“What about Parker?”
“What about him?” I ask, forcing back a snarl.
She licks her lips. “He'd stop you.”
“He'd try.”
She studies me for a long moment, her eyes becoming harder with every breath, and then leans forward. “I knew you werecoming for me the past few years. I could feel you getting closer and closer. I wanted you to suffer. I wanted you to feel what you chose to ruin.” She sits back, her soft lips curled into a snarl she doesn't hide. “I wanted you to feel it every single time another male got me off when I was in heat.”
The growl I've been fighting so hard to suppress splits the air. It isn't completely, or even mostly mine. My wolf is front and center and he ispissed. I rise to my feet slowly, intentionally, and lean into her space, planting my hands on either side of her head on the back of the bench. My face is so close to hers that I can feel her breath brush against my skin. “Don't do that.”
“Do what?” She asks, flippantly crossing her arms between us.
“Don't provoke us. He is so angry, Genie.”
“Maybe if he had been a little angrier before now, we wouldn't be in this mess. I was right there, Drew Cross. I was right there. I offered myself to you.Twice. You made your choice. You have no right to me, and neither does your wolf. If he wanted me, he should have fought harder.”
Another deep growl crawls up from my chest and I feel the moment his eyes overtake my own. I wish there was relief in it, but all I feel right now is his righteous fury.
“I tried.” His words come from between my lips. This hasn't happened in years. It's always one or the other with us, either me or him. There have been a very few moments like this when we were one in this body enough to allow him to speak with my mouth. I am genuinely terrified of what he might do if I can't regain full control, but I am even more terrified of what might happen if I force him back.
And then Genie. Fucking Genie.
“Try harder,” she says, staring straight into his eyes.
My body leans even closer, lower, close enough for me to drag my nose up the side of her neck. “Try harder,” he repeats. Thenhe licks the skin just below her ear before falling back into the darkness he's kept to so suddenly that my knees almost buckle.
Carefully, I pull away from her and take a few steps back. I don't say anything else, but I can't bring myself to turn my back on her and walk away.
She looks at me. Just looks. Her eyes hold mine so intently that it almost feels like a comfort. Finally, she looks away and uncrosses her arms to rub her palms on the tops of her thighs. “I'll use suppressants.”
“Thank you,” I say, clipping the words awkwardly.
“Don't lick me again, Drew.”
I raise my eyes to the sky and blow out a long breath. “I'll try not to.”
“Drew.”
I look back down at her.
“Try very hard.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Cross
He's gone now. I can feel him thinking, but he's gone back to the recesses of our shared mind and soul. I thought he had accepted that I wasn't going to claim her. I knew he didn't like it and that he's angry but I really thought he'd accepted it. But I was wrong.
She smelled so good. So fucking good. Her taste is still on my tongue and I can't help rolling it around inside my mouth, savoring it.
Parker.
I need to find Parker.
Fuck me, I'm angry. All I can think about, all I can imagine right now, are the faceless males who fucked her through her heats. I almost can't breathe through the inferno of rage burning through me.
To make everything that much worse, there is also a parade marching through my mind of the memory of the female wolves I burned through when I was in rut. The shame of that is almost as overwhelming as the rage. These are his emotions. His reactions. My wolf finally resurfaced and brought chaos with him.
