Chapter 15
Elodie
“If you need me, I’ll be here for you. Always.”
I wanted to look away, no, I wanted to cry at the sincerity in the depths of those blue-green eyes. But I couldn’t. I could only drown in the hulking, comforting, overwhelming, yet somehow instinctively safe presence that was him.
Valens.
He didn’t look comforting. If you saw him, giant, muscled, bearded, usually scowling—he had a real case of resting alpha face—walking down a dark alley, comforted wouldn’t be the word that came to mind.
Yet somehow, it was still true. He was giant, and he’d use those muscles to defend every single member of his pack.
Even the ones he didn’t care for. His scowl melted away when he looked at me or his sister.
He was a family man, for sure. And his hands might be callused from hard work, but they were gentle with me.
I barely knew him, and that was my fault. He’d been waiting so patiently for me to let him in or decide to push him away.
Most alpha males would have raged, pushed, demanded. But he did none of that. He offered friendship and respect, sharing his family lore with me and giving me the space I asked for.
Inviting me on a date so I’d be more comfortable, when I’d basically offered him a carte blanche, five-day fuck fest.
Why did he have to be so good? It would be much easier to keep seeing him as the bastard Hungarian who’d helped torment and chase the Blackwater pack if he’d stop being so damn honorable. Someone I could walk away from.
Someone who’d make the decision to reject the bond easy.
But he wasn’t.
He was the man standing here comforting me when I was complicating his life and offering absolutely nothing in return.
The same man who raised his little sister when his parents had died when he was only seventeen and she was nine.
The same man who’d spent all his time working on repairing everything he could for his pack mates, to make up for the neglect of his previous Alpha.
I could no longer deny that my fated mate was a good, honorable, kind soul.
“What if I need you to go?” I asked in a broken whisper.
“Then I’ll go.” His thumb swiped over my cheek so tenderly, I could cry. When was the last time anyone had held me like I was precious? Looked at me as if he’d burn the world down if that was what I needed to be safe?
“Don’t go. Please.”
“I won’t,” he promised as I threw my arms around his waist.
It must have startled him, because he froze for a moment, as if he was scared that if he moved, he’d spook me. But after a second, his arms circled my back, pulling me in tight against his rock-hard chest.
We stayed like that for a while, just hugging, rocking in the kitchen while my thoughts ran away. Eventually, I pulled back enough to look at his face.
“Why are you being so nice to me? No one is that patient.”
Valens snorted. “Would you rather I be a dick?”
I playfully swatted his arm. “Obviously not, it’s just… I don’t trust nice. Nice comes with strings attached.”
He frowned, considering. And then he scooped me up under the arms, setting me on the countertop and moving forward between my knees in one smooth motion.
His arms were still looped loosely around my waist, but now we were at eye level. It was like the second I told him I wanted to spend my heat with him, all bets were off on the physical touching.
I hated myself for how much I loved it.
I still wasn’t expecting him to reach up, tangle his fingers in my hair. It took the breath straight out of my lungs. He leaned in close, so close I could feel the brush of every word across my lips when he spoke.
“I’m a patient man, and I’m not going anywhere.
I want you. I want this.” He tightened his grip in my hair, not enough to pull, just enough to give that delicious, prickly-scalp sensation that reminded me he was there, holding me hostage.
“If you trust nothing else, trust that I want you. And I’ll do whatever it takes to get you. ”
Hot. Damn.
My panties were damp and my head was spinning as he released his grip on my hair, letting his hand run over the back of my neck and down my arm, where he twined our fingers together.
“There’s one more thing,” he added, tone casual.
“What’s that? You’ve got a wife and kids in Reno?”
He snorted a laugh, shaking his head at my sarcasm. “No. Just that I’d be honored to spend your heat with you.”
Arrow, right to the heart. Damn him.
How did he disarm all my defenses so easily? He wasn’t even trying, and I was a goner.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” he repeated, a sarcastic twist to the corner of his lips.
“It’s a perfectly good word, when I’m the one using it,” I teased.
He threw his head back and laughed. Not some polite, restrained thing. A full belly laugh that teased a giggle from my own lips.
Goddess, it felt good to let go with him. Reckless, but good.
“Come to dinner with me tonight,” he demanded, eyes glowing turquoise with his wolf, who clearly wanted him to press the issue.
