Ruined Wolf: A Paranormal Why Choose Romance (Claimed by the Sea Wolves Series Book 2)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

By the time my fourth coffee kicked in, I was starting to feel more human, or more wolf—I wasn’t sure anymore. I hadn’t been able to sleep after I’d gone back to my room the night before. All I could hear were Nova’s cries of pleasure as Lucas stepped in and did what I couldn’t bring myself to do. I’d switched on my computer, loaded up a particularly violent shooting game, and blasted loud music through my noise cancelling headphones so I couldn’t hear her calling his name, when only minutes before, she’d been begging me to take her. I didn’t blame her. I could see how much she’d wanted me. My fingers still smelled and tasted of her, and it was driving me crazy.

I was insane, absolutely insane. Who the hell turned down a gorgeous woman who was practically begging for your cock? Only an idiot. I’d ripped off the headphones, listening for the sounds of her moans from the hallway, and closed my eyes, imagining it was my cock impaling her against that wall and making her scream like that. I’d jacked one out under the desk, angry at Lucas for barging in and irritated with her for letting him, but mostly, I was mad at myself for being such a coward, because that was what I was—a coward. I was so scared of going all the way with Nova. Not because of how my delightful big brother had put it, but because I knew once I took her, I’d be hers completely, and right now, I still had a shred of self-respect. Not much, granted, after last night, but a shred.

If I gave in to Nova, I’d be the third choice for the rest of my life—the brother who got mated because the woman felt sorry for him. It felt so good to be with her and so right. She’d said we were meant to be together, but that was wrong. We weren’t. If we were, I’d have been marked, just like she had marked Maverick and Lucas. I wasn’t meant to be hers, and she would never be mine.

I sighed, downing the rest of my coffee. My anger at her had faded as soon as my climax had. I’d felt how ready she was and how much she needed me, and Lucas hadn’t exactly given her much choice in the matter. Yes, she could have pushed him away and come after me, but I remembered the look on her face as he’d taken her, almost pleading with me to stay, and I’d left. I’d walked out, I’d rejected her, and I knew I’d hurt her by doing that. Shame filled me, and I crushed the cup in my hand before throwing it into the nearby bin.

Lucas had been a dick, literally in this case, but what was new? He was always a dick, so I shouldn’t expect him to change just because he was mated. As long as he was good to her—and by the sound of her cries through my door, he definitely made her feel good—then I was content, because despite everything, I just wanted her to feel good, loved, wanted, and taken care of. It wasn’t hard to see she hadn’t had much of that in her life.

I needed to see her. I needed to apologise and set boundaries again. I needed to make her realise she’d done nothing wrong, and she deserved to be happy. I was going to stay out of their way and let them be happy. I pulled out a scrap of paper from my pocket and dialled the number written on it.

“Bailey? Yeah, it’s Asher. Yeah, I’m good, thanks. You? Awesome. Listen, mate, that apartment you showed me in town the other day... Is it still available? Great. I’ve decided to take it as soon as possible. Appreciate it, mate. Thanks.”

I hung up, feeling calmer and more in control than I had been before. The apartment would be mine, and I could get out from under their feet. With some space between Nova and me, we could be friends again, and I didn’t want to lose that—if I hadn’t already.

I slipped my phone back into my pocket and started walking, intending to head over to the tourist office and see if I could persuade her to have a coffee with me. I prayed I hadn’t cocked it up completely, but Nova was sweet, so there was still a chance she’d forgive me.

I didn’t quite reach the tourist centre. As I got to the square, I caught sight of Nova coming out of Ethan’s house just as Ethan walked up the steps. I frowned. What on earth was she doing in there? I was pretty sure the council had business over at Falling Waters this morning. She turned and saw Ethan, and something about the look on her face had me picking up the pace.

“Hey, Nova, what’s up?” I asked as I jogged up to them.

She looked at me, shock spreading across her face, and I realised with a jolt she hadn’t expected me to talk to her. Shame filled me again for the pain I’d clearly caused her, but I turned to Ethan.

“Hey, Ethan, what are you doing here? Weren’t you supposed to be over at Falling Waters this morning?”

“I was. I am,” he said, smiling at me before turning back to Nova. “I had to pop home for something, and I ran into Nova here. We were just having a little chat.”

Nova looked up at me. There was something in her eyes that I couldn’t quite read. Fear maybe, or anger. Definitely anger. I winced. I had some serious making up to do if we were going to be friends.

“I was here to see Maverick. I forgot he wasn’t going to be in the office today.”

“Well, as you have determined, he isn’t here,” Ethan pointed out. “But thank you for reminding me that I really should remember to lock my door when I go out. Anyone could break in.”

