Page 48 of Bewitching the Wolf

“Yeah, you are. Is it… about what happened at Bait and Tackle?”

She huffs, shrugs. There’s a long moment of silence before she says, “Yeah, that was out of order. You’re not the same since you shifted.” She sniffs, little nose tilted up in that snotty way she has.

I really want this to stop. I want her to look at me like she used to. Which means getting it all out in the open, like lancing a wound.

I inhale a deep breath. “Okay, tell me all the shitty things I’ve done. Get it all out of your system.”

She looks taken aback. And then her eyes spark.

I see her breasts rise sharply as she takes a deep breath. “Okay, if you really want to know… I’m pissed at you for not telling me you were a wolf for three years. Three whole years. All that time you kept me in the dark.”

“I had no choice.”

“You did Jax, it’s called telling the truth.”

“And then what?” I feel my lip curl. “You’d just have huffed off, saying you don’t associate with wolves. Besides, it was highly sensitive information, I didn’t even share it with Clem.”

She grunts. “And that tattoo on your arm. You lied about that, said you got it to cover your scars. When really, it’s the Trojan pack coat of arms.”

“Not identical. I didn’t get the wolf head in the center of the flames. That’s only for pack leaders.”

“Oh duhh,” she huffs. She flounces over to the kitchen, opens the fridge, grabs a cucumber and a sharp knife and starts fiercely dicing and chopping.

I’m clearly getting this all wrong. Defending myself won’t work. I need to do better.

I move over to her side, standing as close as I dare. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the tattoo. But it was part of an initiation ceremony, and I was sworn to keep it quiet. It was only after I shifted to rescue Clem that I was free to talk about being wolfen. Even now I have to be cautious. Word can’t get to Sparkle… their head honcho knows who I am from way back.”

She frowns. “How come?”

I shake my head. “It’s too hard to explain.”

“There you go again, not telling me things.”

“If I told you how I feel about you, would that help?”

Her eyes fly to mine. “I dunno.” She shrugs and goes back to her chopping, even more fiercely. “You’re wolfen now, so it’s kind of ruined everything.”

“Ruined what?” I edge closer.

Her breathing gets more irregular. I see the rise and fall of her chest, her nipples pressing against the material of her tee. She’s aroused. That’s what her scent is.

“What did my wolf ruin, Tip?”

“Nothing, I mean—I don’t know… Maybe. If you’d been honest… Or stayed human.”

“Which means I’d still be a peripheral. With no free will… to date who I choose…”

She stops and turns to me, her eyes bright. “Did you date? When you were a peripheral?”

“Yeah, I dated.”

She’s blushing furiously now. “Did you… Did you…”

“Fuck, you mean?” I sense her bristling. And because she’s being so stubborn and difficult, I want to dig in my own metaphorical knife and give it a little twist.

“Yeah, I fucked,” I drawl.

“Great, I’m so happy for you,” she snaps. “Frankly, that was too much information.”