20. Harley #3
I try to find words for it and mostly fail. “It’s not like hearing your thoughts exactly. More like…” I frown slightly. “Emotional impressions, maybe? Right now you feel…” Heat creeps across my face. “Happy. Relieved. Kind of possessive.”
Val makes a deeply embarrassed sound.
I burst out laughing.
“Oh my God, you totally do!”
“I’m trying not to.”
“That somehow makes it worse.”
Val groans softly and drops his forehead onto my shoulder while I keep laughing beneath him. The bond carries his embarrassment clearly enough now that I can practically feel the warmth crawling up his neck myself.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Then something else brushes across the bond suddenly.
Fear.
Not sharp panic. Old fear. Deep-rooted and aching.
My laughter fades immediately.
“Val?”
He stiffens slightly.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Nope.” I slide both hands into his hair and gently force him to look at me again. “Absolutely not. You don’t get to emotionally broadcast sadness at me now and pretend nothing happened.”
Val looks alarmed by that wording specifically.
“I was not broadcasting sadness.”
“You absolutely were.”
His expression shifts toward horrified fascination. “You can really feel that much?”
“Apparently.”
The realization clearly unsettles him. I can feel that too.
“Well,” I say carefully, “this might get awkward eventually.”
Val snorts softly despite himself. Then the sadness creeps back around the edges again. I stroke lightly along his scarred cheek. “Talk to me.”
For a long moment, I think he won’t. Then finally he exhales slowly and shifts enough to ease some of his weight off me without fully pulling away. “I’m afraid this changes your life too much.”
I blink.
“What?”
“The bond. Me.” His jaw tightens slightly. “Shifter politics. Marcus. Rogues. Everything.”
I stare at him for a second before snorting softly myself. “Val, my life exploded weeks ago when Dobson kidnapped me.”
Pain flickers sharply through the bond at Dobson’s name. Not at me. For me. That still hits me strangely every time.
“I know,” Val says quietly. “But now you’re tied to this permanently.”
I look at him for another long moment before lifting one shoulder slightly beneath him. “Okay.”
Val frowns. “That’s it?”
“What do you want me to say?” I ask honestly. “Would I have picked ‘surprise magical wolf soulmate’ six months ago? Probably not.” I smile faintly. “But I also wouldn’t’ve picked trauma, kidnapping, or my brother secretly becoming a werewolf criminal.”
“That’s not funny.”
“It’s a little funny.”
Val fails to hide the reluctant amusement tugging briefly at his mouth. I trace my thumb lightly beneath his eyepatch strap. “You keep acting like I’m trapped somehow.”
“Aren’t you?”
The vulnerability in the question hits me hard enough to hurt. Slowly, carefully, I shake my head. “No.”
Val looks unconvinced.
“Babe.” I wait until he focuses fully on me again. “I came back for you before I even understood what the bond was. I chose you already.”
Emotion surges through him so intensely it almost takes my breath away.
Warmth wraps around both of us again, softer this time, deep and steady instead of overwhelming.
Then I look back up at Val.
“Thank you.”
He frowns slightly. “For what?”
“For not becoming what hurt you.”
The words slip out quietly, but the effect on Val’s immediate.
The bond tightens warmly around both of us while I reach up and brush my fingers carefully through his hair again.
“You could’ve become bitter,” I murmur. “Cruel. Angry at everybody.”
Val looks away briefly. “Sometimes I was.”
“Maybe. But you still stayed kind.”
His throat moves hard beneath my hand. Then, before either of us can get too emotional about it, a muffled voice drifts through the apartment.
“If you two are psychically staring at each other naked again, I’m moving out immediately.”
I burst out laughing so hard I nearly knock Val off the bed.
Ryder.
Right.
We aren’t alone.
Val groans softly and drops his forehead against my shoulder while I keep laughing.
“Your brother has terrible timing,” he mutters.
“You noticed that too?”
“I noticed a great many things this morning.”
Heat curls lazily through me again at the roughness in his voice. God help me, I’m never going to survive this man talking to me before noon ever again.
From somewhere out in the apartment Ryder shouts, “I can still hear you!”
I bite my lip hard to keep from laughing louder while Val just looks exhausted by both of us.
“This is your fault somehow,” he informs me solemnly.
“I think you’ll find most things are Ryder’s fault actually.”
“That seems statistically impossible.”
“You haven’t known him very long.”
Val snorts softly under his breath before finally pushing himself upright enough to carefully pull free of my body. I hiss at the sudden emptiness instinctively, and his visible eye darkens immediately.
“Easy,” he murmurs, one broad hand smoothing slowly over my thigh. “You okay?”
“Mmhm.” I stretch lazily beneath him, then regret it immediately when muscles I forgot existed protest. “Okay, wow. I may never walk normally again.”
“You’re dramatic.”
“You’re the one with the giant—”
“Harley.”
I grin innocently while Val fails spectacularly to hide his amusement.
The bed shifts as he moves toward the bathroom briefly, returning a minute later with a warm damp washcloth.
The sight alone does something soft and dangerous to my insides.
Nobody’s ever taken care of me after sex like this before.
Hookups usually end with awkward bathroom shuffling or somebody checking their phone too fast afterward.