The tingling at my throat grows to a burn, like it is taunting me for my denial.
“Well, all right then, dear. So long as we are both whole, we shall take that as a blessing. Let’s get out of this cursed cold. You must be frozen to the bone.”
She turns toward the shop then stops abruptly. It is not her shop she looks at. Even before I turn, I know she is arrested by the scores on my front door.
She sighs softly before she turns back to me in question.
I’m sure guilt is written all over my face.
“Let’s go inside.” She takes my hand gently, but this time, her fingers tremble faintly, whereas they did not before.
RANULF
When I enter the pack den and our quarters, I find Alden and Beric—not as the gray and russet wolves I more often see, but in human form. It is not a good sign. It means they want to talk. And while we can communicate in wolf form, when there are serious matters to be addressed and we want clear heads, we do so in our human form.
I resist for long moments. I am the leader of our triad. They’ll get in fucking line, or I will beat the pair of them until they do.
Alden folds his arms over his lean chest.
Beric glares at me from the other side of the hearth, all brooding hunger.
The amount of attitude the pair of them pummel me with is toeing the line of insubordination.
I shift to human. It is godsdamned uncomfortable, and I roll out my shoulders. I loathe this form, and rarely keep it for longer than I must. I dare say, now that I’m about to claim a human mate, I’ll need to spend more time like this.
Still, she was not averse to my wolf…
A sly smile slips out.
“You are going to tell us, then?” Alden demands.
I shrug. “You already know.”
“It is the pretty one,” Beric says. “With the dark hair and the scent of wildflowers.”
I nod once.
“I only saw her from a distance,” Alden says, sharing a look with Beric before he turns to me. “Her scent clings to your skineven now. You must have gotten closer to her than what I saw in the town.”
“I marked her,” I say. “And her door.”
Beric’s expression turns smug. “We know about the door, anyway. We marked it too.”
“The fuck you did.” My voice lowers to a growl. It is all I can do to keep my wolf inside.
“We are a triad,” Alden points out, as if it is not fucking obvious. “What one claims, so do all.”
“You did not need to mark the godsdamned door. I already had it covered.”
“And her room?” Beric arches a brow. “In your seed.”
My temper rises. “Did you seed her things too?”
That I am acting irrationally does not temper my urge to slug my second in the jaw for scenting our mate’s personal space.
“We didn’t have fucking time,” Alden mutters, his jaw tightening as he glares right back at me.
I shrug nonchalantly and admit, “It did not take me fucking long. Her scent was potent. My dick was already dripping seed. I barely brushed it against her bedding, and I came like a green whelp.”
