Chapter 33 #2
"It wasn't until we stepped inside this house that I realized where those doors were from.
I'd assumed since most of them were similar that it was an arbitrary door conjured by your mind.
But they weren't. They were these doors.
" I huffed a laugh to myself. "Except for the library doors.
You must have done most of your voracious reading in your room. "
"It was safer. I didn't start reading in the library until after Mother moved out."
"Fuck, Josh," he huffed, confusing me. "I don't think I'm ever going to get used to you saying things like that, and I hope I never do.
Anyway, that's how I knew which one was your door.
Because I'd seen it. I meant what I said before.
I didn't go snooping. While I saw some bad things—horrible things," I shuddered, "I didn't want to invade your privacy anymore than I had to in order to get you to turn back. "
He tilted his head and considered me, his vibrant green eyes sharp. "So would I be correct in surmising that I'm still a mystery to you?" His lips twitched into a smile.
I laughed and planted a kiss on his lips. "You, Joshua Hart, will always be a mystery to me."
His smile turned unexpectedly shy. "In that case, do you think we could get to know each other the way normal couples do?"
"Moonbeam, if you want me to take you on an awkward first date, I will take you on the most awkward date I can concoct." I laughed and snared him in a kiss, easily getting lost in the contours of his mouth.
"Maybe not quite that extreme," he added, following it up with a sweeter press of lips.
"Hmm we could do it tonight. Perhaps we could even discuss what to do about the pack?
" Unlike when he'd asked about getting to know each other, there was no shyness or uncertainty. He arched an eyebrow in challenge.
"You're right. I'm sorry. It's bad enough that I've run from the challenge my whole life. Doing it again after I'd won the challenge for Alpha isn't right. The pack doesn't deserve that." I paused as it truly sank in that the pack wasn't the only ones it was unfair to. "And neither do you, Josh."
His brow furrowed again. "What do you mean? What do I have anything to do with the Klamath Pack?"
"I never should have expected you to leave yours as well.
At the very least, I should have talked to you before deciding for both of us.
I'm sorry. What would you like to do?" It took me a moment to place the delicate, honey-like smell of sweet pea.
Then it hit me. Delight. Josh was positively delighted at being asked.
"Well?" I pressed with a grin when he still hadn't responded.
"We're in this together. So what do you think? "
"I think we should go back. We could give them the option to stay in Adler Springs, or we could come back here.
I've made sure there's plenty of land to accommodate a full pack.
And as for any that don't want to be part of the pack at all, we could help find them a new pack where they could be happy.
Oh joy, the rambling is back," he added with a grin and a shake of his head.
This man would never cease to amaze me, and I didn't even mean the cavalier way he accepted his uncontrollable words. Though that was damn impressive. "That reminds me, my ridiculous playboy billionaire—"
"Not a playboy." He gave me a crooked smirk. "At least not anymore."
"Like I was saying, when did you decide to buy up so much woodland?"
"After the bond, when I realized you would eventually either have to challenge Conrad or leave. I wanted you to have somewhere you and anyone who followed you could go. Somewhere biased laws couldn't touch you." Doubt slowly clouded his face as I waited too long to respond.
Finally, the sudden tightness in my throat eased. "You truly are the most thoughtful man I've ever met. Even when I was horrible to you and kept pushing you away, you still did everything you could to care for me."
"Of course I did. I'm in love with you. Everything I've done since the bond has been in pursuit of taking care of you."
"You. Are. Killing. Me," I said with a mock groan as I wrapped him in my arms and deposited against the nearest table.
His laughter filled the library, igniting a joy in my heart that had me leaning into him and claiming his mouth mid-laugh.
As his laughter faded, smoldering lust filled his gaze.
I used my grip to hoist him up onto the table, and he automatically wrapped his legs around me.
I would literally never tire of feeling those insane things squeezing me, never tire of him.
The sound of something small hitting the plush carpeting snagged my attention.
I tore myself away from the bruise I was currently pulling on his neck to see what had made the sound.
As my gaze fell on a small bottle of lube, I barked out a laugh.
“Hoping to get lucky in the library?”
He met the taunt with a roguish grin. “Doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”
A growl rose out of me in response, and his eyes darkened further. I closed my mouth on Josh’s while he scraped his fingers over my exposed back. I ground against him and his head fell back to gasp out a deep-rooted moan.
I moved my attention to his neck and chest, planting wet kisses as I went.
He writhed beneath me, trapped between the mahogany desk and my burning body.
I dug my fingers into his thighs as he bucked off the table in pursuit of more.
He let out a sharp cry when I closed my teeth around his nipple and arched into me.
I released my hold on his vice-like legs and curled my fingers around the waistband of his lounge pants, determined to have him every way I could think of.
Suddenly, his hand clamped down hard on my wrist, preventing me from shifting his pants any lower.
I let out a strangled grunt of frustration at being halted and looked up at him.
Instead of lying on the table at my complete mercy, he’d propped himself up on his elbows and was looking towards the library entrance.
Gone was the lust in his eyes. In its place was a severity that gave me pause.
“What?” His legs loosened around me, and my anxiety ratcheted up another level. "What is it?" I hissed more forcefully.
“Shh, do you hear that?”
All thoughts of claiming my sexy as sin mate in the mother of all libraries evaporated as I held my breath. Then I heard it.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
I turned wide, fearful eyes on Josh. “They can’t have you. I won’t let them take you again.” It shouldn’t have made any sense that anyone would come looking for us, but that’s exactly where my mind went.
Josh shook his head and slowly straightened up, making next to no noise as he settled his feet on the carpet before me. “Lombardi and I have worked very hard to make sure no one knows where this place is. Not even the government.”
