“Of course, you fucking didn’t! Because once again, I am surrounded by idiotic males who don’t even consider what this situation feels like for females. Those omegas have been trapped foryears, probably brutalized regularly, and you’re going to march in with a pack of snarling males and expect them to rejoice? You need a female. An alpha female who can defend herself. You need me.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” I bite out.
The room goes silent, and all eyes turn to me. My wolf thrashes inside my chest, desperate to drag her out of here and lock her away until the mission is over. I step into her space and electricity erupts between us. She glares at me, not backing down an inch. Sensing she is not about to go freely with me, I grab her arm and tug her along behind me. “You’ll have to excuse me, Alpha; I need a moment with my mate.”
Sofia pushes against me as I pull her into an unused room in the pack house. “What the hell, Luca? You don’t give a fuck about the missing omegas?”
“Not compared to you.” I cage her against the wall, looming over her until the gold in her eyes flares. “You’re more important than every omega in that building. More important than every other female in the world.”
I raise my hands to cup her jaw, and she doesn’t push me away, thank fate.
“I want to save them. I do. I want to make sure that this never happens to anyone else ever again. But if you think for one fuckingsecond that I’m going to let you put yourself in danger, you haven’t been paying attention. I’ll burn the world to ash before I let you get hurt.”
And I mean it.
If she tries to be part of this mission, I’ll sabotage her, lock her in my cabin, and chain her to my bed if I have to. Whatever it takes. She’s mine, and I protect what’s mine.
She already hates me. What’s one more reason if it keeps her safe?
Chapter Twenty-One
Sofia
My mouth drops as Luca’s words slam into me, raw and furious. The anger radiating from him isn’t aimed at me—it’s aimed at the world. His wolf is showing, and his breath comes in sharp, ragged pants. My skin of my neck tingles where his hand clasps me, and for the first time, I’m not torn between the physical desire I can’t pretend isn’t there and the resentment I’ve carried for years.
My wolf purrs at his possessive show. My head tells me this is insane. Those words are crazy. But my heart flutters, and something akin to… safety begins to emerge.
“Is that why you held me back when Aidan and his warriors were here?”
“Of course it was,” Luca growls. His grip tightens. “I can’t lose you. Even if it means you hate me. I need to protect you. I always have.”
“I don’t need your protection,” I bite out, straightening my spine. “I’m an alpha wolf. Perfectly capable of defending myself.”
“I. Don’t. Care.”
Each word drops like a stone into my chest. He isn’t bluffing. He isn’t posturing. He would raze the whole damn world if it meant keeping me safe. And damn it if that doesn’t twist up my insides.
“You’re ridiculous,” I huff out, pushing away from him to rejoin Ryan and the others. But he grabs my wrist and pulls me back to him. I crash into his chest, and he wraps his arms around me.
“And you’re mine.”
My wolf whimpers and preens. My inner child, too.
“I’m going back in there.”
“Fine,” he says after a long pause. “But only to consult. You’re not part of the rescue mission.”
My eyes nearly roll out of my head. The arrogance. The sheer audacity. Who the hell does he think he is to tell me what I can and can’t do? My wolf snarls at me, whispering that he’s my mate, that his protective nature is a good quality rather than an annoyance. But what does she know? She also wants me to be fucking him right here in the hallway, so her judgement is a bit skewed.
“You going to let me go, or am I going to have to show you exactly how capable I am?” I ask, raising an eyebrow and glaring at him.
Slowly—so slowly—Luca slides his arms back from where they are wrapped around my torso, leaving a trail of electricity in their wake across my bare back. I need to stop wearing sports bras as tops.
“After you,” he says, a smug smirk plastered on his stupidly sexy face. And I realize I’ve been standing here way longerthan I should have. I’m blaming my disrupted orgasm from this morning for wanting his arms back on me. Wanting his touch.
Fuck. I am not a pushover. I will not forget that Luca has been treating me like crap for years, even if the idea of his protective nature is making me look at those events in a new light. Was he trying to keep me safe more than trying to exclude me? But no, it doesn’t explain the many, many times he put me down. Or why he didn’t want me at the damn movie nights.
I will not forget everything because he is the sexiest male I’ve ever seen, or because his proximity makes me feel like I need to touch him on a cellular level. It’s just the mate bond.
