstretched hand.
    It was the same thing all of the Pray wolves had said to him when they’d come to check up on Maggie, but he still wasn’t in the mood to listen. The battle had ended eight hours before, and still Maggie had barely moved. How the hell was he supposed to leave knowing she might need him?
    He lifted the gauze that covered her rapidly healing wound and let out a sigh of relief. It had been deep. So deep, he wasn’t sure if she would survive it. But if she was healing, why wasn’t she waking up?
    He took the bowl from Chandra with a nod of thanks, but didn’t deign to respond to her questions. Right or wrong, he was staying right here, next to Maggie’s bed until he knew she was okay.
    “They’ll be needing you,” Chandra insisted.
    She was more stubborn than the other Pray wolves who’d come through every hour on the hour with the same advice. Maybe she thought they were on a different level because they’d been pack members once. Whatever the case, he turned to her and spoke, though his voice was hoarse from all the howling and barking the night before.
    “They’re licking their wounds. They will need me, but not now. Willa has things under control.”
    “Not your father?” Chandra quirked a brow.
    “No.” Grey frowned. He hadn’t allowed himself to dwell on that part of the aftermath yet. He was determined to take things one step at a time, and the first step was making sure Maggie was safe again.
    “How did you get Willa to do anything for you? I mean, after—” she broke off and eyed him questioningly.
    “She’s a reasonable woman.”
    Apparently Chandra was determined to make him face every remnant of the battle’s wreckage.
    He was okay with the fact that the Big Sky pack had conceded defeat. Once his father bailed, none of his packmates hearts were in it, and his never had been.
    He was even okay that his father was locked away in a cell for treason back on Big Sky lands, probably foaming at the mouth with rage.
    He just hated that Willa had been hurt. Not in the battle. She was one of the few who had escaped unscathed. But when she’d learned the truth about his feelings for Maggie, and again, afterward when he’d stayed behind to care for her overnight rather than returning to the pack.
    He and Willa had been promised to one another for longer than he could remember, and she was absolutely right. They’d been each other’s support system when the world went crazy. She’d