Chapter Thirteen
Lyric reached for Vic’s side of the bed, but it was empty.
Frowning sleepily, she sat up to find him sitting at the edge of the bed, staring at Earl’s cage.
“Vic?” she asked softly.
He turned his profile toward her. “Did you do custom lighting in Earl’s cage?”
“Yeah. Earl goes crazy on his wheel at nights, and I didn’t want him to be living his best life in the dark. Also, Earl is a girl.”
She could see the frown from here. “What?”
“Um, I’ve been doing all this research on hamsters and apparently they have to have nuts to be boys.”
He twisted around and stared at her, dumbfounded. “What?” he asked louder.
“You never checked for balls?”
“Why would I look at his balls? That’s like a violation of his privacy or something.”
“I don’t know, I’ve seen pictures of boy hamsters. Their balls are really big. It’s kind of obvious.”
“Earl?” he said to his hamster.
“I’ve been calling her Earline.”
Vic ran his hands through his hair and just froze, staring at the little critter who was running for her life in the wheel on the bottom level of her upgraded cage.
“Um, I got you some books,” she said, pointing to the stack beside the cage.
He picked up the top one and read the cover. “How to be a Girl Dad.”
Lyric pursed her lips against her smile.
Vic looked at her, and at the book, and to Earline, and back, and then a small laugh escaped him.
Which made a small laugh escape her.
Which made his laugh bigger.
Which caused her laugh to be bigger.
Earline stopped running and stared at them.
“I got you a book with knitting patterns for hamster dresses.”
“Oh my God,” he said, laying down beside her and pulling her on top of him as he tickled her ribs. They were both cracking up.
By the time they settled, she cupped his cheeks and asked, “Why are you awake? It’s the middle of the night.”
“I got thirsty. I got up to run to the creek and nearly fell down the stairs in the dark. I thought I was still the wolf.”
“No more injuries,” she uttered, tracing his deep scar on his face.
He grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand from him, then looked away.
“Hey, what was that?” she asked, confused.
He inhaled deeply and shook his head, staring at the stairs. “I don’t like it.”
“When I touch you?”
“No, I don’t like the scar. I don’t like seeing it in the mirror.” He winced and closed his eyes.
“Flashbacks?” she guessed.
“I guess.”
“What’s it like?”
“Seeing the barrel of the gun and the sound.” He squeezed his eyes tighter closed. “The sound of it hitting.”
She could see the gooseflesh lifting the fine hairs on his arms in the light of Earline’s cage.
“That’ll go away in time,” she said low.
“How do you know?” he asked.
“Because I know,” she whispered, straddling his lap. “I believe.”
He sat up and slid the hem of the oversized T-shirt up her thighs, gripped her legs there and asked her a question that drew her heart into her throat. “How can you stand to look at it?”
Lyric pushed the shaggy hair out of his face. He needed a haircut and a shave, but truth be told, she liked him looking scruffy and manly. Gently, she touched his scar. He flinched away again, but she cupped his cheek and brought him back. “Let me fall in love with it,” she whispered.
His eyes were so raw as he lifted his gaze to hers. He nodded.
Leaning forward, Lyric pressed her lips gently on the start of the scar, near his hairline.
She rolled her hips against his and kissed down half an inch lower.
Slow and steady, gently, she kissed down the length of his scar, moving against him as she did until he was gripping her hips and rocking with her.
Just the feeling of his erection against her was enough to make her wet for him.
“Can you listen to the truth in my voice?” she asked softly.
“Yes.” There was a grit and growl to his tone now.
“I love everything about you. This?” she asked, tracing the scar.
“This means you are with me. You are here. You are breathing. You are alive. This means someday, me and you might get a few more hamsters. Maybe go on a hundred dates or so. It means we get to take showers together, and decorate this place together, if you want to. It means someday, if you want, maybe we can have a couple of little babies running around here. This,” she whispered emotionally, “means you are still with me. It means you healed. It is one of my favorite things about you.”
“Yeah?” He tilted his chin back higher. “What’s your all-time favorite thing about me?”
“Your dick,” she joked without missing a beat.
“Atta girl,” he said through a chuckle and gripped her hips, dragging her against him again. This time he slid into her, and she gasped at how good the stretch felt.
He eased back and then pushed deeper into her. Rolling her eyes closed, Lyric draped her arms around his neck and pressed against him.
