Chapter Seven
Rocco was once again on guard duty, but so far there had been no problem with Graham. However, what Rose had discovered was huge. Alpha was in the process of contacting Elizabeth Cole in the hope of her shedding light on the subject, because none of them were any wiser about what was going on.
He thought about Rose and his mate spending time with this male, and he didn’t like it.
Graham chuckled. “You’re not going to talk to me.”
“I don’t need to talk to keep an eye on you.”
“You don’t want to ask me for advice on how to deal with your mate?” Graham asked.
“You keep Rose out of this.”
Graham clapped his hands. “At least you’re acknowledging her as your mate now. Isn’t that a step up from what you usually do?”
Rocco glared at him. He was more than happy to put this guy out of his misery, although he didn’t seem to be in any pain. In fact, he looked rather cushy. Rose had made him a very extensive care basket, and the bastard had even decorated his cage. There were throws, pillows, and even a stuffed teddy bear. He needed to talk to Rose, and when Graham was knocked out, he was going to have no choice but to take it all away from him. This was just asking for trouble, when his sorry ass exploded in pain.
Graham held his hands up in the air. “Hey, I’m not the one that rejected my mate. You rejected your own.”
“Don’t try to think you can figure out why I did what I did. This is none of your business.”
“That I do get. It’s none of my business. Only, Rose keeps coming to see me.”
“She is helping with guard duty.”
He wasn’t happy with that, but while Rose came to sit with him, one of the guys was able to do a quick perimeter check. It seemed Rose had been able to get the support and respect of the Poison Wolves MC. He tried to stop Alpha from allowing her to help, but his club brother was not listening.
Everything she had seen was bad enough, and now, she was getting close to Graham. He didn’t like it, because he didn’t want to see her get hurt when the man did finally lose his shit and die. Also, he and his wolf didn’t like the thought of her being with any other male, which made absolutely no sense to him. He didn’t have a right or a claim to her.
He rubbed the back of his head and looked toward Graham. Rose had shown them all the photograph of who Graham claimed to be. At first, Rocco didn’t believe it, but then Enzo, being the pain in the ass he was, mentioned the eyes. The only thing that was the same with the picture of Graham and the man standing before them now, was his eyes. They hadn’t changed or been altered in any way. They were his one identifying asset.
“You don’t like it, do you?” Graham asked.
“No, I don’t.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I do think she is lovely company. She doesn’t look at me like she is waiting for me to die.”
This didn’t fill him with comfort. His wolf started to pace in his mind, and all he could think about was attacking him for even attempting to get close to his mate. Rose was his. And this also annoyed him as well, because he had rejected her.
At the same time, he’d not been able to ask her out on a date. Other than in passing, he’d barely spoken two words to her.
“She doesn’t want to believe what is going to happen, and I can’t blame her.”
“You’re just all shits and giggles, aren’t you?”
This made Rocco smile. “Trust me, I’m not getting my hopes up when it comes to you. I saw what happened to the last mess.”
He’d seen several men and women since then.
Rocco didn’t want to think of the sheer scale of men or women Milton could have infected. At first, he didn’t think it was possible, but now, with Elizabeth’s clarity, that scale could be in the thousands.
After they had over ten people come onto Poison Wolves’ territory, they had reached out to Elizabeth again. She had explained that if Milton saw between twenty and thirty different people a day, over the course of a five-day week, he was looking at one hundred and fifty people. That was only thirty people a day, which was a large number. Even still, Milton had several different veterinary outlets, and even at ten people per outlet, that made it more than thirty a day. Thirty a day, for five days, and then over a year, was seven thousand eight hundred people. Then of course, over time, that was just a potential crazy sum of people.
Right now, having only Graham was a shock, but a welcome one. Rocco knew it could and possibly would get worse.
“So, rather than talk about my upcoming timely demise, why don’t we talk about something even more important, how you’re going to fix things with your mate?”
“I’m not interested in this.”
“Ah, you might not be interested, but trust me, I do think it is important and worth talking about.”
Rocco was starting to get a headache, which was a miracle, as wolves rarely got them. Graham was starting to irritate him.
“You see, you broke Rose’s heart.”
Now this did make him tense up, and he looked at Graham.
“Aha, I have your attention.”
“I will kill you,” Rocco said.
“Nah, you’re not going to do that, because I have a feeling I have defied the odds of every infected person you’ve met, so I’m not going anywhere. Anyway, back to the main problem. Why did you reject Rose?”
