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No… Only one could have been the figure who commanded Loren to forget.
Lukas Grehmaine, the former Alpha of Black Mountain.
Bill loathed to even consider it—the tooth fairy seemed a more likely culprit. There had to be an explanation, but there just wasn’t time to think of one.
Her pain took precedence over all else. Though he tried to rationalize against it, he couldn’t resist the primal urge that made him hold her afterward. Comfort her, even if it meant strengthening the bond. Enduring her heat. Savoring the feel of her arousal on his fingertips like the sick monster he truly was.
Only when she finally drifted off to sleep could he do anything else.
Even if it meant literally running in circles.
After an hour of patrolling the property boundary under the guise of hunting for Eislanders—or any other enemy—Bill felt no calmer than before. The physical exertion was merely a way to stall. Otherwise, there was nothing to distract from the reality of what he’d done.
And learned.
Predictably, once the shock wore off, doubt set in. Then guilt.
The quest for answers aside, the method he utilized to retrieve them was…
Beyond dangerous. He had played with her head, extending a game that no one would win in the end. Hell, he’d had no right to enter her mind in the first place, good intentions or not. Either way, it was too late for regrets.
He could only pray that she recovered quickly enough with no lasting side effects. At best, she would be exhausted and drained for a few days. At worst, she would be prone to irrational outbursts and mild paranoia—to say the least of any emotional damage he might have done just by touching her like that.
His fingers burned, unwashed, still drenched in her scent.Damn. It took everything he had to curl a fist and keep himself from bringing them to his nostrils and inhaling all traces of her.
Until he couldn’t refrain any longer.
A strained hiss escaped him as guilt battled the arousal unfurling in his gut. Loren deserved so much better. Her first sexual encounter should have been with a man of her choosing—without the mating bond muddling her thoughts. His only consolation was that he hadn’t gone any further than touching. Tasting.
But,damn… His entire body hummed for more. He couldn’t get her scent out of his head, nor the memory of her writhing beneath him. If he could compel himself to forget, he would.
Nothing good would come out of this. The honorable man he claimed to be would go back now and break the bond, consequences be damned.
But how honorable could he be when he had based everything he knew on the example of the only figure in his life worth emulating?
Lukas had been his idol—and even that term was an understatement. That man gave him everything. His purpose. His place in the world. The knowledge he cherished and everything he admired about his lupine heritage. He wasn’t related to the Grehmains by blood, but no one would have known by the way the Alpha treated him. Few men, lupine or otherwise, would have accepted him so easily.
Every interaction Bill could remember had been punctuated with nothing but the stern but kind man he’d known his whole life. That man wouldn’t have compelled a child to silence. Not only that, but to deny her lupine side. It was…
Unheard of. Cruel wasn’t a heinous enough word.
Monstrous came close.
Even if he had years to dwell on it, he doubted he could come up with a plausible explanation.No.Only one place held the answers, and they didn’t have years to find them, but days. Maybe hours.
And if Lukka decided to preempt any move he might make… Well, that would certainly complicate things. Feeding his paranoia was the fact that Sonia hadn’t called him yet. The anomaly buzzed at the back of his mind, only to grow into full-blown fear by the time he finally returned to the house. He entered the kitchen and reached for the phone, dialing the number she typically called from.
No one picked up. On its face, that alone wasn’t enough to cause suspicion, but he knew Sonia. Either she was too busy to call him, or she physically couldn’t. The thought of her facing punishment on his behalf was too damn much.
Besides, he had another dilemma to worry about. Someone had summoned him to Elkton for a reason. The Eislander beta?
Their actual identity didn’t matter. Venturing so close to a rival territory—let alone Black Mountain—was risky at best. Though, hell, if he did plan on issuing a challenge, there was no better time than now to do so.
Lukka wouldn’t sit around twiddling his thumbs, waiting for his next move. In fact, the bastard was probably goading the Eislanders into doing his dirty work. Should they falter, Bill didn’t doubt the Alpha wouldn’t hesitate to come after him directly.
Suddenly, a shrill sound pierced the quiet—the phone, a sign from the universe if there ever was one. Warily, he answered it, unsure of what to expect. Lukka, issuing a summons?
“Bill?”
