My wolf growled, angry at anyone in her past who said one thing and did another. I thought about all she said as I listened to her on the porch.
“Everyone who broke your trust in the past was a deceiving son of a bitch who was never worthy of you.”
“It wasn’t just men,” she mumbled, again not looking directly at me.
“Who—”
“It doesn’t matter.” She shook her head and looked me directly in the eye. “You promise to take me back to see them when Dr. Pines is out of the way?”
“I would rather lose my life than to break a vow to you.” I pulled her to me and kissed her deeply. Her pillow-soft lips welcomed me warmly, and a thrill shot through my body, straight to my dick. It poked against her belly, and all I wanted was to be inside her.
I pulled back from the kiss, staring down at her. “You’ll stay?” I needed to hear her say she would remain with me.
She hesitated, rubbing her lips together, before nodding. “For now.”
I brought our foreheads together until they touched, taking her hands into mine. “That’s good enough for now,” I replied, knowing there was no way on this earth I would let her go. She wasn’t convinced but that just meant I needed to convince her that she belonged with me.
I pulled away. “We need to get home.” I took her by the arm and started for our house. I did my best not to strip her naked and take her right out there in that field. But I knew that was the last place I wanted to make her mine.
“Wait,” she urged, almost stumbling.
My chest tightened when I paused to look back and caught her rubbing the side of her leg.
“I’m sorry.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“My leg.” She grimaced in obvious pain. “Usually it’s fine, but I’ve been walking a lot lately, especially today and…” She sounded apologetic.
I swooped her up in my arms and walked toward home with her in my arms. This was much better anyway.
“You can’t carry me the entire way. We’re like a mile from the house.”
“I can and will.” I leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose. “Tell me what happened to your leg.”
She settled into my hold, wrapping her arms around my shoulders, and laid her head against my chest.
“I was hit by a car when I was twelve. I was walking to school, and the driver was pulling out of his driveway. He didn’t see me.” Her voice was distant and detached, as if she were telling a story that happened to someone else. “He was sorry.”
I snorted at the empathy she had in her voice for the man who’d hit her.
“Anyway, I almost lost my leg, but the doctors were able to save it.” She let out a dry chuckle. “My leg’s held together by a series of titanium rods, pins, and luck.”
“Does it hurt often?” I’d noticed her limp, but she rarely complained about being in pain.
“No. Only when I walk on it too much or when bad weather is coming. You know…” She lifted her head to look at me. “I hadn’t thought about this in years, but for a few weeks before the accident, I had dreams of screeching car tires and me yelling. I would wake up from those dreams with my leg throbbing in pain. Except there wasn’t anything wrong, and after a minute or two, the pain went away.”
She swallowed. “Do you think…?” She didn’t finish her question, but I knew where she was going with it. Elsie’s excitement about the Nightwolf pack finally having a new seer in our alpha queen rang in my ears.
It wasn’t unheard of for a pack’s seer to come in human form. But the last one hadn’t been for a century, and that was well before the Alliance’s mandate of no intermarriages. If Reese was indeed a seer, that could place her in more danger because it would make her presence within my pack challenging to conceal.
Packs revered their seers, and those that didn’t have one of their own often sought out the help of another’s. If word spread among the other packs in the surrounding states, they would undoubtedly seek out my mate.
I pulled her into me even tighter.
Reese let out a deep yawn and adjusted her head against my chest. My original plan had been to take her back home and ravage her body, but she was tired. I could force myself to wait until she was ready.
My wolf whined and whimpered, wanting her desperately, but it consoled me that she was safe in my arms. Even as she fell asleep, just as we reached the house, I didn’t want to let her go.