“That is none of your business.”
“I know, but you have not spoken to anyone else about it, so why not talk to me?”
He thought about Draco and shook his head. “If I need to talk to anyone, I’ll talk to someone I know.”
“You know, she had this idea of what being with her mate would actually mean, and you failed big time.”
Rocco had gotten to his feet, not interested in listening to anything this guy had to say, but he had to go and pique his interest. He stepped toward the bars and wrapped his hands around each one.
They had all insisted on keeping their distance, in case their wolves triggered the human’s mutation, and it ended in disaster. In that moment, Rocco was more than happy to take his chances, because he didn’t want to listen to this shit for another second.
“What?”
“Ah, so you are interested in what your mate likes and is, well, you know, interested in.”
“What did Rose tell you?” he asked.
He would beat it out of the bastard if he didn’t speak.
Graham tutted. “I don’t like you being so close to my cage. I can feel a tingle.”
Rocco knew the man was messing with him, which is why he stayed perfectly still and glared at him.
“Tell me.”
Graham sighed and laid down on the floor, staring up at the ceiling.
He had no idea what he was doing, but he wasn’t budging. “Fine, fine, I happen to like Rose, and it would be nice for someone to see what a doll she is. I mean, she is super cute, with all that blonde hair and those blue eyes, they make a man want to melt right into them.”
Rocco drew back his hand and growled. “Enough.” He didn’t want anyone else seeing how beautiful her blonde hair was, or the fact her eyes were bright blue, even better than the ocean. No one else got to see that kind of stuff. He wanted to lash out, to kill that fucker for even looking at her. The anger was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. It was so acute and terrifying at the same time.
Graham turned his head and sighed. “She wanted the dream, Rocco. For her mate to find her, and in that moment see her for the gift she is, pull her into his arms, and then kiss her. That is what she wanted. Instead, she got you, and what did you go and do? Ah, yes, that’s right, you decided to treat her like crap and reject her.”
He didn’t need to be told what he’d done. Rocco had been there, and he wore that fucking label.
There had been so much going on. Shit was happening, and rejecting Rose, rather than delve into that rabbit hole, he’d reacted and regretted it.
****
Rose enjoyed a glass of lemonade with a blanket wrapped around her body. It was cold outside. Not too cold, but she felt the change heading their way. It wouldn’t be long before they were all freezing their asses off, and the first snowfall coated the land. She loved the snow. It always calmed her.
Also, the garden, that always seemed a little barren after a full summer, would once again look beautiful.
The only problem was, with the first snowfall, those cages were not going to be quite so welcoming.
She had thought about going to Alpha and offering Graham a chance to stay at her home. He’d not gone feral while being in their company, and if he did, Rose knew how to handle him.
Taking a sip of her drink, she saw Rocco advancing toward her. It had been a few days since their date. She had only seen him in passing. The Poison Wolves MC were doing a lot more perimeter checks, and guarding. The beta team were being used around the main town, keeping everyone safe.
“Evening,” Rose said, letting him know she had seen him.
“It’s not safe for you to just sit out on your porch,” Rocco said.
“You guys are doing perimeter checks every chance you get and you’re telling me it’s not safe.”
He opened her small gate and stepped through. Rose couldn’t help but smile at how delicate he was being. She’d been there when her father had installed the gate for her mother. She had always wanted a little picket fence. As a joke, he had built something very small, which meant most people could just step right over it. No one did, though. They always bent down, opened it, and stepped through. Even Rose, after her parents’ passing, always took the time to open it.
Lifting her head, she looked up at an advancing Rocco.
“You know, you didn’t ask if you could come on in,” she said. “You’ve just invited yourself.”
“May I come in?” he asked.
She laughed. “Sure. You want some lemonade? It won’t be long before I’m doing something with pumpkin.”
She had already harvested twenty pumpkins. Several of which had been roasted and mashed, before putting into cans or frozen. She loved pumpkin puree, and used it a lot.
“Yeah, I’ll have a glass of lemonade.”
“How’s Graham?” she asked, wanting to keep the conversation rather than allow it to go quiet.
Quiet with Rocco always felt uncomfortable and reminded her how bad they both were at being each other’s mate.
Her parents were always able to fill the silence. Nothing ever seemed to bother them. They were always in constant control.
“He’s fine.”
Rose pressed her lips together as she was tempted to ask him if he thought bringing him here would be a good idea, but she’d go to Alpha first.
