Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55491 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55491 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
“Remy?”
When she didn’t answer again, I picked up my pace and frowned. The kitchen was empty. Her coloring was on the table, crayons strewn over the wood surface.
“Remy!” I called again.
She was probably playing hide and seek with me. Or was just absorbed in whatever imaginative play she had going on at the moment. Maybe she’d fallen asleep after exhausting herself with that meltdown over the stuffed animals.
But as I made a quick scan of each room and didn’t find her, the hair on the back of my neck started to rise.
Fuck.
She wouldn’t have left the house. With all the changes lately, she’d been more clingy. She hadn’t wanted to leave my side. Hell, she’d been whiny about me leaving her to get into the shower.
Now, my heart rate surged. My inner wolf grew agitated. He was pacing. We didn’t like not knowing where our pup was. Whether she was safe.
I raised my voice to a shout. “Remy?”
What if she wasn’t safe? Dammit! Where was she?
Turning, I ran from room to room, searching more thoroughly this time–opening closets and looking under the beds in case she was playing a game.
Where the fuck was my daughter?
Shit. Had someone come in and taken her? Had she walked out the front door?
“Remy Marie, if you’re hiding from Daddy, I want you to come out right now. You’re too good of a hider.”
Nothing.
Adrenaline started to pump through me. If anyone had touched my pup, my wolf would rip them into pieces.
I went to the front door. Locked. I went to the back door. Shit. Why hadn’t I noticed that it was open a few inches?
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
I flung it wide, stepped out onto the deck, and scanned the yard. It was an older neighborhood, so there were well-established trees and shrubs. Only partial fencing. I was getting a fucking full perimeter fence installed tomorrow to keep her in.
But right now I didn’t know where she was. I ran a hand through my damp hair.
What if she’d gotten lost? Wandered into traffic? Had been fucking kidnapped?
“Remy!” I bellowed into the air. My voice held the deadly reverberation of a wolf in crisis. They talked about mama bears protecting their young. That was nothing compared to what a papa wolf would do if anyone so much as breathed on his pup.
“Over here, Daddy!”
Oh fate. Her little voice carried across the summer afternoon air. It came from the neighbor’s yard.
Thank fuck. My wolf howled in relief. I sighed, but my heart still pounded.
I was soothed, but I was pissed because she scared the fuck out of me. I’d left her to color or watch TV when I’d showered before. She’d never left the house. Not once.
But not once were we here in this new place, either.
I bolted across the yard, ducked under a low branch on an ash tree, and weaved around a lilac bush.
There, sitting on the concrete stoop of the neighboring house’s back patio, was Remy and a young woman. Giggling and laughing and eating fucking popsicles.
The young woman looked up at me with a wide, dimpled smile.
“Hi, Daddy,” Remy said brightly.
2
JOY
Living in Montana, the possibility of a wild animal charging through the underbrush was not uncommon. But a muscled, tattooed man wearing nothing but a tiny pink towel around his waist was a surprise.
Especially one this attractive.
Holy shit, he was good looking.
This was Remy’s Daddy?
He had red hair. Everywhere.
The towel did little to hide the fact because the towel was little. It was pink and had…embroidered strawberries on the ends. I guessed it was one of Remy’s.
It only contrasted how big and virile he was. Six feet, sturdy frame. Muscled. Broad shouldered. Again, muscled. Abs you could climb. Yup, muscled. Thighs like tree trunks.
And beneath the towel… big there, too.
The towel might fit a four-year old girl just fine, but EVERYTHING on this guy was either shown outright or outlined very distinctly.
My mouth watered, and the sun suddenly became even hotter than it had been. I put the popsicle in my mouth in hope of cooling off.
His gaze followed the action with a dark glower.
“Hi, Daddy!” Remy said again. She bounced a little on the stoop with her excitement. “This is Joy. We’re having pops.”
His daughter was so sweet. And bright. Now I knew where she got her strawberry blonde locks.
“I see that.” He stomped over to us, which shouldn’t be possible in bare feet, but he somehow managed it.
I had to tip my head back to keep my eyes on his and not the rest of his Adonis physique. I could even see those V things that male models had. His face softened as he squatted down in front of me, and that towel–
My eyes practically bugged out of my head at the sight of his dick. His big, thick, ridiculously-attractive-for-a-dick dick.
He must’ve figured out his towel wasn’t working at the same time I cleared my throat. He popped back to his feet and held the knot at his hip tightly.