Giant and threatening in a way that should have scared me. But he’d been steady and warm instead. He pressed his body to mine, wrapped around me until the cold retreated. It was the first real relief I’d felt since the rejection. The first time I’d realized that Rennick’s nearness could quiet the pain.
I’d slept that night. Deeply. Peacefully. For the first time in days.
The thought slips free before I can stop it, instinct and need pushing past reason. “Can you shift?” I plead softly. “Now?”
His brows draw together, and his fingers flex on the side of my face. “Now? Here?”
“Yeah.” I nod once, steadying my voice. “Now.”
He studies me, the faint crease between his brows deepening. “Why?”
“Because…” I lean into his touch, his palm warm and settling against my cheek. “I feel it too. The pull to be close to you.” It’s not a lie. It’s just not the whole truth.I’m not ready to tell him that when he’s near, the sickness loosens its grip on me. That my body quiets in a way it doesn’t when he’s away. That his nearness is what’s keeping me alive. So, I settle for this partial truth and pray it’s enough. For now. “It’s always worse at night for me. It stops me from sleeping.”
Again. Not a complete lie.
I pause, reclaiming my lip between my teeth on how to best broach this next obstacle and still get what I need from him. How to ask for his help but still not cross the line I’m fighting like hell to not cross yet. Especially when the very mention of it—of her—still feels like hot blades to my chest cavity.
“I’m still struggling with it, Ren. You being promised to someone else.”
He opens his mouth, and I can already see it in his eyes—the same protest about Talis, the same insistence that she doesn’t matter. I stop him before he can start.
“Don’t,” I cut him off, lifting a hand between us, hovering close enough to his chest I can feel his body heat radiating from his bare skin. “Whether you want to be or not doesn’t change the fact that youare.” My throat tightens, but I push through it. “Everything we’ve done…the way you’ve touched me, the creek, that morning in my room—it’s all tainted by that. By her. It makes everything feel…like we’re doing something wrong.”
He exhales through his nose, expression hardening. “You don’t owe Talis anything.”
Something sharp twists in me and my wolf bares her fangs at the sound of her name coming from his lips, but I swallow it all down.
“No,” I say quietly. “But I owe it to myself not to sleep beside a man who’s still technically engaged to someone else.”
He frowns, a muscle in his jaw ticking.
“But your wolf…” I continue, watching his eyes narrow. “He’s always been loyal to me. He’s never once made me question where his devotion lies.” Rennick winces at this but doesn’t argue it. “I’ll share my bed with him.”
His brow lifts slightly, a mix of surprise and something looking a lot like jealousy flickering behind his eyes. “You want my wolf to stay with you tonight,” he utters slowly, “but not me?”
I smirk, the smallest spark of teasing finding its way through exhaustion. “Correct. He’s already proven himself to be an excellent slumber party guest,” I joke, knowing Rennick will get the reference. The faintest hint of amusement sparks in his expression as I add, “Do you think he’d be on board with it?”
But he’s already moving.
“Sweet one,” he murmurs the moniker, the words low enough to make my stomach flutter. “He’s been dying to see you.”
He pulls his unzipped hoodie from his shoulders and holds it out to me. My hands reach for it without thought, and the second the soft fabric touches my fingers, I know I won’t be giving it back. It’s warm from his body, and the scent that floats off it—leather, vetiver, mint—wraps around me like addictive fog.
Something flickers behind Rennick’s eyes as he watches me clutch the hoodie to my chest, my fingers curling tight in the cotton. He knows it too. That this is mine now.
Good. Glad we’re on the same page, big guy, because if my omega throws a tantrum over this, neither of us is walking away with our dignity intact.
“Okay,” I nod, stepping back to give him space. “Then give him to me.”
It comes out more command than request, and the twitch at the corner of his mouth tells me he caught it. And that he approves of it.
He tugs the drawstring of his sweats loose, hesitating for a second, giving me the chance to turn away. I don’t. I lift a brow instead, daring him silently. His grin spreads, big, genuine, and possibly my undoing, as he slides them down his legs. He then holds them out to me like another offering.
I take them, pulse hammering, and try to keep my eyes up—mostlysucceeding.
A heartbeat later, the air hums with the subtle pulse of power as his human form bends and shifts, bones reforming beneath skin until there’s a huge black-and-gray wolf with ghosty eyes standing before me.
He moves first, closing the space between us and pressing his massive head into my chest. The impact pushes me back half a step before I find my balance. My free hand buries itself in the thick fur at his neck. My fingers explore as he purrs, the vibration rumbling through my ribs.