“Are there any good restaurants around here?” I asked, toying with him, even though I was going to say yes.
Valens shook his head. “I’m going to cook for you.”
I groaned, letting my head fall back a bit. “You can cook too? Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Let you go.”
He pressed a ghost of a kiss to the corner of my lips, the worst kind of tease, and then headed for the door.
He paused, hand still on the knob. “My house, seven p.m.”
And then he was gone.
I pressed my fingertips to my lips, as if I could hold onto the memory of his lips a little longer and sear them into my skin forever.
I spent my day shadowing Olivia as she went about her duties, giving Galyna her first day off in too long.
By the time night rolled around and Olivia was off, blushing to spend the night with Lucien, well, I had plans of my own.
And I’d never been more nervous. Anxious. All twisted up inside as if I’d just ridden a tilt-a-whirl at the county fair after eating too many deep-fried Oreos.
“Elodie Carmichael, you knock that shit off,” I scolded myself under my breath as I walked slowly up Valens’s tidy front pathway. “You have faced down literal death without hesitation. This man likes you, and he wants to get to know you. He isn’t going to do anything worth getting anxious about.”
I stopped a few feet from the door, suddenly second-guessing my decision to change out of my uniform. Looking down at my simple jeans and plain white T-shirt, I knew I’d messed up.
Normal women got dolled up for dates.
Granted, I owned like one dress, and it was technically my dress uniform for special occasions, like weddings.
But what if I’d read this all wrong? What if I should have raced to the nearest town and bought a miniskirt or some shit that looked feminine, at least? Was he expecting me to be wearing a lace thong?
I didn’t even own a lace thong. Or a non-lace one. That was not practical fighting underwear, okay? Surely he knew that.
The pretty little daisies in front of his house seemed like they were judging me and my internal argument. The tilt of their flowery heads was obviously disapproving my lackluster wardrobe and unsexy undergarments.
I blew out a breath, closing my eyes as I tried to get a grip.
Which was why I didn’t hear the door open until a feminine throat clearing made me snap my eyes open, only to find his delightful sister standing in the doorway, looking amused.
“Hey, V? Your… friend is here. She doesn’t look like she wants to come in, though,” Savannah added with a wicked glint in her eyes.
The heavy pad of his footsteps preceded him appearing at the door, and it took everything in me not to bolt up the path and out of Dodge.
“Elodie.” He said my name like no one else ever had, the sound sweet like fresh, warm honey. His lips curved into a smile as he squeezed past his sister—who was wearing a tulle skirt and sky-high heels, I noticed—to meet me where I was.
There was no hesitation in his hug, the way he wrapped me up in his arms and buried his nose in my hair to take a long, sensual drag of my scent.
I couldn’t hide the way I trembled as his own scent overwhelmed my senses. Woodsy and warm and delicious—if I smelled half this good to him, I understood why he wanted another hit.
When he pulled back, he didn’t let go of my arms.
“Come on. I know you’ve already met Savvy, but she has something to say to you before she leaves for the evening.”
“Oh. I don’t want to run her out of her own home—”
He cut off my protest with a simple shake of his head. “You’re not running anyone out. She already had plans.”
He looped his arm around my shoulder when we stood in front of his sister, who looked like she’d choked on a sour candy now that he’d greeted me so warmly.
The moment of silence stretched between the three of us, tension building to the snapping point.
“Savannah,” he growled, the warning low in his throat.
She sighed. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? It seemed like you were rejecting V, and I’m protective.
He’s my only family, and I don’t like bitches who think they can walk all over him because he’s nice.
I see that maybe I misread you at first. So, I am sorry, and I won’t stand in your way.
But if you hurt my brother, I will take you down, big-ass sword or not. ”
Valens growled again, but she just laughed, grabbing a pretty pink purse from a hook just inside the door.
“You don’t scare me, Snuffaluffagus. I’ve got a hot date with a cold drink. Don’t wait up.” She shot him a saucy wink, nodded to me, and then slid into her car and drove off.
“She’s got a strong personality,” I murmured as Valens led me inside.
He chuckled, leading me to a seat at the island in their cozy kitchen. “You could say that. I’m sorry she stirred up trouble. I think sometimes I sheltered her a little too well from her own trouble growing up.”
I shook my head. “No, strong isn’t a bad thing. The world needs all the strong women it can get.”