Free Longing for Wolves (Shifter Country Wolves Book 5) by Roxie Noir

went and saw Sam. And when I woke up he was gone, and I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what I deserve.”
    Annika sat down on the back bumper of her bakery van and patted the space next to her. Calder came over and sat down.
    “I’m not really sure why I’m talking to you about your ex-boyfriend,” she said. “But did you tell him how you feel?”
    “How come you’re not sure?” Calder asked. “You jealous?”
    “We’re not talking about me,” said Annika.
    “I didn’t tell him, no,” Calder said. “I got dead drunk and then I ran miles through the woods and tore tooth holes in my only suit, only to show up on his doorstep with no idea what the fuck I was going to do if he actually answered his door.”
    “And he answered it.”
    “Yeah,” Calder said. “He answered it, and I was drunk and horny, and we talked exactly enough to figure out that we’re both single, and then I got this hickey.”
    Annika raised both her eyebrows and swallowed. She tried not to think of Calder and Sam, both naked, Sam’s mouth on Calder’s neck.
    “And then he was gone in the morning,” he said. He turned and faced her, his eyes searching hers. “You jealous now?” he asked softly.
    “No,” Annika said. “Do you want me to be?”
    Calder moved closer and put one hand under her chin. Annika let it happen, the rough skin on the pads of his fingers tickling her.
    “Not at all,” he said.
    Then he kissed her, and his lips were soft and warm and surprisingly gentle. Annika knew she should back away, but instead she found herself leaning into him, her hand coming up to cup Calder’s cheek as she moved her mouth against his.
    Instead of deepening the kiss, he pulled away. His hand was still on her chin.
    “You’ve never been with a shifter before,” he said.
    “You can tell?”
    “You called him my ex-boyfriend, for starters.”
    “So my terminology is wrong.”
    Calder ran a thumb along her cheekbone.
    “I don’t want you to start something with me that you can’t finish,” he said. “For my sake.”
    Annika laughed and stood from the bumper of her van.
    “Calder,” she said. “When I’ve started something with you, you’ll know. Fix your shit.”
    He leaned against the van’s closed doors and looked at her.
    “Okay,” he said.

Chapter Eight

    Sam
    Sam knew that it hadn’t been fair of him to leave before Calder woke up, but he’d done it anyway.
    It wasn’t that he wanted petty revenge, or that he thought that Calder deserved it. Deep down, he knew he was afraid of what Calder was going to do, going to say sober. He didn’t want to hear the other man say that it had just been a drunk fuck. He didn’t want to hear Calder stumble over apologies, or say he never should have come, or call it a mistake.
    So he shifted early in the morning and stayed shifted until late that night, running through the forest in wolf form, hoping against hope that Calder would be at his house again when he got back.
    He wasn’t, of course. He was at his sister’s wedding, and Sam knew that he probably had something wedding-related to do afterwards. It hadn’t stopped Sam from hoping to see Calder again. Anything to get his mind off of whether Calder was leaving Sunday, the moment the wedding was over and he was free to go again.
      I don’t even know where to find him , Sam thought, lying in his bed early Sunday morning. Is he staying with his parents? At Greta’s house? Somewhere else? Is he gone already?
    And then, the question he hated himself for asking: that wasn’t just a drunk fuck, right?
    He split his day between wolf time, cleaning the cabin, and trying to think of something else he could do to get his mind off things.
    Around eight, Scarlet texted.
    Calder’s at the Tooth & Claw , it said.
    Sam frowned. Why the hell was Scarlet texting him Calder’s location?
    And? he texted back.
    It was a little while before she texted back.
    He has the biggest hickey I’ve ever seen. The rumor mill says he’s