Nova nodded. “Yes, it would have been awful if someone were to have broken in and done some damage.”

Ethan nodded, eyeing her, and I glanced between the two of them. “Am I missing something?”

“No, nothing at all, Ash,” Ethan said, smiling at me again. “Are you two going somewhere? Nova doesn’t look too well.”

I looked at her and realised he was right. She was deathly pale and had one hand across her stomach, as if she were feeling nauseous. Dark circles ringed her eyes, and her hair wasn’t as shiny as normal. She looked exhausted.

“Ethan’s right, Nova,” I murmured gently. “Can I take you home? You look like you need a quiet day.”

To my surprise, she nodded. “Yes, I don’t feel that good actually.”

Ethan looked over his shoulder. “Do you have the truck, Ash? She shouldn’t be walking that far.”

“Yeah, it’s just parked round the corner. Are you okay to walk that far, Nova?”

“Of course,” she replied. “Can I borrow your phone, Asher?”

I took it out and handed it to her, and she set off without a backward glance at Ethan.

He grinned at me. “She even has you wrapped around her little finger. Hope her mates don’t get too jealous. See you later, Ash.”

I nodded, not gratifying his remarks with an answer. Maverick might have some respect for the guy, but I didn’t beyond his position. The guy gave me the creeps, and I never quite felt like I could trust him. I turned and headed down the street after Nova.

She was talking into the phone, and I realised she was calling in sick to Eleanor. She nodded, even though Eleanor couldn’t see her, and I smiled at the sight. Even sick, she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. She ended the call and passed the phone back to me.

“Thanks. Are you sure about giving me a lift home? I don’t want to put you out.”

I looked down at her. Her words had seemed measured, careful, and I realised she was trying not to say anything that might upset me. The anger I’d seen in her eyes was gone, and I had a sudden thought that it had been meant more for Ethan than me, but that couldn’t be right. Ethan hadn’t done anything to her.

“Nova, stop worrying about me and let me take care of you.”

She frowned but nodded and let me open the car door for her, climbing up into the seat. I jogged around the truck and slid behind the wheel, pulling out and heading towards the edge of town.

“I’m sorry about last night,” Nova said suddenly in a small voice.

I glanced over at her. “If anyone should be apologising, it’s me. Hell, I should be on my knees, begging for your forgiveness.”

She looked at me in surprise, her white teeth sinking into her luscious, pink bottom lip.

“I shouldn’t have pushed you, shouldn’t have asked you to... I knew what you wanted, and it wasn’t that, and I do need to apologise.”

I sighed. “Look, I don’t blame you. There’s a pull between us, I know that. It would be stupid of me to believe anything else, and it’s strong, but that doesn’t mean it’s right. You have your fated mates, Nova. If we were meant to be, you’d have marked me by now, or I’d have marked you, and that hasn’t happened. The pull between us is just physical, and I think it might fade eventually. We just need some space.”

“You want me to give you space? I’ve been trying, Asher, but...”

“I know.” I didn’t say how much it had hurt to keep away from her, or how much I’d craved the sight of her and the sound of her voice. No. Focus, Ash. “I’ve taken an apartment in town.”

She looked at me, her eyes wide. I waited until I turned onto the forest road before I continued.

“I’m moving out of the cabin. It’ll give you three more space and time to yourselves. I don’t want you tiptoeing around me, Nova. You need to feel relaxed and happy in your home, and me being there is making things awkward.”

“But it’s your home too, Asher,” she replied, sounding genuinely upset.

I sighed, steering the truck carefully around a sharp bend. The forest stretched off to one side, but on the other side was a steep drop off to rocks and trees farther down. It was a dangerous road, especially in winter.

“It was, but it’s not anymore. It’s yours and Maverick’s and Lucas’s. This is fine, Nova. It means we’ll have some space, and then hopefully we can be friends, and I don’t have to watch you parading around in nothing but a shirt.” I’d meant the last comment as a joke, but she blushed.

“I wasn’t parading,” she muttered.

“I was kidding,” I said softly.

“Oh,” she murmured. She wrung her hands in her lap, not looking at me.

“Nova, talk to me. I really want us to be friends. I don’t want to lose that.”

“Neither do I,” she admitted, then sighed. “If you think it’s just physical, then I guess... I can’t argue with that. I can’t make you do something that you don’t want to, and if you don’t want me any other way, then I guess I would like to keep you as a friend too.”

I didn’t answer for a moment as I watched the road ahead. Smaller roads led off this one, winding into the forest, and the fog was rolling in off the sea, making it harder to see.

“Asher?” she said.

