Patting my shoulder, Thane walks away just as I turn my brooding rage on Yvonne. Though he’d warned me to control my inner wolf, it seems to have taken over as I rake my blood-red vision from Yvonne’s head to her toes, drinking up the sight of her delicious curves in that dress. Bordering between anger andlust, I can barely think straight when the drummers begin the sacred music that beckons to our inner wolves.
Only the males with mates dance with their partners around the fire, or at least those they intend to take as mates. Without thinking, I reach out and grab Yvonne’s wrist, tugging her forward until she hits my chest, one hand pressing on the small of her back to keep her tightly in my embrace.
“Dawson?! What are you doing?!”
Chapter 17 - Yvonne
My eyes go wide when I’m pressed against Dawson’s firm body, his blue eyes searing into my soul with the intensity of his ferocious glare.
He almost appears rabid, his tanned skin flushed as if he ran a mile, panting to let his scorching hot breath fan my face as he keeps his head bent.
His anger right now is highly misplaced. How do I explain that Alpha Thane was simply commenting on how brilliant my son is, how brilliantourson is—that’s why I was smiling.
I know that’s what got him to act like this. That’s why he commented on Alpha Thane flirting with me. Dawson is crazy if he thinks I’d ever stoop so low as to entertain the attention of another male.
What does he think of me?
“What does it look like I’m doing?” he sneers, his lips curled in one corner to give him the appearance of a lunatic. His eyes are dark—almost as dark as they are when lust calls his name—and his mere presence is captivating.
I’ve never been more afraid of him than I am right now.
Or turned on.
I can’t seem to shake off what his close proximity does to me.
“I’m dancing,” he snickers as he whisks me across the floor that had been cleared of its snow-blanket to reveal the paving underneath. Just for a brief moment in Girdwood, the winter snow is swept away so we can praise the Moon Goddess.
“We’redancing,” Dawson corrects, his lips peeling over the top row of his teeth to reveal a vulgar smile, as if he’s drunk and stupefied right now.
What’s gotten into him?
As he spins me around the bonfire, he grabs my hand and twirls me away from him, then with the harshest tug, he pulls me back and returns his hand to the small of my back.
There’s something about the action that’s so possessive, belying the way he’d been ignoring me all night.
“I can’t tellwhatwe’re doing,” I grunt as we sway to the low beat of the drums, as the drummers enter the pre-chorus of their song. I glare at Dawson’s face, suddenly irritated all over again that I’d been dragged to the one place I was forced to face him.
“Especially since you’ve been ignoring me all night,” I scoff. “What am I supposed to make out of this?”
Dawson cocks his head to one side. “A walk down memory lane. Don’t you remember? This is much like the night our son was conceived, isn’t it?”
Dawson’s remark is a brutal punch to my gut, but I’m fired up by the heat of the bonfire and this growing heat emanating between us, and perhaps I’m more ambitious than I expected to be tonight. Instead of the walls I’d built to keep out the pain, they hold my heart together and keep it from breaking now.
“Well, we should just wait for the morning, then,” I retort, rolling my eyes. “Perhaps we can take a walk down that lane, and you’ll go back to rejecting my existence.”
Dawson suddenly stops dancing, gulping when the realization seems to knock into him and renders him speechless.His jaw drops slightly enough to make an impact that has me wanting to reel back what I just said.
When Alpha Elias and Luna Aurora waltz by, Dawson springs into action again, picking up where he left off as he guides me into the dance with determination that has his jaw clenching.
“If that’s the only reason you left,” he grunts, “you should have waited another day.”
“And faced your rejection all over again?” I scoff, trying my best to remain calm while my insides are threatening to burst at the seams.
I can feel it coming—those familiar claws of my heat—but I ignore it when Dawson’s nostrils flare and he glares at me.
“You had enough time to come clean after I brought you back here. But you chose not to.”
“You didn’t leave me much choice,” I remind him. “If anything, you proved me right these past few days. Tonight was a prime example of that.”
