Chapter 7
Charlotte felt the sun on her face and stirred, bringing movement back into her body. Warmth surrounded her, and she felt relaxed and content. An enticing scent wrapped around her, and memories of the previous night came back in full force.
“Sleepyhead,” Byron said.
She opened her eyes and looked up at him. He stood next to the bed, wearing jeans and a simple white T-shirt. He looked just as sexy as the night before.
“Oh, I know that look,” he claimed.
She chuckled. “Then what are you doing dressed already?”
He leaned down to her and pressed a kiss to her lips. “I’ll go get us some coffee. You want pastries? There’s a great French bakery around the corner.”
“I want a lot of things…” She directed her gaze to his crotch.
“In that case, we both need some food to regain our strength. I believe we burned a few calories last night.”
He wasn’t wrong about that. They’d indulged in a night of passion that she wouldn’t forget in a long while.
Byron had turned out to be not just a skilled lover, he also had the endurance of a marathon runner, yet the physique of a wrestler.
He knew how to use his body to his advantage, and a strong desire to see him in his wolf form rose inside her.
How much stronger and wilder was his wolf?
“Hurry back,” she demanded.
She watched him as he left the bedroom. Moments later, she heard the entrance door close behind him.
Reluctantly, she got out of bed and looked for her clothes, when she spotted her handbag on the floor in the hallway.
She picked it up and reached inside to retrieve her cell phone.
She’d kept it off once she’d left San Bernardino.
She switched it on and waited for it to boot up.
She knew there would be messages from her parents, and even though she didn’t want to listen to them, she did.
Maybe they’d had a change of heart, and by her leaving without a word, she’d shown them that she was serious about not mating with Steve Leon.
Perhaps now they would respect her decision.
She tapped on the first voice message, which had been recorded on the morning when her parents had realized that she wasn’t in her hotel room.
Her father’s voice was loud and grating.
“Young lady, you get back here right now! How dare you embarrass us like this?!”
The next message was an hour after the first. Again, it was her father who ordered her return.
He was steadfast in his demand for her to come back to San Bernardino to fulfill the agreement the Werewolf Alliance had made with the Leon pack.
There was no kindness in his voice, no attempt at cajoling her with promises and lies.
Shortly after the second message, there was a message from her mother.
“Honey, please come back. We can talk about this. It’s not all black and white.”
For several minutes, her mother tried to persuade her that everything would be fine and that she would eventually learn to like and even love her mate.
Charlotte scoffed when she heard that and stopped the message.
The next messages were from her father, every one of them sounding more annoyed and threatening.
Her parents were determined to force her to mate with the man the Werewolf Alliance had chosen. She couldn’t change their mind.
She needed help. But she had to act quickly before her parents brought everyone over to their side, leaving her with no one to stand by her and help her stop them from imposing their will on her.
With some luck, it would take them a while to figure out where she was.
Luckily, she hadn’t taken a plane. By renting a car, she had made it look like she wasn’t going far, certainly not all the way to San Francisco.
Quickly, she switched off her cell phone again, because by now, her father had probably already tried to ping it to find her.
With some luck, the short time it was switched on to retrieve her voicemails hadn’t been long enough to reveal her location.
However, if they discovered that she was in San Francisco, they would realize where she was heading: to get help from her brothers.
However, she also now realized that it had been a mistake to stay in San Francisco, rather than going to see her brothers right away.
She had lost time she could have used to convince her brothers to help her get out from beneath her father’s thumb.
She had to hurry now to get there and give them her side of the story first, before her parents could poison their minds.
By the time Byron entered the flat with two cups of coffee and a box of pastries, she was dressed and ready to leave.
In fact, she could have left before he’d returned, but something had stopped her.
Even though they’d both insisted that this would be no-strings-attached sex, something inside her rebelled against that idea after she’d spent an amazing night in Byron’s arms. She’d never felt so understood, so cared for, and so satisfied.
Would she ever find that kind of feeling in a mate?
Certainly not in Steve Leon. But would there be somebody else out there who could conjure up those same feelings in her? Somebody with whom she could be happy?
“You look like you’re ready to leave,” Byron said and placed the coffees and pastries on the coffee table. “I thought we were going back to bed after breakfast.”
She sighed. “I thought so too, but I got some messages… I’m sorry. I need to leave.”
“At least have some coffee.”
In his eyes, she saw the hope that she would change her mind if only he could convince her to stay a little longer. She put her arms around him, molding her body to his.
“I wish I could stay, but I have to do something, or my parents will win.”
“You spoke to them?”
She shook her head. “They left several voice messages. They’ll know soon enough where I am. And once they do, they’re gonna make me come back with them.”
“I could hide you here.”
“That’s sweet of you, but I can’t.”
“Will I see you again?”
She hesitated. She wanted to, but her life was complicated enough right now.
“At least, let me call you in a couple of days to see how you are,” he insisted.
“I’m keeping my phone switched off.”
When she saw his disappointed facial expression, she added, “Why don’t you give me your number, and I’ll try to call when I can?”
He retrieved a piece of paper from a side table and scribbled his number on it, then handed it to her. She shoved it into her pocket.
“Thank you.”
“Are you gonna call me, or is this goodbye?”
“We both said this was no-strings-attached.”
“It didn’t feel like it.” He pulled her close to him. “At least not for me.”
His words made warmth spread inside her core, knowing that he, too, had felt their connection.
“I will call you. I promise,” she said, even though she didn’t know when and how, and what would become of this thing between them. Maybe it would fizzle away in a day or two, and what she felt was simply the afterglow of a great night of sex.
“Good,” he said and kissed her.
For a few seconds, she surrendered to his kiss and allowed him to remind her of the passion that they shared.
Reluctantly, she freed herself from his embrace and turned toward the door. He didn’t follow her as she opened it. She looked over her shoulder and found him looking at her with longing. Neither said anything. What was there to say that their eyes hadn’t already conveyed to the other?
Charlotte hurried to her motel, which was only a few blocks from Byron’s flat.
In her room, she took a quick shower and packed the few things she’d brought with her.
When she checked out, the woman in the office called her a cab.
She settled into the backseat of the taxi and tried to prepare herself for what was coming next, but all she could think of was being back in Byron’s arms. Now it was even more important to stop her parents from forcing her to mate with a man she didn’t want.
Because she’d already found what she wanted.
Or rather, whom.