AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I stared at him for a moment as I came to the realization that it was possible for someone to be furious and romantic at the same time. At least for him.
"Okay," I finally said.
He frowned, as if he hadn't heard me right. "Okay? That's all you have to say after that?"
"That, and this," I said, wrapping my arms around his neck to kiss him. He froze, and as rare as it was for me to catch him off guard, I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to enjoy it.
When I finally pulled away, he was dazed and confused. "What the hell was that?" he demanded.
"That was for walking away," I answered. "You could have chosen revenge. Instead, you chose to come home."
His gaze softened as he cupped my face in his hand. "Of course I did," he muttered. "I chose you. I’ll always choose you." He paused. "And for the record, I would have won."
Tears were streaming down my face, and I couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah. I know you would have. But I'm grateful all the same."
"You're such a crybaby," he said, wiping a tear off my cheek with his thumb. There was fondness in his voice as he said it, though. "Guess it makes sense now, you being an omega and all."
"Fuck you," I mumbled half-heartedly against his lips. He pulled me back in for a searing kiss, and this time, he was the one in control. He kissed me breathless, hugging me close to his body. Usually, he felt cool to the touch, but his skin was almost uncomfortably warm against mine. I assumed it was a result of him shifting for the first time.
"Gross." I looked up to find Arrow watching us, his nose wrinkled in disgust. "Can you guys make out later? I'd rather leave before the big-ass monster wolf changes his mind. That, and I'm getting antsy being surrounded by all these wolves I can't kill."
Castor turned to me, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "Let's go home."
No matter how many times he said that, it was never going to get old.
ChapterThirty-Eight
CASTOR
"Pathetic," I announced as Eddie lunged at me in his wolf form. I easily caught him before he could follow through on the threat behind his snarl. I dropped him back onto the training room floor and said, "Again. In a real fight, you’d be dead by now."
He growled in frustration, his light fur bristling.Real prey wouldn't scruff me like a pup.
"You're right, they would tear your throat out," I replied. "You're the one who's been hounding me about letting you get back out on the field. And you agreed to my terms,” I reminded him.
The wolf rolled his eyes.Regular training, and no going out when I'm in heat. Yeah, I know the drill.
"Good," I said. "Then stop complaining and get back to work."
He gave another growl of frustration, and it was all I could do to hide my amusement. He was cute when he was angry. He was always cute, but his eyes were an especially vivid shade of gold when I pissed him off, and after four hours of nonstop training, I could tell he was at the end of his fuse.
He would just have to find a way to deal with it, though. I was already making enough concessions by even entertaining the possibility of letting him go out with me on the hunt again, but he was a good hunter, and we were definitely shorthanded after the last raid. Just because we had a tentative truce with the Graystone pack didn’t mean we could let our guards down. Not when the greatest threat out there was another clan of hunters.
I had learned my lesson, though. Keeping Eddie in line meant keeping him from getting bored, which was always when his more self-destructive impulses tended to manifest into mischief and general chaos.
For better or for worse, I had succeeded at turning him into a hunter, and now I had to live with the consequences. I’d just never imagined the worst potential consequence of all would be losing him, but I had no intention of allowing that to happen. He was mine, and no one was going to take him away from me. Not another shifter, not another hunter, not anything.
We spent the next half hour running through his training exercises before he actually managed to get in a hit. As his fangs sank into my forearm, I felt a curious combination of pride and irritation.
He released me immediately, looking at me with wide, worried eyes.Shit! I'm sorry, are you okay?
"Why are you sorry?" I asked, shaking the blood off my arm. The wound was already beginning to heal. Ever since I had shifted for the first time, my healing abilities had gone into overdrive, and so had everything else. I could hear just about everything that was going on inside the Abbey, and as overwhelming as the extrasensory input had been at first, I was already adjusting.
My own transformation had been proof enough that I was right about hybrids. They were much too dangerous to be permitted to exist without challenge. But if I was already a wolf, what did it matter if I was a particularly monstrous one? It would just make it easier to protect him.
I had spent most of my life hunting monsters, but I had never felt more equipped for the job than I did now that I was the worst kind.
I hurt you,Eddie whimpered, loping over to sniff my arm. He licked the wound his fangs had opened, looking like a scolded puppy.
