Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Harper fled.
She didn’t run—that would have been too much of a victory for him—but she walked out of the office with as much dignity as she could muster, her head held high, her shoulders straight. She made it all the way to her room before the shaking started.
She leaned against the closed door, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Her body was still humming, her blood still thrumming with the aftermath of his touch. She could still feel the scrape of his teeth against her throat, the pressure of his hand on her breast, the devastating glide of his finger…
“Stop,” she whispered, pressing her palms against her closed eyelids. “Just stop.”
Her body wasn’t listening. Her body wanted to go back down there, climb him like a tree, and beg him to finish what he’d started.
Nothing in her admittedly limited range of experience had prepared her for the sheer, overwhelming force of her reaction to him.
This wasn’t attraction. This wasn’t lust. This was elemental.
Something as fundamental as gravity, pulling her towards him with an inexorable force she couldn’t begin to fight.
And he’d stopped. He’d pulled away when she was practically coming apart in his arms, all because of some lunar-driven nonsense about control and claiming and…
Permanent.
The word echoed in the suddenly quiet room. He’d said he wanted to claim her permanently. That he wouldn’t take her unless he was prepared to bind her to him forever. Most women would have run screaming from a declaration like that from a man they’d known for a week.
But she’d spent her entire life being temporary. A foster kid shuffled from home to home. A contractor brought in to fix a problem and then sent on her way. The girl who was always on the outside looking in, never quite fitting in anywhere long enough to put down roots.
The idea of being wanted permanently, of being claimed by someone like Adrian who took loyalty and responsibility as seriously as breathing… it was terrifying. It was also the most tempting thing she’d ever heard.
You’re the first person in a very long time who’s made me want to try.
The words she’d thrown at him echoed back at her, and heat flooded her cheeks. What had she been thinking, saying something so vulnerable, so honest? She’d spent her entire life building walls precisely to avoid moments like that, moments when someone else held the power to hurt her.
But he hadn’t looked like he was going to hurt her. He’d looked like she’d just handed him something precious and fragile, something he hadn’t known he was missing until it was placed in his hands.
She shook her head, trying to clear it. She needed information. Advice.
She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her pathetically short contact list. Most of the names were work colleagues, takeout restaurants, and a single emergency contact—her former foster sister Sarah, who lived in Portland now and only called on holidays.
Not exactly the kind of relationship where she could text “hey, so I’m making out with a werewolf Alpha and I have questions. ”
But there was one person who might actually be able to help.
Elise answered on the third ring, her voice bright and slightly breathless. “Harper! I was just thinking about you. How are you finding the pack?”
“Confusing. I need advice.”
“You want advice from me?” Elise sounded both pleased and shocked. “I’m not sure what advice I can give you, but I’m willing to try. What’s going on?”
She hesitated, suddenly unsure how to explain her situation without sounding like a complete mess. “It’s about… werewolf dynamics. Specifically, umm, male werewolf dynamics.”
The silence on the other end of the line spoke volumes.
“Is there someone in particular?” Elise asked carefully.
She closed her eyes. “He’s… Adrian Moonstone.”
“Adrian? But he never gets involved with—”
“With humans?” she asked, unable to keep the bitter note out of her voice.
“I was going to say females,” Elise said quietly. “Did something happen?”
“He kissed me.”
Another stunned silence from the other end of the phone.
“Three times. Well, technically I kissed him first, but it was just supposed to be a thank-you thing, and then he—”
“Grabbed you and kissed you senseless?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“And then?”
“And then he stopped.” She couldn’t quite keep the frustration out of her voice. “Again. He said it’s because the full moon is so close, but he also told me he doesn’t trust easily.”
“Because of Vivienne.”
“You know about her?”
“I grew up there, remember. She was a bitch in every sense of the word, using anyone she could get her hands on.”
“Did… did Adrian love her?”
“No, not like that.” Elise said immediately.
“From what I heard, she played the part of a devoted stepmother pretty convincingly for a while and he believed her. He eventually found out the truth, but he promised his father he’d take care of her and he wasn’t going to break that vow.
