Chapter 3 #2
The last time I was drunk, properly drunk, was two days after my eighteenth birthday, and I’d come to terms with the fact that Wolfe had left and wasn’t coming back.
It was the same day I lost my virginity.
I hooked up with the son of an alpha of a neighboring pack.
Alcohol had numbed the loss of my best friend, and after twenty minutes behind the old storage shed, he got something Wolfe had never pressured for.
A tragic story from my youth, the more tragic part of the story was that eighteen of those minutes had been spent getting our clothes off.
While I didn’t make it a point of leading males around the back of the old storage shed anymore, I was no stranger to the occasional hookup, but like alcohol, I preferred it in moderation.
However, I’d spent the morning with a widowed member of the pack. Little had been said, but we’d drunk the bottle of bourbon dry, then opened another. I’d put Sherry to bed and then stumbled out of her house, pretending I was more sober than I was.
I should have known Wolfe was near when one of his men appeared beside me, careful not to touch or block me as I stumbled over blades of grass like a newborn colt.
“Which one are you again?” I asked him as I looked back at the path that was causing me so much difficulty.
“Axel.”
I squinted at him. “I thought you—” I hiccupped. “Oops. I thought you were at Stonefang.”
He didn’t look at me. “That’s Cody.”
I squinted more as I tried to focus on his face. “You look the same.”
“We really don’t.”
“Rude.” I realized I said it out loud and felt my ears burn. “Um…why are you here?”
“Alpha asked me to walk you home.”
I stopped and looked up at the sky. It was clear blue, the sun high, it was broad daylight. I didn’t need walking home. “Why?”
“He thought you might be tired.”
In the middle of the day?
My hands were on my hips as I looked at Cody. No Axel. “He thinks I’m drunk, doesn’t he?” I asked him.
“No,” Wolfe said as he walked out from under a low-hanging branch, failing to hide his grin when he saw me. “He knows you’re drunk.”
My head cocked to the side as I watched him approach. “Where’ve you been?”
“I was at the pack hall,” he said, coming to a stop in front of me. “How was the bourbon?”
I pointed behind me, swayed, stumbled as I rightened myself, and forced myself to stop moving. “The pack hall is that way.”
Wolfe was biting his lip as he watched me, and Axel—no, Cody—no, shit, Axel had his hand pressed over his mouth.
“Are you laughing at me?” I demanded. Wolfe’s eyes crinkled at the sides as his teeth bit down harder. Axel-Cody had turned away completely.
I stamped my foot in protest, and Wolfe couldn’t hold it back; he let out a roar of laughter, and his pack member was already out of sight, but I could hear him giggling as he rushed off.
“Why is he laughing at me?”
Wolfe shook his head as he stepped forward. “He isn’t laughing at you, princess,” he told me, taking my arm. “Come on, let’s get you home.”
“I don’t want to go home.”
“Okay.” His hand curled around my wrist, and we walked side by side.
I kept looking at him, and he kept looking straight ahead. I stumbled a few times; there really were an awful lot of rocks on the path today, but Wolfe never said a word.
“You’ve been holding my hand for a while,” I decided to point out. Just in case he’d forgotten.
“I wasn’t holding your hand,” he murmured, and I felt his hand slide down, his fingers interlacing with mine. “Now I’m holding your hand.”
I eyed the joined hands warily. “Huh.”
Neither of us pulled away.
When we got to the house, I looked between the door and him. He was watching me with quiet amusement.
“I thought…” I looked around. “I wasn’t coming home.” I chewed the inside of my cheek as I struggled with uncertainty. “Was I?”
“I thought you were.”
“Huh.” I scratched my cheek. “Okay.”
We walked to the front door, and Wolfe stepped aside as I made my way in. He closed the door softly behind us.
Something wasn’t right here. I frowned at him. “Did you also need to come home?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Oh.” I sat down. I want to say I sat with grace, but it was more that I lost my balance and toppled into the seat than actually sat down in it. When I had straightened myself out, Wolfe was leaning against the mantel of the fireplace, his lips twitching with amusement.
“I had some bourbon…”
“I know.”
I nodded. I looked down at my hands. “I’m not the best with spirits.”
“I remember.”
My hands clenched and unclenched. “Adair thinks we should have sex so the pack feels better.” I looked up at him. “Do you want to?” He didn’t speak. “Have sex?” Still silence. Maybe he needed more information. “With me?”
Wolfe took three steps, and he was in front of me, standing over me, and it wasn’t the alcohol in my system that was making me breathless.
He held out his hand. “Give me your hand, princess.”
I reached out and took the offered hand, and he pulled me up from the couch. Hand in hand, he led me to the bedroom. I kicked off my boots, tripping once, but he caught me and got me steady.
With slow, unhurried movements, he drew my T-shirt up and over my head, dropping it behind him. Long dexterous fingers made quick work of the button and zipper on my pants, pushing them over my hips. With his help, I stepped out of them, leaving them in a pile on the floor.
I was in a tank top and panties, and he was drinking in the sight of me. Hesitantly, I reached for his shirt, but one hand caught both of mine. I looked up, confused when I saw his slight frown.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I want you to lie on the bed.”
Heat flamed my cheeks. “Oh, right.” I turned and got on the bed, trying to look alluring, hoping he thought that my falling onto my side was part of my plan. I lay back, my elbows propping me up as I looked up at him. “You coming?”
His grin was so quick, I almost missed it. “Lie right back for me, princess.”
I did as I was told. This wasn’t the wild, passionate sex I’d been anticipating. Maybe he was shy?
Sleep.