“Mmm?”

“What if... Can I tell you something?”

“Of course,” I replied. “You can—fuck!” I slammed on the brakes, but as quick as my reflexes were, they weren’t enough.

A dark truck shot out of one of the small turns, and I couldn’t stop in time. It hit us side-on with a sickening crunch, and the truck slid sideways. I tried to steer, but panic flared inside me as the wheels on Nova’s side left the ground and the whole truck flipped over. Awareness left me as the truck rolled down the cliff, our bodies flinging about like rag dolls despite the seatbelts. My entire being focused on the shattering of glass, the crunching of metal, and Nova’s screams. There was pain and blood, and then more pain as my head hit something hard and everything went black.

I groaned as the pain came flooding back with consciousness. Everything hurt like hell, my head most of all, and as I pressed my fingers to my forehead, I could feel the slow ooze of blood over my skin. The seatbelt was still in place, so I figured I’d hit my head on the steering wheel when the truck had forced us off the road.

My cloudy thoughts cleared at the memory.

“Nova!” I twisted in my seat to look at her. Thankfully, the truck had landed the right way up, though we were at a tilt. We hadn’t quite hit the sea, thank the moon, but the truck was wedged between rocks and partially underwater. Cold sea water filled the footwells, making me shiver, though that could also have been shock.

Nova lay slumped against the window. It was partially shattered, as was the windscreen, and her hair and clothes glistened with chunks of shattered glass. Tiny cuts covered her face, and she was also sporting a nasty bump on her head. She wasn’t moving, and I couldn’t tell if she was even breathing.

My own breath caught, and I could have sworn my heart stopped as I reached over to check her pulse.

“Nova, Nova, don’t be dead. Please, don’t be dead,” I prayed out loud as I searched her throat for movement.

After a minute, I sank back against my seat in relief. She had a pulse, slow and steady, and as I watched more calmly, I could see the slight rise and fall of her chest. She wasn’t out of the woods though. She might be unconscious, but the head wound could be serious, or she could be injured internally. I wriggled around, trying to free myself from the seatbelt, but it cut tightly into me, pinning me to my seat, refusing to release me.

I wondered if the other truck driver had called for help yet, then realised that since they’d hit us, they might have been injured as well. I fought against the seatbelt again, trying to reach my phone in my back pocket. I normally kept it in the centre console, but I’d been too distracted by Nova to put it there, and I gave a silent prayer of thanks as I pulled it from my pocket. Had it been in its normal place, it might have been thrown from the truck or even smashed, but it was completely intact.

I unlocked it and rang Maverick, hoping to God he’d left his phone on during the council meeting.

He arrived shortly before the ambulance and the two trucks, fighting his way down the steep cliff to the truck to get to us. I didn’t think I’d ever been so glad to see my big brother. My head ached, and I had an overwhelming urge to sleep, but I fought it, knowing that did not lead to good outcomes. Instead, I held Nova’s hand, talking to her the whole time. She couldn’t hear me, but it kept me thinking about the way she was still unconscious and the fact that her pulse seemed to be growing weaker.

There were tears on my face when Maverick wrenched my door open.

“Ash, Ash!” He grabbed my other hand, squeezing it tight as his eyes searched my face.

“I’m okay, we’re okay. I think. I think she’s okay, but... Rick...” Tears streamed down my face. Lucas would have laughed at me, but I didn’t care. My heart was breaking, and I couldn’t bear it.

Maverick’s face was white, but he swallowed and squeezed my hand again. “Does she still have a pulse? Is she breathing, Ash?”

I took a shaky breath, taking my hand from his to brush the tears away. “She’s breathing, and yes, there’s a pulse, but she’s not woken up since, and—”

“It’s all good. The ambulance is just behind me, and we’ll get you both to the hospital. It’ll be fine, Asher. We won’t let anything happen to her.”

The rescue seemed painstakingly slow. The medics had to make their way down to the truck through the trees and rocks with special harnesses, and then we were both loaded onto special stretchers to get us back up to where the ambulance waited. I insisted they take Nova first, but Maverick had been adamant I go, arguing they needed me out of the way to concentrate on her. I finally allowed them to take me back up the cliff, knowing he’d protect her. He looked like hell, and as they fought to cut her out of the truck, it reminded me of the day we’d discovered that Jaxon had gone. It had shaken him to his core.

It seemed like a lifetime before they finally appeared on the road with Nova. They loaded her into a second ambulance, and we were driven away. Maverick travelled with her at my insistence. He’d offered to come with me, but we both knew she was the one in danger, and she needed him the most. For the first time, I found myself wishing Lucas was here.