Chapter 14 Caelan
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Caelan
I was barely holding myself together.
My wolf was pacing, snarling, demanding blood. It had been this way for days. Ever since Damien. And now Sam and the words Riley said that still echoed in my skull…
We’re nothing. He’s not my type. Platonic friend.
First there had been Damien last week, showing up at Riley’s apartment, trying to break in, scaring her. I’d felt her terror through the bond and sprinted to her building so fast I’d nearly shifted mid-stride. The wolf had clawed at my skin, desperate to emerge, desperate to protect.
I’d dragged him into the alley, slammed him against the brick wall hard enough to crack the mortar, and made my position very clear.
If he ever came near Riley again, they wouldn’t find the body.
The threat had been delivered with claws partially extended and eyes glowing amber. I hadn’t been able to help it. The wolf was too close to the surface, too enraged at this pathetic excuse for a man who thought he had any claim on an unwilling person, someone he’s hurt before.
“She belongs to me now,” I’d told him, my voice more growl than words. “Every part of her. Every breath she takes. Every smile. Every laugh. Every word that comes out of her beautiful mouth. Mine. Do you understand?”
He’d nodded frantically, tears streaming down his face. He’d pissed himself.
Good.
Since then, I’d been digging into his history.
The forty percent royalty contract that was bleeding Riley dry, the manipulation, the pattern of abuse stretching back years.
It was worse than I’d thought. So I’d hired human lawyers, the best ones money could buy, to start quietly building a case.
To find a way to free Riley from the contract, from Damien’s grip, from all of it.
They were already finding inconsistencies, possible fraud, grounds for dissolution.
Within weeks, she’d be free of him. Within months, I’d have recovered every penny he’d stolen.
She didn’t know about this, but Thessa did. She thought I was getting too deep without telling Riley the truth about who I was, what I was, why I was really here.
“You’re building a life with her,” she’d said just yesterday. “And she doesn’t even know your real last name. Doesn’t know you’re a wolf and that you’ve got cameras around her building and a plan for the next hundreds of years of your lives together.”
I knew she was right, but now there was this new problem.
This Sam person with his wandering eyes and his hands that kept drifting toward Riley.
As if he had any right to touch her. I’d wanted to rip his arms off.
Still wanted to. The only thing stopping me was the certainty that Riley wouldn’t appreciate having to clean human viscera off the wine bar floor.
And then she’d said those words, and they hurt worse than a knife to the chest. I couldn’t stop replaying them. Fuck. I should go, leave her alone, give her space, stop pushing. She’d made her feelings clear. I was nothing to her, just a friend.
“I should... I should probably go,” I said, not meeting her eyes. “I wouldn’t want to bother you. Or interrupt you if you wanted to be with that asshole.”
Bullshit. I totally would interrupt. The man would find himself very, very far away from Lysmont the moment he stepped out of this wine bar if Riley showed any interest. Possibly on another continent or in a shallow grave. But she didn’t need to know that.
Riley snorted. “When have you ever cared about...” She stopped. Her expression shifted, and I watched realization dawn across her features. “This is about what I said earlier.”
I shrugged. Noncommittal.
“You believed it?” She sounded surprised as if the idea of me taking her at her word was somehow shocking.
“You like him?” I couldn’t keep the edge out of my voice, the jealousy and hurt. “The asshole?”
She lifted an eyebrow. “What makes you think I do?”
My control snapped.
“What makes me think you like him?” I started listing, stepping closer with each point.
“You let him have MY seat. You wore this fucking shirt...” I gestured at her blouse, the one that had been torturing me all goddamn night, “the same night he starts coming to book club. Coincidence? I don’t think so. ”
I was getting angrier as I spoke, the hurt transforming into fury. Not at her, but at myself, for not being able to better control my feelings. I walked toward her, and she backed up, step by step, until her hips hit the edge of a table and there was nowhere left to go.
“You reassured him, very loudly, how we were nothing and how I’m just a platonic friend.” The words tasted foul in my mouth. “Made sure he knew he had a clear path. Made sure I knew my place.”
“Caelan...”
“Do you have any idea how insane this shirt has made me?” My voice dropped low, a growl rumbling underneath. “I’ve been salivating every time you leaned over. Fighting the need to cover your delicious tits up so no fucking other man can see them.”
