I looked down at him, and he looked up at me and I grinned. “You on your knees is kind of a nice look.”
A slow smirk played across his face. “Oh baby, I can do a lot on my knees.” He flicked his eyes to between my legs and my entire body warmed.
It wasn’t lost on me that the future alpha of all of Werewolf City was on his knees in the dirt and grass hugging my waist and begging for forgiveness in front of his entire alpha army, who snuck side glances at the spectacle.
“I won’t get up until you forgive me. No matter how emasculating it is.” He stayed on his knees, looking up at me like a lost puppy.
I grinned. “Maybe just one more minute.”
He growled, playfully, and grabbed me by the legs in excitement as he shot up to his feet. I squealed as he carried me over his shoulder in a fireman pose before sliding me down his chest, rubbing my breasts all the way down his body and causing his eyes to turn the color of molten lava.
“Future Mrs. Hudson,” he breathed in the sexiest voice I’d ever heard, “will you please forgive me for getting spelled with an evil necklace and being mind-controlled by my psycho ex-girlfriend?”
When he put it that way, it wasn’t really his fault, was it?
“Future Mrs. Calloway-Hudson actually. I’m hyphenating and you haven’ttechnicallyasked me to marry you yet.”
He eyes glittered. “No. I haven’tyet.”
He slipped his hand into mine and then turned to face Walsh and Sage and Astra, who stepped out of the woods.
All fifty guards raised their guns at the sight of Astra and I thrust my hands out. “No! She’s with us!” I ripped my hand from Sawyer’s and ran over to her side. She was shaking like a leaf again, eyes on the ground. Sawyer’s men lowered their guns and looked to him.
“You’re okay. They won’t hurt you,” I told her, placing a protective hand on her shoulder.
She looked back at the woods. “Need to get home.”
I nodded, about to ask if she needed help getting back, when Sawyer stepped up behind me, extending his hand to her. “I heard about what you did for my best friend, and I just wanted to thank you for healing him.”
This was big. Super big. To have the future Werewolf City alpha offering to shake hands with a Paladin wolf. She must have known it too, because she looked at me and I gave her a curt nod. Then she stuck out her hand and shook his.
“Is there anything I can offer you in form of payment? Gold or—?”
She hissed, “Blasphemy.”
Sawyer looked at me and I shrugged, as if to say I had no idea what she was rattling on about. She seemed super religious or spiritual or whatever.
“Alright, well. Thanks again.” Sawyer let go of her hand and slipped an arm around my shoulders. Astra looked between us and then at the woods.
“Alpha?” Astra said timidly, and I flinched.
Sawyer seemed to think she was talking to him. “My father is actually, but I’m next in line.”
Lord help me…
This wasnota conversation I wanted to have with him right now.
The entire idea that I could be a Paladin alpha… thelastPaladin alpha by my count, drove my thoughts insane. I looked over at her and her eyes were glistening with tears. “Aren’t you coming home? With me?” she asked me.
Home. What a funny word. I’d never felt like I had a home, growing up banished in the human world with the rest of the magical rejects.
Sawyer stiffened against me and I swallowed hard.
“This is my home.” The lie flew from my mouth with ease, tasting like ashes on my tongue. “Wherever Sawyer is… is my home.” That rang true and felt better in my mouth. Wolf City was still a stranger’s land to me, but Sawyer was where I wanted to be.
She frowned.‘But our people—’
“Goodbye, Astra. I’m glad you’re safe now,” I told her. I needed her to go before I lost my shit. I felt the strongest urge to rip my clothes from my body, shift into my wolf and run across the flag line and into the Paladin lands howling at the moon as I went. My wolf and I felt more like one being on those lands, and that scared me.
