AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Your parents ran off and left you with a pack that didn’t really want any of you. And obviously you all didn’t care much for it, considering every one of you ran away from there.”
“I didn’t run away from my pack. I joined my mate’s pack after he…” She trails off, but I can read between the lines. He marked her the way she won’t allow me to, and then she followed him off to his own pack.
“It still sounds like running away to me.” I shrug, biting back my amusement as her face flames red at her growing irritation with me.
“Why are you picking a fight right now?” She throws her hands in the air.
“Easy.” I take a step closer, crowding her in the narrow hallway. “I like you better angry than broken.”
She gapes at me and sputters, trying to get words out. “You—I—How dare you?” She shoves at my chest, but I hold steady, refusing to move. That seems to double her anger, and she shoves harder. Her face is the picture of rage, her eyes wide and slightly-crazed, her skin flushed, and her eyebrows tilted down in a harsh line.
I still don’t budge.
“Why are you even here? Is this all just a game for you? Push the poor widow’s buttons until she caves, and then what? I’m not going to run off to live some kind of weird, rogue life with you with no home or stability. So then what? You get what you want and hightail it out of here? I’m not jaded like you. I like having a pack and family and history. I care about things!”
Forget this. I wrap my hands around her waist and push her up against the wall, thrusting a knee between her legs before she can close herself to me. The thought that I’m pushing her too far too fast briefly crosses my mind, but I shove the hint of guilt away.
Of all the bullshit shifter traditions I would like to throw away… The mate bond isn’t one of them.
“I care about one thing,” I whisper, our eyes locked as I tilt my face toward hers until I’m only a breath away from kissing her again.
Her jaw is so tight she’s lucky she doesn’t crack a tooth. I’m pretty sure she’s going to slug me, so I take a step back to give her the chance to get a good hit. I’ve trained with some of the best fighters the shifter world has ever seen. She can hit me as hard as she wants if it makes her feel better, it’ll still barely faze me.
I have her all wrong though, she doesn’t so much as raise a hand to hit me. She does take a deep breath, but her breathing hitches when a loud crack of thunder sounds overhead.
She jerks, her eyes widening. And then for a moment, everything seems to move in slow motion. There’s another loud crack, but it’s not thunder this time. It only takes a moment for me to realize a tree must have been hit. I’m already reaching for Tasha by the time we hear it hit the ground—close enough to make the ground rattle under our feet.
Tasha’s eyes are wide with fear as she launches onto me, her arms around my middle as I put a protective arm around her back and pull her close.
The ground seems to vibrate forever, and it gives me a bad feeling about how close the tree must have fallen.
“We should move to the library. There aren’t any windows in there, and we can find something to distract ourselves until the storm passes.” This is a good chance to try to redirect her attention away from my family bullshit.
“Okay.” Her voice wavers slightly.
I squeeze her tighter against me. As tough as she tries to be standing up to me, these little moments of vulnerability fucking kill me. I was ready to burn down everyone that’s ever hurt her when I caught her crying in the kitchen last night.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
She’s close enough that she has to rest her chin on my chest to look up and meet my eyes. There’s a patch of red on each of her cheeks. “Sorry.” She smiles sheepishly. “My parents abandoned us right before a big storm. I woke up to Tess scared and crawling into my bed after she found theirs empty. I don’t like storms.”
“C’mon.” I’d be tempted to pick her up if it weren’t for her damn comment about manhandling. I settle for keeping her plastered against me as we awkwardly shuffle into the library together, barely managing to squeeze through the doorway without separating.
It’s not just me hanging onto her, either. Her fingers are digging into my bare skin.
I’m starting to think it wasn’t an accident that Tess had the Anchorage Lake Pack Beta bring me pants to wear but no shirts. Maybe it’s possible that at least one of the Jarreaus is on my side.
Another crack of thunder sends Tasha reeling into me. It’s nearly impossible to catch me off-balance, but I almost stumble from the impact when her hip briefly brushes against the front of my pants.
This is pure fucking torture.
“We should go back to looking into Bellesfield,” I choke out as I carefully nudge her away from my rapidly hardening cock.
“I already hit a dead end with that.” She suddenly seems to realize her hands are still on my bare skin and jerks away. I instantly wish her hands were back on me, but I don’t push it. She would probably freak out if she realized how hard I am right now just from her brushing against me.
I step around her and pretend to stare at the bookshelves to buy myself a second to talk my dick down.
“There has to be something. You said yourself your brother wouldn’t be circling that area otherwise.”