Her breath caught. Her pupils dilated.
I planted my hands on the table on either side of her, caging her in. She was trapped between my arms, my body, my desperate need for her.
“I was very tempted to rip Sam’s eyes out like I said I would.” I leaned closer, my nose almost brushing hers. “Very, very tempted. The only reason he’s still breathing is because I didn’t want to upset you with the mess.”
Riley’s breathing had gone ragged. Her eyes were wide. But she wasn’t scared. I could smell the arousal blooming between her thighs, the way her body was responding to my dominance.
“You’re insane,” she whispered.
“I am.” I leaned even closer, until our lips were a breath apart. “But for YOU, Riley. Make no mistake. You can think whatever you want about me and us. We can be whatever the hell you want us to be. Friends. Strangers. Enemies. I don’t fucking care, not if we’re together.”
“Caelan...”
“But as long as I live and breathe,” I growled, “no other fucking man will ever get within two feet of you. NEVER. Not Sam. Not Damien. Not anyone. They’ll have to go through me first, and I promise you, they won’t survive the attempt.”
Her hands slammed onto my chest, not shoving me back but clutching the fabric of my shirt, nails scraping through to dig into my pecs as she yanked me closer.
“What the fuck, Caelan?” Her voice was breathless. “I’m not a possession.”
“You’re not.” My lips brushed hers as I spoke, the barest touch. “But you are mine, Riley. Just as I’m yours. And there’s nothing either of us can do about that.”
She made this sound, half-moan, half-gasp, that hit me straight in the gut. My wolf surged up, howling inside my skull in triumph.
I hooked my hands under her thighs, fingers sinking into the soft flesh just above her knees, and hoisted her up onto the table with one smooth lift.
The wood creaked under her weight as I stepped between her legs, forcing them apart with my hips, dragging her forward until her ass perched on the edge and her core pressed right against the bulge in my pants.
She gasped, eyes widening at the sudden shift, then gasped again deeper when my cock throbbed against her, the thick length trapped in denim but pulsing hot through the layers.
Harder than steel, it strained there, desperate to bury inside her, and now she felt every inch of it, the ridge of the head nudging her clit through her clothes. I didn’t give a damn about hiding it anymore; let her know exactly how bad she wrecked me.
“Do you feel that?” I ground forward, rolling my hips in a slow circle, the friction dragging my shaft along her seam, pressure building on her mound until her breath stuttered.
“That’s what you do to me, Riley. Every goddamn minute of every goddamn day.
I walk around this way constantly, thinking about you.
Wanting to pin you down and fuck you senseless.
Dreaming of your pussy clenching around me. ”
Her head fell back, exposing her throat, and I could see her pulse hammering under the surface. The wolf in me snarled, wanting to sink our teeth into her perfect skin, bite down and claim her as our mate. But I clamped it down hard. Not yet. Not yet.
“Do you understand, Riley?” I pressed my forehead to hers, our breaths mingling and noses brushing.
Her hands ran up and down my chest, tracing the ridges of muscle under the shirt, thumbs circling my nipples through the fabric until they peaked.
“Yes.” Then a smirk curved her lips, one that was fucking wicked, her eyes gleaming with a mischief that made my blood boil.
Made me want to devour her mouth or flip her over and spank her ass red. “But you’re wrong.”
My pulse skipped. “What?”
“I didn’t know Sam before tonight.” Her grin widened, all teeth and promise, as her fingers kept roaming, dipping into the valleys between my abs. “I’m not interested in him. Never was. I was annoyed that he kept sitting too close.”
“Then why...”
“I panicked. When he asked about us.” She shrugged. “I didn’t know what to say. So I said the stupidest thing possible.”
“Very stupid.”
“Very stupid,” she agreed. “But Caelan?”
“What?”
Her smile grew even wider. “This shirt that has you salivating? I wore it for you.”
“Fuck it,” the words ripped out of me in a growl, and I surged forward, finally closing the fucking distance between us.
The moment my lips touched hers, the world ended.
Or started. I wasn’t sure which.
Her lips parted under mine and we both moaned at the contact. I couldn’t help it, and apparently neither could she. The mate bond in my chest went absolutely insane, blazing into a wildfire, every nerve ending alight with the rightness of this moment.
This. This was what I’d been waiting for. This was what my entire existence had been building toward.