“Mmm, I need to feel your skin,” he murmured against her throat, then laid a kiss there.
She smiled at the ceiling and then peeled the shirt she’d borrowed from him over her head. His arms went around her back and he pulled her tight against his strong chest, and God he felt good against her.
Lyric’s sensitive nipples tingled where her tits pressed against his chest, and her entire body buzzed as he thrusted into her.
Her first release built so fast, it shocked her. She gasped out his name, and he kissed her, holding her so close as they moved against each other.
Her orgasm came fast and hard, gripping his dick with pulse after pulse of pleasure.
He smiled into their kiss and told her she’d done good. And then he rolled her over onto her back and started building up her release again with powerful strokes into her.
Vic’s body was tense and strong against hers, and underneath his comforting weight, she felt safe and whole.
He pushed into her deep, and pulled out by inches, then drove into her again, and again, and again until she was writhing helplessly against him, begging him for more.
Her orgasm felt blinding for a moment, and she had to close her eyes.
He thrust into her harder and harder, deeper until he gritted out her name and emptied himself into her.
It had happened fast, but she loved it. She loved the way he lost control with her.
She loved the way he kissed her for a long time afterward, and stalled pulling out of her, as if he was craving that connection to her just as much as she was craving it with him.
She loved the way he whispered that he’d missed her against her ear.
She loved the way he rolled her with him when he went to his side and just held her, stroking her hair.
“You’re going to make me appreciate this damn scar, aren’t you?” he asked in the darkness.
She smiled and stroked his chest, then kissed his collarbone. “Damn right. It’s hot.”
He chuckled and kissed the top of her head. “Do you want to tell me what you remember about your mom?”
Lyric froze. Did he know? Did he understand? Did he fathom how much it touched her heart that he had listened and wanted to know more about why she had been crying in the woods earlier?
So, she did. She told him every detail she could remember about the memory. What her mom looked like, the living room, the color of the cushions on the couch, the picture on the wall. What the outside of the house looked like. How it felt being held by her mom. How safe she had felt back then.
And bless that man, he listened to every detail and asked the perfect questions and was so understanding and soft with her raw little heart.
The next question he asked took her completely by surprise. “Is Cian dead?”
She grew quiet at the change in topic. “Yes,” she said low. “He’s dead. Liam ended him. He was standing over you with a knife. We never figured out if he cut you or not. You were pretty messed up.”
He swallowed audibly. “And how are you doing with that?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you hurting from the breaking of that bond?”
She frowned. “I don’t…I don’t know what you mean.”
“You were bonded to him.”
“A Maker Bond, but I thinned that out a long time ago.”
He pressed another kiss to the top of her head. “You can tell me if it’s hurting you. I’ll understand.”
She eased back to look up at him. The glow of Earline’s cage highlighted the chiseled lines of his face. She thought about it. Honestly, she thought about it for the first time since the war. “I’ve been worried about you. Cian’s death…I can’t say it.”
“You can say anything to me.”
“It’ll make me a bad person.”
“Nothing you say will make me think you are a bad person. I know you.”
She swallowed hard. “Cian’s death was a relief.”
Vic brushed a strand of hair from her face with the tip of his finger. “In what way?”
“Because if he didn’t die in that battle, I would have to hunt him.
He went after you. He is the reason you were hurt.
He was the reason I almost lost you. And he would never stop coming if he knew you had lived.
War Wolves are like that. But also…” She thought harder about her feelings.
“Also, I never have to worry about him showing up and trying to force me back into the same pattern with him again. I used to think he was my mate, but I think my feelings were just muddy with the Maker Bond. What you and I have is very different than anything I ever felt with Cian. I’m not mourning the loss of a mate, Vic.
” She leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to his throat and then pulled back so she could look him in the eyes when she told him, “My mate is still here.”
“I saw you fighting,” he rumbled. “Little monster.” He said that word with a proud smile.
“You killed a wolf in that battle, not me, and you were half dead doing it. The monster is you. I’m glad you are who you are. I know I’m safe.”
The smile slipped from his lips, and seriousness washed through his glowing eyes. “You are safe, Lyric.”
And she remembered the way he went after Traydon. He must’ve been delirious with pain, but he had found a way to get her out of a battle she couldn’t win.
A howl lifted into the air, and they froze to listen. Another joined.
