She's mine.
She always was. She always will be.
Now it's just official, and I have the unique opportunity of winning over the heart I know hates me because I broke it once.
It's fragile, but Delilah is still a rose full of thorns that will prick me if I'm not careful, and I need to tread with caution if I plan on lifting that rose to my nose and taking a huge sniff of a scent that was made only for me.
“I'm only doing this for the squad,” Delilah huffs as she slaps the marriage license against my chest. “Now, can we go back to Portland? They'll be looking for us.”
Grinning when she turns and marches to the door of the motel room I booked while I prepared the impromptu marriage, my chest puffs with a sense of accomplishment.
Delilah Hargreeves doesn't know it yet, but she just signed up to get a makeover on her life, starting with us working as a team now that we're married.
“How tacky…” she mumbles, her nose scrunching when she steps onto the porch area. She takes a look at our surroundings and shivers, her disgusted expression ensnaring me when our eyes meet.
“Sorry,” I shrug nonchalantly. “I didn't have time to get us a honeymoon suite in a five-star hotel.”
“Of course not!” Her laugh is sarcastic as she slaps the back of her hand on my chest. “Security is tight in fancy joints. They would have caught you bringing in your victim and stopped you.”
“Want me to make up for kidnapping you?” I point to the door. “We could go back inside.”
Delilah catches onto what I'm implying and growls as she turns to face me, her eyes narrowed as she glares at me. A single,delicate finger pointed between my eyes is like a sharp dagger of warning.
“Don't. You. Dare,” she warns, her nostrils flaring again. “This is only an arrangement for convenience, nothing else. Don't get any funny ideas, Hunter Black. I'm never sleeping with you ever again.”
“Right! Got it!” I raise my hands in a show of surrender, breathing out a sigh of relief when she steps back. “Besides, that's not why I'm doing this. It's only for our squad, sweetheart.”
She snaps back at me with furious eyes. “Don'tcall me that!” she roars at me. “And we'renottelling them about this. Let's just keep it between us, until we can get to Scarborough and I can tell my parents you're my”—she pauses to shiver—“husband.”
Pursing my lips, I only nod briskly at Delilah's firm instructions before she spins around and storms down the two steps leading to the depressing garden on the side. Folding the marriage license and tucking it into my pocket, I follow her into the forest, where we have to cross the Gulf of Maine.
Luckily, there's a rowboat waiting for us—the one I stole from the bank on Portland's side—and I proudly show Delilah our mode of transport with a grin.
“That's how we got here?” she asks, looking anything but pleased.
“Yeah,” I reply as I uncoil the rope tying the boat in place. “I found it—”
“Spare me the details!” she exclaims as she settles into the boat. “It's creepy enough that you did what you did. I don't need to know anything else.”
Delilah crosses her arms and tilts her chin to the side as if she's repulsed by the boat, leading me to wonder when she changed.
She's never been conceited or snobbish, considering she was in black ops with the guys, and isn't a stranger to roughing it out. But she's acting that way now, and it's probably because I just forced her into marrying me.
Is she so repulsed by me?
I shouldn't be feeling insecure when I know I did the right thing, but there's still that mistake I made in the past, hanging between us like a stormy dark cloud.
She's not going to forgive me for that, but she won't have any option but to go along with us being a team.
We're married now.
It hardly feels like any significant change when we reach the docks, and I climb out onto the ramp to offer her a hand. She doesn't even look at my hand as she climbs out, using the log pole as leverage instead.
“We're off to a good start,” I murmur under my breath, awkwardly shoving my hands into my pockets as I follow Delilah into the main town.
We pass by some of Tyler's pack members tending to the crops on our way, and they stop mid-task to wave at us. Delilah is marching forward with her arms crossed, indifferent and cold to Moonshine's warmth, so I plaster on a huge smile and wave back at the guys.
From our left, a border patrol soldier comes jogging toward us in wolf form. I slow down and turn to him, realizing it's Tyler's beta when he transforms and greets us.
