Page 144 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

At last, Ian spoke. “You are right.”

I kept my eyes on the ceiling. “I know.”

A quiet breath that might have been almost amusement left him.

“I will try not to decide for you again,” he said.

“Try harder than that.”

“Yes.”

The answer was immediate.

Good.

I turned my head toward him. “And Ian?”

He leaned forward slightly. “Yes?”

“If you ever stop kissing me like that because you think I am too fragile to know my own mind, I will become very difficult.”

His eyes held mine, dark and gold and wounded in ways I was beginning to recognize.

“You already are,” he said.

“That better be admiration.”

“It is.”

The bond warmed.

I should have hated how much comfort I found in that warmth. Maybe tomorrow I would. Maybe tomorrow I would wake up furious, embarrassed, confused by my body and his restraint and the way I had nearly let him put his mouth between my thighs in a hotel suite while my supernatural bite glowed under bandages.

Tonight, I was too tired for the clean version of myself. Tonight, I had kissed him. I had wanted him. I had made him stop taking my answer away from me. Tonight, he had stayed close because I asked, and that would have to be enough.

Chapter 18:

One Good Thing

Ian

The north training ground was not a field, no matter what Ronan called it.

It was a walled acre of old resort land built into the slope behind the east wing, where luxury ended and the island remembered it had teeth. Cypress trees grew in crooked lines along the outer path, stone ruins cut the ground into broken chambers, and low hedges divided the center into narrow lanes that dropped toward a dry creek bed filled with pale rock and shadow. There were places to hide, places to fall, and enough blind corners that every instinct I had started making a list of where an enemy could wait.

Cassie stood twenty yards away beside Sava, wrapped in a loose black sweater over borrowed clothes, studying the grounds with narrowed eyes.

“This is not a field,” she said.

“No,” I agreed.

Her gaze moved to Ronan, who watched from the upper terrace. “You people are allergic to accurate naming.”

Ronan didn’t react. “The hunt ground is larger.”

“Of course it is.”

“This is the safest place to train.”