“You thought I left, didn’t you?” Wes said, looking up at the half moon that hung low in the sky.
Wolf whined. Yes.
“I did that to you. I made you scared to be abandoned, didn’t I?
Another whine, and she swallowed hard. Yes.
“I’ll be the one to get you over that,” he promised softly. “Only thing that will heal that cut is time. You don’t trust me now, and I don’t blame you. Hell, you may never trust me, and that’s okay. I earned that. But you’re a werewolf now, and you can hear truth and lies. Listen to the truth in my voice. I’m not going anywhere.”
Wolf was breaking apart on her insides. He was breaking her.
Venom. Venom. Wes had been venom, and his bite and his poisonous love had taken all this time to kill her. Her chest hurt, and she huffed her breath at the pain.
“You can’t cry like this,” he said, setting her in the grass. “Tears don’t work in wolves. Gotta wait for Summer to have the body again to fall apart.”
Okay, clever alpha. Wes thought he knew everything about everything. Thought he was so smart. She was definitely going to bite him for assuming so much.
It’s not assuming if it’s true, Summer whispered.
Wolf hated everyone. Weak. She felt weak, and all these emotions were too much, and she needed space. She snarled again, but Wes didn’t respond. He was too busy walking away.
Now he would leave.
No, Summer said. He said he wouldn’t. He won’t.
When he was a few yards away, Wes turned back toward her and twitched his fingers at her. “You can move.”
Wolf snapped up to all fours and charged him. He didn’t flinch, didn’t run, didn’t move, and his eyes didn’t show an ounce of fear. He should be afraid, but…
Wes isn’t afraid of anything, Summer told her.
Wolf skidded to a stop, her bared teeth inches from his stomach. Wes lifted his chin higher, those inhumanly bright blue eyes still focused on her. And then he did something that confused her. He removed his cowboy hat. Then he shrugged out of his flannel shirt and peeled off the white T-shirt underneath.
Hoooooly shiiiiiit, Summer murmured inside her head as Wolf came snout to six-pack with Wes’s perfect human physique. I want that. I want to swim in his perfect belly button and fall asleep between abs.
Quiet, puny human, Wolf thought. You’re making this confusing and weird.
I don’t remember him having this many muscles, Summer whispered. Why did she sound like a drunken hornball right now? She wasn’t in heat.
Shhh.
Why was Wes smiling down at her? “I know what Summer wants.” His nostrils flared slightly as he inhaled. “I can smell her on you. I’ll take care of her later.” Wes undid his screeching bald eagle belt buckle. “You want something different, though.”
Wolf growled. Take that belt off, and I’ll bite your dick off and—
“You need a night hunting with my wolf.”
Oh.
Hahahaaaa, Summer said. He’s not stripping for you. He’s getting ready to Change. Wait, what did he mean he’ll take care of me later?
We should bite him while he’s taking his pants off, Wolf suggested.
Why do you want to bite everything? He’s being nice. He’s stripping for me. Girl, if I had twenty bucks in one dollar bills right now…
You would what? Waste our money? We need that for all the therapy we so obviously need.
So you now agree that therapy is good for us, Summer said smugly.
Sometimes Wolf wished she didn’t understand Summer and her dumb human language.
Whoa, he wears briefs now, Summer murmured. Okay, I like this. Black ones, nice. Okay, is that an eight-pack? I’m counting an eight-pack. Two, four, six… He always had the most perfect man nipples. There’s the freckle! Right on his ribcage! The big one. I swear it’s a beauty mark. This man has somehow manifested himself into a demigod… Oh, God. Oh, God! He’s taking off his underwear.
Wolf turned around so she could give him some privacy, but Summer shrieked the word, No! so loud, she winced and spun back around.
He’s half hard already. I didn’t make that up earlier, right? He said he was going to take care of me later? It’s bigger than I remember. Mmmmmm.
Kill me, Wolf muttered, but she didn’t mean it because she loved survival. Summer obviously still had a thing for Wes, and while he was a fine human specimen, he didn’t really do much for—
Wes dropped to all fours and Changed within seconds, and now it was Wolf’s turn to stare. A massive red-furred male wolf reeking of dominance and confidence stood and shook his fur out. And casual as you like, he sauntered over to her and sniffed her face.
Wolf stood their frozen. He smelled so good. She’d forgotten what it was like to be this close to him because her first memories of this wolf had been saturated in fear. But nowadays, she wasn’t afraid of much. And this wolf wasn’t acting aggressive toward her at all. On the contrary, he rubbed his massive head against hers, dragging a sigh from her lungs. Smelled so good. So good. Big, strong…she liked dominant.
“Hi,” she said. He couldn’t understand her, but she still thought it.
“Hi, yourself,” a deep, gritty voice whispered across the pulsing bond between them and into her mind.
We’re so fucked, Summer whispered. She sounded drunk on happiness.
Wolf agreed with her thought. So. Fucked.
The deep, reverberating voice chuckled, and Wes rounded on her fast, clamped his teeth on her neck, and applied enough pressure to make her go to her belly on the ground in submission.
“Not fucked,” he said. “Safe. Mine.”
Damn her traitor tail as it wagged hard enough to dislodge the dry leaves on the ground behind her.
Wes released the scruff of her neck and trotted away, stopped five yards off, and turned. Such a serious face, and his slanted eyes would intimidate any wolf. His voice was there again, right in her mind. “Everyone should be afraid…but not you.” And then that enormous red wolf lowered down on his front end, butt up in the air, tail wagging. “Play and hunt and sleep tonight. Relax. Stop thinking. Just be.”
Just be? No. That’s now how she wolfed. She raged and destroyed stuff and then felt better. He was messing up her Change.
“Do you trust me?”
“No,” she muttered through their bond, which for some reason seemed to be getting stronger and easier to access. Now she could damn-near see it, a purple glowing thread trailing from her to Wes. Mayday and danger.
“I can close the bond down whenever I want,” he assured her. “If you start to feel trapped, tell me, and I’ll cut it off.”
Wolf shifted her weight from side to side. That sounded…painful. Not physically, though. Taking the bond away sounded painful to her heart. If she didn’t have it, she and Summer would be alone again. He was messing up her head. Confusing her. Causing pain when she didn’t want pain anymore.
“You’re thinking too much,” Wes rumbled. “Relax.” He wagged his tail again and then bolted for her so fast it startled her. She snarled and snapped at him as soon as he was close enough for her to graze him with her teeth. He dodged easily and bounded around her. Geez, this wolf was the size of a god-dang gorilla. He probably had fifty pounds of pure muscle over her, but he wasn’t scary. Not right now. He tossed a stick away with the shake of his head and bounced around her like a rabbit, trying to get her to play. Her tail wagged again, but it was an accident.