Growl (Winter Pass Wolves Book 2) by Vivian Wood, Amelie Hunt Page A

he’d do anything .
    The thought occurred to him that the Marines should start recruiting girls like Brooke as a motivational tactic. Pax was often skeptical of his assignments here in Afghanistan, though he wouldn’t say so to anyone outside the Triad. For the chance to be in the same room as Brooke, though, he’d throw every single one of his morals out the window and run right into the middle of a live firefight without a second thought.
    He chuckled to himself, shaking his head.
    “Heard you were moping in here, asshole,” Chase said. The massive blond man strolled up to stand between their cots, inspecting Pax with something bordering on distaste. Pax hadn’t exactly asked for permission to date Brooke, and when Brooke dumped him, Chase wasn’t too keen on hearing the details. Or to witness Pax’s being a whiny bitch , as Chase called it.
    Before Pax could move, Chase plucked the photo from his hands. He looked at it and then made a disgusted sound.
    “Fuck, man. Grow some damned balls already. Move on.” Chase let the photo fall onto Pax’s legs, rolling his eyes. “I guarantee you that Brooke has. If you didn’t have your head so far up your own ass, princess, you’d know you were too late to attend the ball.”
    Pax didn’t say anything, though he wondered at the last bit. He never talked about Brooke to Chase, never had. He figured that if he was going to fuck the sister of one of his best friends, the least he could do was keep his damned mouth shut about it. Still, Chase had caught Pax looking morose a few times in the three months since his breakup, and he couldn’t help but give Pax shit.
    Pax tucked the photo in his pack and stood up, keeping his expression neutral.
    “I didn’t realize you were in charge of how I spent my free time, sir ,” Pax said. The last word was heavily tinged with sarcasm, because Chase had somehow managed to get himself promoted to Sergeant upon this new deployment, while Pax and Harlan were still Corporals. It was a stupid argument. They’d given Chase a hard time about it at every opportunity for a couple of months, and now rarely brought it up.
    “Fuck off. Get to the mess before I start acting like a real Coolie and put my boot up your ass,” Chase fired back. Coolie meaning his rank, which he never quite seemed to respect despite working his ass off to get there.
    “Sir, yes sir.” Pax gave him a crisp salute.
    “You are such a dick.” Chase gave him one last glare before heading out.
    Pax sucked in a breath and left the bunk, making for the dining hall.
    “Gentry!” a younger soldier called.
    Pax turned toward the man with a questioning look.
    “You got a call in the comm tent,” the guy told Pax. “I just hung up with my ma, and then a Skype came in for you. Sarge sent me out to get you.”
    Pax nodded with a frown, then jogged toward the tent where Camp Leatherneck soldiers made and received phone and video calls. He made it there in less than a minute, worst-case scenarios running through his head the whole time. His mom was calling to say his dad’s heart had finally given out. His little sister was in jail for killing the piece of crap boss that kept sexually harassing her. His older brother had been injured fighting in Syria.
    Nothing prepared him for what actually awaited.
    He stepped into the tent and ten pairs of eyes went straight to him. Ten soldiers giving him curious and questioning looks, a couple of them holding a bit of pity as well. Fuck, had someone really died?
    “You’re over there,” someone said, pointing to one of the semi-private video chat booths.
    Heart pounding, Pax walked over and dropped into the seat. The screen had gone dark, so he jiggled the mouse, expecting his mom or his sister to appear.
    When Brooke’s heart-shaped face filled the screen, his stomach dropped. Her trademark red lipstick was absent, eyeliner smudged around her eyes, her cheeks and nose puffy and red from crying.
    “What the hell?” was the