Chapter 10 #2
“If it makes you feel better,” I say, “my family’s a car crash too.
The only reason I grew up with my grandma is because my parents handed me over as a toddler and walked away.
Decided they were done. They never called or even checked whether I was still alive.
” I lift one shoulder. “So I win. Most-broken family, hands down.”
“It’s not a competition.” He grins before a low laugh escapes him. He plants one large hand on the chopping block beside my thigh. He isn’t touching me, but the few inches between us burn my skin.
“I’m sorry about your Alpha,” he says suddenly. “Nobody should have to deal with something like that.” His jaw clenches tight, the apple in his throat bobbing. “Makes me want to break something just thinking about it.”
My lips press together as I glance out toward the trees. “It’s good to be home, at least. I missed my grandma.”
“Yeah.” His gaze follows mine into the darkness. “I know what it’s like to lose the person who made your whole world.” His voice is flat, stripped of self-pity. “After that, you keep moving even if the hole never fills in.”
I stare at him, because he isn’t trying to fix any of it or tell me it’ll get better. He just… understands.
“So.” He turns back to me. “What are we doing here, Lucy?”
“Depends on what you’re asking.”
“All of it.” His gaze flicks once to my mouth before lifting. “You and me, out here, pretending this is just a normal conversation.”
“I was under the impression we were discussing Greek mythology.”
A slow grin spreads across his face. “We were for a bit.”
I tip my head. “Although, I don’t think Orion ever spent half the story staring at the girl.”
His eyebrow arches. “Whatever gets that smile on your face and back to the barbecue before the other two finish carving my headstone for scaring you off.”
“Oh?” I drag my thumb slowly across my chin, taking my time because I know he’s watching. “So I’ve got the upper hand.”
His smile fades. “You’ve had it since we first met.”
“Good.” I adore hearing that I impacted him, considering how much he’s been on my mind.
“Then here’s more truth.” His voice drops until it feels like it’s being spoken directly into my ear. “I can’t stand being away from you, Lucy.” A humorless laugh slips out. “It’s driving me out of my damn mind.”
My pulse gives up pretending to behave, as my stomach has turned into a wonderland for butterflies.
I fist a hand in the front of his shirt and tug him the last impossible inch toward me.
Our mouths crash together, and he takes the kiss like a man who’s been denying himself for far too long.
One hand buries itself in my hair as he steps between my knees where I sit on the stump, pinning me there without a second thought.
Teeth, heat, desperate breaths stolen from each other, every kiss rougher than the last, as though we’re both trying to make up for each second we’ve spent believing this wasn’t inevitable.
I can’t get enough. This dangerous, impossible man kisses me as if he’s already decided no one else is ever getting this version of me.
The thought should terrify me. Instead, it sends a fierce rush through my whole body.
I press closer, needing the solid warmth of his body, and he growls against my mouth, a primal grunt that tears straight through me.
His fist tightens in my hair just enough to steal my next breath as he tips my head back, dragging his mouth from my lips to my jaw before claiming the line of my throat. I moan, unable to stop myself.
“Make that sound again,” he snarls against my skin.
I laugh softly, though it comes out shaky. “You make it sound like I’ve got a choice.”
His mouth brushes my neck. “Try me.” He catches the soft skin beneath my ear between his teeth, and the moan rushes past my throat as if by command.
His hands tighten around me, hauling me flush against him before he finally leans back just enough for our eyes to meet. And whatever’s staring back at me isn’t wild. It’s worse. And all I think about is how goddamn huge and thick he feels between my thighs.
“Should we make that dream of yours real?” he murmurs. “You run. I come after you, but this time…” A slow smile ghosts across his mouth. “I don’t stop when I find you.”
I’m trembling, every sensible thought long gone. “That’s not my dream,” I whisper. “That’s yours.”
He chuckles, low in his throat. “Keep telling yourself that, songbird.”
I narrow my eyes. “I’d outrun you.”
“You wouldn’t.” He says it with maddening certainty. “You’d glance over your shoulder to make sure I was still coming.”
My stomach flips. “Cocky much?”
“Then I’d catch you, and you’d be mine, here in the woods.”
I come apart at the seams listening to him, and somewhere far off, a sensible part of me is genuinely reminding me that tomorrow’s coming with its difficult choice and I can’t lose my head tonight.
“You’re funny,” I manage, easing back an inch, finding my grin.
His eyebrow lifts. “If you’re so convinced that’s not your fantasy…” His mouth curves upward slowly. “You could always chase me.”
My stomach does an alarming little flip. “Oh?”
He watches my face as though he’s already enjoying the thought. “You might have fun catching me.”
I laugh, shaking my head. “Careful. I might actually do it.”
His grin widens. “Fuck…” The word comes out almost under his breath, like the image has already taken hold. “I could get behind that.”
I swat his arm, laughing despite myself, and he catches my wrist. “I’m serious.”
“Yeah, well.” I press him back a step. “Maybe one day. Right now, I have to get home because, I swear, if I walk back to that fire, I’m not making it to my own bed tonight.”
“Tragic,” he agrees. Then his hands settle around my waist, and he lifts me off the stump, setting me on my feet. “Come on. I’ll get you home.”
“And when Roman and Grayson lose it that you came back without me?”
“I’ll handle them. Another few minutes with you, and I’ll happily take whatever they throw at me.”
We stroll toward the gold glow of the lodge, the woods drawing in around us, quiet now except for the steady crunch of our boots on foliage. “You’re not what I expected,” I say.
One dark eyebrow lifts. “No?”
I smile to myself. “Honestly? I don’t think I know what I expected anymore.”
The lodge rises out of the trees far too soon.
We stop on the porch, and Wolf plants one hand against the doorframe above my head, leaning in until the space between us all but disappears.
Heat rolls off him in slow waves. I laugh and flatten my palm against the middle of his chest before he can steal another kiss.
“Good night, Wolf.”
His mouth curves. “Cruel woman.”
“You’ll survive.”
“Will I? Pretty sure you’re sending your Alpha back into the woods with nothing but bad ideas and your scent stuck in his head.”
I bite back another smile. “That sounds like a you problem.”
“It becomes a you problem around three in the morning.”
I laugh, giving his hard chest a gentle shove. “Go.”
He doesn’t move.
“Wolf…”
“You’re lucky I’m trying to impress you.”
My stomach flips over and over. “Otherwise?”
His gaze drifts lazily over my face before settling back on my eyes. “You wouldn’t be saying good night.”
The words send a shiver up the length of my spine. “Good night,” I repeat, softer this time.
He finally steps back, still watching me as though he’s reluctant to let the distance return. “Sleep well, songbird.”
I slip inside, lock the door, and sag back against it in the dark, my heart still hammering, every inch of me alive with restless energy and nowhere to put it.
I could have kept him. God, I wanted to.
Just like with Roman, I wanted to drag Wolf upstairs.
But everything hangs on me thinking straight tomorrow and dealing with my grandma. For now, I’ll lie awake in that enormous bed with the taste of him refusing to leave my mouth, his laugh still caught in my head. If I don’t sleep for a single minute…
It’s Wolf’s fault.