“Shh.” He rubbed my arms. Up and down. Up and down. “We don’t have to do anything, Ness.Shh.”
His arms went around me, and he pulled me against him, where he held me until my chest stopped pumping with feveredbreaths.
“Can I stay the night, or do you want me toleave?”
I swallowed. “You can stay.” I raked my hair back. “I want you tostay.”
“Good. Because I want to stay too.” He kissed the tip of mynose.
I climbed into my bed and scooted over to make room for him. He clicked off the lamp on my nightstand, then molded his body aroundmine.
“How did it go . . . with the elders?” I asked him as he played with myhair.
“I now know everything there is to know about being anAlpha.”
“I can’t believe you’re Alpha.MyAlpha.”
“I like the sound of that.” He slid his nose down the nape of myneck.
I shivered. “Do they know where Everestwent?”
“They located his car inDenver.”
I turned to face Liam. “Denver? What would he be doing inDenver?”
“Don’tknow.”
Did my cousin know someone in Denver? Maybe Megan, that last girl he’d cozied up with, the one he’d met at the music festival and then kissed at Tracy’s Bar and Grille, maybe she was from Denver? She was a student at UCB—the only thing I knew about her besides that she was a shapely blonde. Maybe there was a way to check the college’sdirectory?
Liam’s eyes were smudged with exhaustion. He needed sleep, not a cross-examination, but I couldn’t help but ask about the hateful gender selectiontool.
“Did you destroy the stick,Liam?”
“Thestick?”
“The fossilizedroot.”
His mouth solidified into a straight line. “I’m not going to destroyit.”
I added space between our bodies. “Whynot?”
“Because it has value, and valuable things are worth holding onto.”
“Value?” I squeaked. “It’s just vile, smelly, andcriminal.”
“Ness”—there was an edge of exasperation to his tone—“please, let’s not fight about it. Not tonight. I’ll never use it, I promise.” He rolled onto his back and scrubbed both his hands down the length of hisface.
“But someone else might.” I propped myselfup.
“Ness,” hegrowled.
“Did you ever stop to consider that if your dad’s generation hadn’t used it, more girls would’ve been born, and maybe one of them would’ve been yourmate?”
Liam’s eyes glowed as bright as a Harvest moon. “Then I’m happy it was used, because I don’t want a mate. I wantyou. Temper and all, I wantyou.”
He pushed on the elbow propping me up until I collapsed back onto the mattress. Then he threw one of his legs over my lower body and settled on top, bracing himself on his forearms. As he dipped his face toward mine, I forgot all about the Boulder relic, all about Everest, all aboutbreathing.
“I don’t havethatmuch of a temper,” Imurmured.
