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When Draven slipped into the passenger seat, his wolf was as close to the edge as he was. What was it about this woman that drove them insane?
Flora bounced nervously in the seat next to him, and he remembered what it was like to sit behind the wheel for the first time. He’d been barely a teenager when his father had let him drive his Ford pickup. It was a different time, the world moved at a slower pace in the nineteen thirties, but the feeling was the same. The freedom of the open road, the power of knowing he controlled his own fate.
Flora mumbled words pulled him from his memory.
“What was that?”
Her cheeks flushed his favorite shade of pink. “It’s nothing.”
He knew damn well it wasn’t nothing, not with the way she avoided his gaze. “Tell me what you said, Flora.”
“I said, ‘I’m a badass bitch.’”
Draven smiled, biting back the laugh that caught in his throat. Those were the last words he expected to fall from her lips. Flora may be a badass bitch, but it was hidden beneath the layers of prim and proper that were ingrained in her brain from years of castle etiquette.
“Is that your daily affirmation?”
“More like a reminder that I am not what I came from.”
He looked out the windshield, pondering her declaration and what she hid in the depths of her soul that would make her need the reminder. Draven opened his mouth to ask her just that, but was interrupted by Flora pressing on and effectively ending the conversation.
“Okay now what?” Flora avoided his gaze and looked at the dash.
Her secrets didn’t sit well with him, but he needed her to trust him. To lighten up. So he moved on with her driving lesson. “Foot on the break and press the start button on the dash.”
Flora followed his direction, and before long, she was pulling out onto the road her hands firmly gripped at ten-and-two on the wheel. She teetered between laughing and gasping as she steered them down the road and onto the highway.
Once she felt comfortable, Draven reached across the dash and turned the radio up, scanning the stations. “What do you like to listen to?”
Flora remained silent for a beat, her eyes never leaving the road. “Promise not to laugh.”
“With you, I make no such promises.”
She scoffed and her lips pulled into a tight sneer. Damn if her disrespect didn’t make him want to take her over his knee and put her in her place. He’d always demanded respect from those around him, his position in the pack demanded it. But she wasn’t pack, and that meant she didn’t have to abide by his rules. Or maybe he didn’t want her to. Defiance had never been his kink, he didn’t understand the allure of a brat. But with Flora, just the thought of her resistance made his dick hard.
He changed the station again, a classic country song playing through the speakers. “Maybe a bit of my southern roots is what you want?”
Flora scoffed. “This is what you consider music?”
“I’m sorry it’s not classical bullshit.” He grinned.
“I listen to more than that.”
Draven flipped to another station. A Latin beat filled the car and he was sure if Mateo was there he’d make him stop and serenade them all.
“Not my style either.”
“Oookay.” He flipped through two more stations until Flora screeched.
“Stop! This is my favorite song.”
He sent a silent thank you to the Goddess and was instantly entranced by the way Flora danced in her seat to Bon Jovi’sLivin’ on a Prayer.
Wouldn’t it figure she was a classic rock kind of girl? If it wasn’t country, the rock station played in his own truck, and the image of her riding shotgun with him warmed a place in his heart he’d never dared hoped would be filled by a woman. He’d always known he was obligated to take a wife, produce an heir, but he never imagined he’d find one that would check all his boxes and even some of those he didn’t know he had. One who wouldn’t scoff at what he was or look at him with an Alpha’s reverence. Or worse, give him the look that said she was only there for the title of mate.
Flora’s smile and the carefree attitude that radiated from her as she sang was contagious. She may be a pampered princess, but she was also more down to earth than any royal he’d ever met. He reached over and rolled down the windows and tapped her on the shoulder.
“Floor it,” he shouted over the music.