“Thank you,” Rocco said and he took a spot beside her on the bench. She felt the warmth coming off him, so she didn’t offer him her blanket. “It’s going to be a cold winter.”
“That it is.”
“I’ve not seen you around for a bit,” he said.
She smiled at him. “It has been busy. As usual, I’ve been tending to the garden. A few jobs arrived at town that I was needed for, and then I’ve been spending time with Graham. I don’t think he’s going to turn.”
“I’m not trying to be doom and gloom, but it is going to happen,” Rocco said.
“You truly believe that?” Rose asked.
“I’ve gotten my hopes up not too long ago, only to have them dashed. Trust me, I don’t want to believe it, but I’m waiting for the moment when he turns.”
Rose felt the sadness envelop her. “I don’t like that. All he was trying to do was make sure people didn’t feel the loss of their dogs. He was trying to do something good, and a stupid doctor did this to him.”
She rested her head on Rocco’s shoulder, and it felt good to lean on him. She didn’t know what to expect. When he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in close, she was surprised. Then he kissed the top of her head.
“I know,” he said.
Rose had never been kissed. That is what she admitted to Graham the last time she sat with him. It was why she was a little obsessed when it came to the prospect of her mate finally kissing her. She and Rocco hadn’t kissed.
Closing her eyes, she allowed her wolf to enjoy the moment. They did still struggle. Part of her wanted to kick his ass, beat the crap out of him, and ignore him. Another part of her, the one she couldn’t deny, craved rubbing her body over his. It was insane.
“I’m sorry,” Rocco said.
This made her lift up. “You’re sorry?”
“Yeah, because no matter what reasons I’ve got for my actions, none of them are valid. I shouldn’t have freaked out and rejected you. I should have seen you as the gift you are.”
Rose couldn’t look away. He was saying all the right things.
He reached out, stroking her cheek, tucking some of her hair behind her ear, and then seemed to trace the curve of her ear, drawing down toward her lips, where he touched the outside curve.
She didn’t know if he was getting closer to her, or if she was getting closer to him. Either way, his face was near hers, and then she felt the fan of his breath, and it felt nice.
She didn’t want to close that distance, and then didn’t have to make that choice, as Rocco suddenly gripped the back of her head and kissed her. This was not a gentle kiss, not that Rose was looking for gentle. She didn’t know what she was looking for, but her wolf liked this kiss. It was demanding, almost cruel with need, and felt so incredibly good. Within seconds, they both lost control.
Rose didn’t know how she managed it, but she somehow ended up straddling his waist, feeling the hard ridge of his cock pressing against her pussy. She wore a very loose skirt, and he was able to move it out of the way. His hands went to her naked thighs, gripping the flesh, before sliding back toward her ass, tightening his grip on the cheeks.
Rose released a sigh, and then a moan, unable to contain her need for him. It felt so hungry, so desperate, and she didn’t want it to stop.
The kiss deepened, and Rocco’s tongue traced across her bottom lip and then pressed forward. She met him, stroke for stroke, tasting him. At the same time, she felt arousal hit her hard and fast, and she couldn’t stop it or contain it. All she felt was a bundle of need, that only Rocco could handle.
This was the only man she wanted. All her life, she’d been waiting for her mate, and now he’d finally arrived.
He grabbed her panties, and before she could stop him, he tore them right off her body. The sound of the fabric tearing filled the air, making her gasp, and then his hands had nothing between them.
Rose didn’t know if she should tell him to stop or keep going. Stopping seemed out of the question. She didn’t want him to stop.
He tightened his grip on her ass, and Rose rested her hands on his shoulders, and then forced herself to stop kissing him. She needed to find some clarity, to know what the hell she was doing. This didn’t help. His cock pressed against her now naked core, and she groaned his name, and then closed the distance between them once again and kissed him hard.
He let out a growl and Rose’s wolf felt it.
This was not a growl to stop but to keep going. She didn’t want to stop. This growl felt like one of ownership, like he couldn’t help but want her, and she wanted him so badly.
“Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?” he asked.
“No.”
He grabbed one of her hands and moved it between her thighs, pressing it against the crotch of his pants. She held onto his rock-hard cock.
“This is what you do to me, Rose.”
She didn’t want to ruin it, so she pulled her hand away, cupped his face, and tilted his head back. His lips looked so welcoming, she couldn’t say no, and as she kissed him, she felt his moan and it seemed to vibrate through her body.
It felt so good, she didn’t know how she’d survived without it.