“You know why.” My voice roughened into a growl. “Stop backing away from me.”
“Why?” she asked again, more teasing than challenging. A smirk danced on her lips, and this was it—the confident Bryce I had yearned to know, to be let in by. I knew her walls were still up, but if she could be this too, if she could challenge me right back…
I grinned. I’d never backed down from a challenge.
“You know why,” I repeated, lifting a brow at her.
“Tell me,” she breathed.
“I’d rather show you.”
Bryce’s face flickered, her distrust visible. She bit her lip, dropping my gaze. Just like that, she was doubting herself. I reached out for her again, taking her hand.
“Do you remember what was nearby?” I asked her. “Just past the actual Honeycreek?”
“The cave,” she whispered.
“Come with me, Bryce.”
My invitation was barely a murmur, a desperate hope that she would let me back in when I knew to all God I didn’t deserve it, but I wanted it. I wantedher.
Taking my hand boldly, Bryce walked us nearer the creek, her attention turning towards the cave we both remembered as clearly as if we’d just left it seven years ago. I inhaled, following her lead until I couldn’t bear it anymore. I growled as I scooped Bryce up in my arms. Taking her weight was effortless to me. I’d bulked up even harder in our years apart.
A protest was already on her lips, but I silenced her with a look as I hurried us to the perfectly secluded cave behind overgrown moss and hanging vines. Up here, the rest of the world didn’t exist, and that was what we needed. No pack, no demons, nothing to worry about up here.
Just each other.
“You can let me go,” Bryce whispered as soon as the moss-like curtain fell over the mouth of the cave, secluding us.
“Never.”
“I don’t want you to—”
“Stop it,” I told her, my voice hard. “Whatever you’re thinking—that you’re too heavy, that you take up too much space, that you’re hurting me—juststop.Bryce, I’m fucking sorry for the damage I caused all those years ago, but right now, you’re in my arms, and I never want to let you go. I already did that once, and I can’t bear to do it again.”
Her face paled, her eyes sparkling, as if she craved believing me, but that betrayal made her back away.
My eyes tracked over her face. “I never should have let you leave,” I whispered, leaning into her. “Having you back… this is the most alive I’ve felt in years. You’re bringing me back, Bryce, so let me do the same. Come back to me.”
“I can’t get hurt again,” she said quietly.
“I will never let anyone hurt you,” I swore. “Myself included. I want to show you that every inch of you is beautiful, and I should have spent my last seven years showing you that every day.” My hands, cupping her ass to hoist her up against the cave wall, slid upwards, slipping beneath the sweatshirt she wore.
“Mason,” Bryce whispered.
“Tell me to stop, and I will.” But I couldn’t help leaning in, my mouth brushing her cheek, and she didn’t say to stop, and, for once, she never pulled away. The woods beyond were deadly silent, the night cloaking them, and I reveled in the peace of it all.
Soon, I would shatter that quiet with Bryce’s moans.
She was hesitant. I could see that, so I let my mouth hover over hers, my eyes catching her own. For a moment, I was unable to look away, unable to reign in the wolf that howled for her.
Still, she didn’t tell me to stop, and I couldn’t hold myself back.
We were young again, me, newly nineteen and out of high school, trying to take being an alpha seriously. Trying to appease everyone, desperate to prove myself, yet there had been that singular afternoon where I’d claimed Bryce, where I’d let myself have her without fear, only to reject her not long after.
Now, I knew better.
Now, my need for her was a depthless chasm, and I fell into it, as I finally closed my mouth over hers with a snarl. As soon as our mouths met, that primal need to claim her surged, and my fingers dug into her waist. Bryce gasped, her mouth opening beneath mine. My tongue swept her full, lower lip, andI sucked it between my teeth. Biting down, I gave into the rough need I had.