“Tabian and Bridger,” Vic said. “Do you recognize their howls yet?”
“I’ve never Changed with them,” she admitted.
He frowned. “In all those Changes you’ve done here, they haven’t joined you?”
“Ummm, no, because you kept fighting the entire Pack when they tried.”
Another howl lifted into the air.
“Delta,” he murmured. “The whole Pack must be Changing. They don’t sound alarmed though. They’re happy. We can Change with them if you want,” he teased.
“Hell. No. Absolutely not, my body needs a break and I’m not losing you to the wolf this soon. You are grounded from Changing for at least a week.”
He chuckled and drew little circles on her back with the tip of his finger.
Another howl sounded, and another. “Dodger and Destiny. Speaking of Destiny,” he said. “How was the talk with your sister?”
Shocked, Lyric tensed. “How did you know about that? I didn’t tell anyone.”
“Oh, Destiny marched into those woods tonight and lit me up. She demanded that I Change back and go save you, and good God, I did try woman. I tried for a damn hour, just lying there grunting.”
She giggled at the vision he created in her head. “The talk went as expected. I needed to say my piece and do a goodbye. I needed closure. And I needed my car back.”
“Do you think she will keep coming after our Pack?”
“Our Pack,” she repeated on a breath.
“Yeah.”
“Liam hasn’t invited me—”
“I invite you. Liam is waiting for me to ask. You’re Rogue Pack if you want a spot here.”
She looked around the little loft. “I got a job waitressing. I can pay rent.”
“You can help pay our bills if you want, with me as your teammate, but you aren’t paying rent. And we’re getting a better bed than this mattress on the ground. We’re going to make our bedroom so awesome. Mirrors on the ceiling. Stripper pole—”
“Okay there, I haven’t said I’m moving in yet.”
“Right.” He got quiet for a couple of seconds. “You can move into my old room at Nate and Delta’s house if you want and I can date you properly and you can get to know me better.”
“And then what?”
“And I’ll try to keep myself from asking you to move in with me tomorrow. Honestly though, I’ll be able to make it maybe one week. Tops. I’m going to want you in my bed, woman. I want to come home to you.” He frowned. “Shit, I’m going to have to find another job.”
“Why?”
“Umm because my crew saw me turn into a wolf. They didn’t know what I was. I was wearing those contacts in front of them, and you know…not growling and stuff.”
“Oh, Tabian and Liam talked to them. You’re good. They don’t care as long as you don’t Change around them anymore. Liam asked them to be patient while you were a wolf, but I think if you call them, they may still have a spot for you.”
“Oh. Huh. How long was I a wolf?”
“A month—”
“A month! Four weeks?”
“Yeah, I was beginning to think you would never Change back.”
“Holy Geez.”
“Yeah, you were stressing me out.”
Vic grinned. “You’ll get used to that.”
She rolled her eyes and tried not to smile. “Okay, so what’s the plan? I move into Delta and Nate’s—”
“That’s not my plan. That’s your plan. I’m going to pester you and also seduce you every day until you give in and help me decorate this place. Look, I’ll even let you put like…flowers and stuff in here.”
She giggled and snuggled closer to him. “I’ll think about it.”
“You’re mine, you know.” His tone had turned serious.
“I know,” she whispered. “You’re mine too.”
“I don’t want to be apart anymore.”
Lyric bit her bottom lip against a smile. “Okay.”
“Okay?” he asked, leaning back to look her in the eyes. “You’re saying yes?”
She shrugged. “I already bought a bunch of random kitchen supplies for this place. I suppose I can help you with your sex dungeon or whatever it is you are wanting to do with the bedroom.”
“Not a sex dungeon. We can call it a love nest.”
“With a stripper pole,” Lyric deadpanned. “You don’t even know if I can dance.”
“Can you?”
“Not well.”
“Woman, you could flop around on the ground like a tuna fish, and I would get a boner.”
“Oh my gosh.”
“It’s true!”
Another howl sounded, and this time it was closer to the house.
“Want to go sit outside with them?” Vic asked.
“Do you miss them?”
“Yeah. I think I’ve missed them. Don’t tell them I said that though. I’ll deny it.”
She pushed up and grabbed her T-shirt, and twitched her head toward the door downstairs. “Let’s go be with your Pack.”
“Our Pack,” he corrected her.
Lyric smiled. “Our Pack,” she repeated softly.