"But Remus said before that they'd searched your house," I whispered.
He shook his head. "I use a different residence for anything that requires a physical address.”
Bang-bang-bang.
The noise came again, faster this time. My mind scrambled to think of something that wasn’t fueled by sheer, blind panic. “If not them, then who?” I thought aloud. “Could it be the things from the cottage?”
“How would they have gotten past the front gate without Atlas alerting us?” Josh appeared every bit as perplexed as I was.
“Did you give them a code or something? Some kind of bypass?” I was grasping at straws now, my heart pounding in my chest at the prospect of losing Josh once more. I wouldn’t survive it again.
“Bypass! Of course.” I jumped at Josh’s unexpected shout. He turned to look at me, the intensity of his gaze somewhat diminished now. “I turned off the security protocols when we arrived, but I never turned them back on.” He hopped off the table and immediately started for the front door.
I ran to catch up with him, pulling up beside him right as he opened the massive door. Where my heart had been beating furiously before, it stopped dead. I took in the man before me, casually leaning against the doorjamb, and the sea of familiar faces behind him.
“Eric?” I gasped. Before I could say anything else. Two bodies separated themselves from the rest and launched at Josh. It wasn't until my irrational spike of fear subsided that I recognized the bodies now clinging to Josh as Tommy and Kale. Josh gave me a disbelieving, albeit pleased, look.
He held the two tightly and looked out at the faces of what appeared to be the entire Klamath Pack. "This is what I was feeling," he whispered in awe.
Not entirely sure what he was talking about, I turned back to Eric. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“You didn’t honestly think you could take off without a word, did you? You won the Alpha battle. Half the pack is yours.” His cocky grin stretched from ear to ear.
“Half? Eric, this looks like everyone.”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Oh. Right. The other half’s here for him.” He gestured with his thumb at Josh as the brothers released him. “Technically, you both won, though good luck sorting everyone out.”
“How did you find this place?” Josh asked Tommy. Considering what he’d told me in the library, the question had merit.
"We followed you. I thought we might have lost you when you went through the second portal, but it was like you kept calling to me.
" Kale elbowed his brother in the ribs, and Tommy quickly amended, "I mean us.
Even Remus felt it." He glanced over his shoulder at where—yep—Remus stood with his arms crossed, an ever-present grin on his face.
"Nice to see you in one piece, Alpha. Though you could have messaged. I can honestly say I've never experienced a summons like that before. Luckily, these guys showed up and were able to fill in some of the blanks." Remus pointed at two men I didn't recognize making their way closer.
“Yanesh?”
I turned to look at Josh at the same time an older man with remarkably brown hair streaked with white turned to the taller next to him. “Yanesh. Really? You hate it when people call you that.”
“I didn’t want him to recognize my name,” the man argued.
“Because Alec is such a common name,” the brown-haired man scoffed.
At that, I returned my attention to the bickering men. “Alec, as in Dr. Alec Wilson?”
The man in question gestured at me as if I’d just made his point. “See, Ty. I’m famous.” “Ty” rolled his eyes and wrapped a possessive arm around him.
Josh stepped forward, and Eric moved out of his way to let him pass. “I don’t understand. I suspected Yanesh wasn’t your given name, but you’re telling me the premier expert on Mein Zeke is the one who was treating me this whole time?”
“And I’d like to continue to treat you. If you’ll let me.”
I held up a hand, more than a little overwhelmed by everything going on all at once. “You were receiving treatment while you were in the Pit?”
“How else do you think I got control over the rambling?” Josh fired back.
“Wait, there’s a fix for that?” Tommy piped up. From there, all the voices rose in a tide of sound.
Something in my chest eased at the familiarity of it all. I turned to look at Josh and found my surprise reflected in his eyes.
Josh
Something I didn’t even know was missing fell into place as I took in the crowd standing outside my ancestral home. When I looked into Elijah’s cognac eyes, I found the same relief and surprise at that relief. “We should probably invite everyone in.”
“Guess this means we won't be going to Adler Springs tomorrow, after all.”
I shot Elijah a look. "We'll still give everyone the option.
" He smiled and rolled his eyes, much as who I assumed must be Yanesh's—Alec's—husband had done.
I turned to meet all the expectant looks, waiting for an answer, waiting for a home.
“Everyone, please come in and make yourselves comfortable. It may take time, but anyone who wants a room here has it.”
A cheer went up, and I was one hundred percent sure no one had ever done that over anything I’d said or done. Elijah pulled me into an embrace as the tide of people poured into the House.
Eric laughed and threw back at Remus, “You owe me twenty. They were totally getting freaky.”
Remus rolled his eyes and pushed Eric through the doorway. “I did not take that bet.”
“Like hell you didn’t,” Eric snapped as the tide of people carried them deeper into the House.
I tightened my arms around Elijah and buried my face in his neck as the chatter of happy voices wrapped around us. “Is this really happening?”
“Yep.”
“There are people in my house.” Even saying it out loud didn’t make it any more believable.
“Mhmm,” he hummed against the side of my head as I moved to watch everyone milling around with excited faces.
“A lot of people.”
He chuckled.
“Werewolves,” I clarified.
“You’re a werewolf.”
Right. “So are you,” I countered. “Holy hell. There are werewolves in my house.”
“Our house.”
“Our house,” I echoed, then promptly barked out a laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Elijah gave me a questioning look. “I’m pretty sure if they could, my ancestors would literally be rolling over in their graves right now.”
He brushed the hair back from my face with warm fingers and looked at me with eyes filled with concern. “And how does that make you feel?”
My smile from laughing widened until I thought it’d split my face in two. “Fucking fantastic.”