His soft, low voice shakes when he asks, “What did you see in the other room?”
Wrapping my arms up and under his shoulder blades, I hug him with all the strength I possess. “He was sitting with his mate during her final days. Your mother was her hospice nurse.”
Connor nods, his chin bumping the top of my head. He’s quiet, but his silence feels like a cacophony of unspoken words.
“Why were you sitting in that room when it caused you so much pain?” I ask, the depth of his feelings still radiating through me.
“I’m the alpha. Those aremyrooms,” he states, releasing a pent-up breath. “He’s dead, and I’m stronger than the memories of what he did to me.”
I push myself up far enough so I can properly frown at him. “You decided the best way to face your past was to stew in your trauma alone in that bastard’s old room until you eventually just, what? Got over it?” Pulling my hand out from under him, I give him a small punch to the shoulder. “Why didn’t you wait for me? You knew I was coming tonight.”
He gazes up at me sheepishly, his eyes giving away the simple truth.
“You thought it was something you needed to do alone,” I state with pursed lips. “Goddess save me from stubborn boys.” To soften my words, I lean down to kiss him, pouring love and tenderness through the bond and the gentle brush of lips. “You aren’t alone. Don’t feel like you have to protect me from the wounded parts of yourself. Let me help you.” A teasing smirk tugs on one side of my mouth. “It isn’t too late for me to burn this whole place to the ground and start from scratch.”
A rusty laugh rumbles in his chest. “Part of me wants to let you.” He smiles up at me. “But I like this room. It’s full of you. Sometimes when you’re gone, I’ll come in here to breathe in your scent.”
“Then why not just sleep in here?” I question, lying on his chest.
He brushes his fingers through the waves of my long hair. “They areyourrooms.”
“I’m a big girl, I can share,” I tease, my eyelids drifting closed under the pleasure of his gentle ministrations. “They can be our rooms.”
Connor’s free hand spreads wide on the base of my spine, the heat of his skin seeping through the thin fabric of my shirt. “I want you to have a space here that’s yours, a space you can choose to invite me into or not.”
Considering how our mate bond started, I appreciate his desire to make our time together my active choice. “Okay, so how can I help with the alpha suite?” I return his gentle caresses with soothing touches over his chest. “Do you want to talk about what happened? Or I can sit with you while you face the rooms.”
His hands still for a moment, and a hint of apprehension floats through the bond. “Can you…”
The unfinished question hangs in the air. While following the lines of his upper body with my fingers, I ask softly, “What is it?”
He shivers, kisses the top of my head, and then releases a deep breath. “I like this space. I can feel you in it. Can you do the same to the other rooms? Enchant them so I can feel you there even when you’re gone?”
“Yeah,” I answer, a wobbly, tender smile curving my lips. “I can do that.”
“Thank you,mi reina,” he murmurs, and it feels like a mountain of tension drains out of his body.
“It’s early. I can do it now,” I offer, trying to force my contented eyelids open.
He shakes his head and holds me close, and then his jaw cracks with a wide yawn. “Let’s stay here for now.”
It’s then that I sense a bone-deep weariness under the weight of his earlier distress. The stress of the pack and his mother still continue to drain him.
With the last remnants of the setting sun casting orange shadows over our safe haven, I let my body grow heavy, transfer all the peace within me into him, and drift off to sleep in the comfort of Connor’s loving arms.
Chapter 12
Connor
As I drift awake, I’m cocooned in a feeling that is hard for me to place at first due to its rarity—peace. I resist opening my eyes, afraid the sensation is fleeting and will disappear with the morning sun. Missing the familiar weight of my mate sleeping on my chest, I blindly reach across the king-sized bed and realize I’m alone.
Sitting up, I squint against the hazy light of the morning sun. It’s strange. I can feel her presence in the room like a comforting embrace, but her scent indicates she’s been gone for at least an hour. Tuning into our bond, I can tell she’s close, which is a relief. I can also sense a building anger within her, though, that worries me. It feels like a low fire in my chest, and I’m immediately annoyed by whoever or whatever has upsetmi reina, vicariously spoiling the first morning I’ve felt like myself after months of exhaustion.
Dressed in the wrinkled clothes I wore yesterday, I get out of bed and pad quietly toward the bedroom door. Wolves have sensitive ears, and I want to get an assessment of what’s going on before I make myself known. If it’s one of mypinchehalf-brothers being a problem, I’m not going to bother saying a word.I’m just going to pick them up and throw them out the window. If I’m lucky, they’ll break their neck when they hit the ground. Since my mother’s pack arrived, Bayne has been particularly shifty. There’s nothing I can quite point to as reason to throw him out of the pack, especially aftermi reinaput him in his place by shoving him through a wall, but I can’t suppress this gut instinct that he’s up to something. It’s another thing I should probably bring up with Sam, assuming I don’t get to throw him out a window this morning.
Once I pass the threshold of Callie’s rooms, the intensity of emotions telegraphed through the mate bond slam into me. She’s not just angry, she’s furious, and it isn’t with Bayne. Abandoning my earlier plan of stealth, I pick up my pace, following the sounds of shouting.
“I know you’re cheating on my son,” my mother growls. “You stink of others. How could you betray him, and with his friends of all people?”
