I hadn’t meant to bite him. It wasn’t a well-thought-out plan. Heck, it wasn’t a plan at all. One minute, I was coming hard, and the next, my teeth were sinking into him. I wasn’t a wolf, and he wasn’t a wolf, so I was probably thinking about it more than I should, thanks to my family tree. At least, that was what I told myself.
He didn’t say anything about it, and I didn’t say anything about it. It was the bite mark that never happened, and that somehow made it worse.
We snuggled close, and I soaked in the awesomeness that was being together, pushing my insecurities over nipping at him away. Eventually, though, I had to go home. I didn’t have clothes for the next day, and I’d rather go then than leave earlier than I needed to in the morning. I was already dreading that time.
Gabe offered to drive me, and I let him, not wanting to be away from him for a second longer than I needed to be. We still hadn’t discussed what this all meant, us being intimate. Was it a vacation fling without the fancy location? Was I important to him beyond what we already had? Was there something we could do about it if that was the case? My life was still here and while my brothers might not be as actively hostile to me at the moment, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be in the near future.
When I got to my place, my brothers weren’t inside, thank goddess. I didn’t need them ruining my good mood. After stuffing some new clothes in my backpack, a crash came from out back. I looked out the window and saw them—the assholes were shifting, so close to town and, worse than that, they knocked someone’s grill over. That wasn’t going to end well. Ifsomeone came out and shot their asses, it would be 100 percent their fault.
“Butts.”
Gabe came and wrapped his arms around me. “Butts? Who’s a butt? Me?”
I kissed his cheek. “Of course it’s not you.” Another kiss. “My brothers are being butts is all.”
He looked out the window. Crap. Please let him not have seen their furry asses. I didn’t say anything.
“Let’s go back to the motel. There’s something I want to talk to you about.” He rested his hand on my lower back.
I turned to look at him, unsure why he’d suddenly gotten so serious. Before I had a chance to ask, he kissed me so thoroughly, I nearly forgot my name. I supposed that was one way to end a conversation.
Backpack in hand, we went back to the motel. This time, he had me drop my pack off before leading me out back, farther and farther away from the building.
“Yeah. But that’s just because, like, they’re dogs like the ones in the backyard. You’ve met them. They’re horrible.”
No part of what I said was sounding convincing. Ugg. This conversation was going to result in him thinking I needed to see a doctor about my inability to separate reality from my imagination if I wasn’t careful. It wasn’t like I could just tell him shifters were real and expect him to believe me.
Worse than that, letting the secret out would put me in danger. I was a wolf by birth, despite not having one. If I shared our existence, it was a crime that resulted in so much worse than my brothers had ever done to me.
He chuckled, rubbed his cheek against mine, and said, “Okay, sure. If you say so.”
Then he pulled his shirt off, kicked his shoes off, and dropped his jeans to the ground. He took three steps forwardbefore shifting into the most beautiful wolf I’d ever seen. Safe to say, I wasn’t in danger for sharing shifter secrets.
No wonder he hadn’t freaked out when I bit him, or questioned me when I called the wolves my brothers, or been terrified when he saw how feral they were in that alley behind the diner. He was a freaking wolf, too.
Which made biting him exponentially worse. His beast must’ve thought I was taunting him, teasing him with the possibility of a mate. I sucked.
Growing up, I told myself I would never get involved with wolves. Not for anything, not anywhere, and not at any time. Furthermore, I wouldn’t set foot on our pack lands after they disowned my omega father for what he’d done. I’d never justify cheating on a spouse. Of course, that was horrible.Be together or don’t.It wasn’t that hard.
But the more I learned growing up, the less I thought he had actually cheated, and more that my omega father’s consent hadn’t played a part in my conception. I didn’t have any full proof of that, and I didn’t dig too hard. Finding something like that out was just not something I was willing to navigate at the time. Or now. It wasn’t like I could change the past.
But that was neither here nor there now.
I stood there looking at the most stunning wolf and taking back every word I ever said.
“You’re gorgeous,” I whispered. I walked over to him and brushed my cheek against his back, mimicking things I’d seen my brothers do over the years. “Can you shift back now? So maybe we could talk about this?”
He did and despite my desire to watch his sexy body, he pulled on his jeans.
We went back and forth asking each other questions, now that the big secrets were out in the open. The answer that hit the hardest was to a question I hadn’t meant to ask at all, but cameout because I worded things poorly. He was the next in line to be alpha of his pack. The man had power for days and here he was behind a motel in the middle of nowhere with me. How was this my life?
“Is that what you want?” I asked. “To be alpha?” Something told me it might not be.
He shrugged. “It’s what I was raised for.”
“That’s not the same thing.” I was raised to be a servant for my brothers, but I a million percent didn’t want that to be my life.
“Yeah, I know.” He reached for my hand.