And she was clever, she had enough connections to make sure that he never knew exactly how bad she was.
But then she tried to kidnap Derek’s mate. ”
She stared at the phone in shock. “She did what?”
“Kidnapped Julie. She was going to make Derek pay to get her back, but she forgot one thing—no one ever touches an alpha’s mate. Derek almost killed her and then Adrian banished her.”
She thought about what Adrian had said about his stepmother. “He may not have loved her but I think she tried to seduce him.”
Elise paused for a long moment. “That’s not a story I’ve heard, but it wouldn’t really surprise me. He’s been alone for a long, long time, Harper.”
“He thinks all women are like her,” she said slowly. “Clever, manipulative, and dangerous.”
“He doesn’t trust himself where women are concerned. He was probably terrified of letting anyone get close again.”
Her heart clenched painfully. All this time, she’d thought his caution was about her—about her being human, an outsider, not pack. But it was about him. About the wounds he was still carrying.
“What about the full moon thing?” she asked. “He said it affects his control.”
“It’s complicated.” Elise’s voice was thoughtful.
“The moon intensifies everything. Instincts, emotions, desires. For most wolves, it’s just a heightened state of awareness.
For an alpha, it’s different. The responsibility for the pack, the need to protect, the territorial instincts—it all gets magnified a thousand times.
And the need to claim…” Elise trailed off. “Let’s just say it becomes a priority.”
“A priority?”
“A compulsion, almost. An overwhelming biological drive to secure a mate, to ensure the continuation of the pack line.” Elise sighed.
“Adrian has been fighting that for years. He’s resisted the Elders’ suggestions that he take a political mate, and fought off every female who’s thrown herself at him.
He’s been holding out for something he thought didn’t exist.”
Something real. The unspoken words that had hung in the air between them. Something he thought had been destroyed by betrayal.
“I told him I wasn’t going anywhere,” she confessed quietly. “That I wanted to try.”
“Good,” Elise said, and her simple approval felt like a gift.
“He needs to hear that. But you should also know… the full moon is dangerous for him. The instinct to claim isn’t romantic, Harper.
It’s a primal urge. He’s afraid of hurting you, of losing control and doing something he can’t take back. ”
A shiver went down her spine that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the dangerous thrill of what he’d described—conquest, possession, the raw force of his desire.
“What about the other wolves?” she asked, switching back to a topic she could actually solve. “I’ve been given authority over security, but the elders are going to fight me every step of the way. I need to know how to navigate pack politics without accidentally starting a civil war.”
Elise laughed. “Okay. Well, for starters, don’t show any fear. They can smell it a mile away, and they’ll interpret it as weakness.”
“I don’t think fear will be a problem,” she said dryly. “Annoyance, maybe. But definitely not fear.”
“Good. And don’t back down from a direct challenge, especially from the younger males. You’re an outsider, which means you’re automatically at the bottom of the pack hierarchy. The only way to gain respect is to refuse to submit.”
“And the elders?”
“The Elders are trickier. You can’t fight them directly—that would be seen as disrespecting pack wisdom. You have to outsmart them. Use facts, logic, evidence. Show them that your way protects the pack better than their traditions.”
She made a mental note to create a series of charts and graphs. Wolves might respond to dominance displays, but data ultimately ruled. She hoped.
“How possessive are male werewolves? Like, in relationships?”
Elise laughed, a knowing sound that made Harper’s cheeks flush.
“You have no idea. Male wolves are intense. Especially Alphas. Once they decide someone is theirs, they’re completely obsessive about it.
The whole ‘mine, mine, mine’ thing is hardwired into their instincts.
They get jealous if other males even look at their mate wrong, they want to know where you are all the time, they can barely stand to be apart from you… ”
She thought about the way Adrian had growled when other pack members got too close to her. The way he’d insisted she work in his office where he could keep an eye on her. The possessive grip of his hand on her waist.
Her stomach fluttered.
“That sounds… a lot.”