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“Simone! Simone! Come back here,” called Mischa as he followed her.
She couldn’t stop. For one thing, she didn’t want to puke all over him, and for the other, she didn’t want to see the disappointment or anger in his eyes. She might as well repack her things. She was quite sure not being able to shift would be a deal breaker, which was a shame as she’d really begun to enjoy herself. GiGi would just have to take her place, and Simone knew there would never be anyone else for her, and that she would envy GiGi until the day she died.
Simone reached the safety of her room and closed the door, engaging the lock and jumping back when his hand thundered against it.
“Open this door,” he growled, menacingly.
She had nothing left to lose. “No,” she said with as much bravado as she possibly could.
Before she could even consider the ramifications of that word, the door burst in, and Mischa stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
“I told you that no lock could keep me from you. What the hell got into you downstairs?”
“Into me? You’re the one who got angry with me. Angry for something I can’t help. Don’t you think I want to be able to shift? To go run with you through this beautiful land of yours? But I can’t. Something is wrong with me, and no one knows how to fix it. I’m not the perfect dire wolf mate you wanted.”
He looked stunned. “You thought I was, or am angry with you?”
“Who else were you growling at?”
Mischa actually managed to look sheepish. “Yeah. I’m not perfect, either. I have a notoriously bad temper and Valentin tells me I’m grumpy a lot of the time.”
“He’s wrong. I think you’re grumpy most of the time. But don’t think I haven’t seen how hard you’ve been trying to make me feel welcome. I just know what you wanted, and I don’t know that I can get it for you.”
Mischa sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, holding his hand out to her, waggling his fingers to entreat her to approach.
“I forget that as much as I don’t know you, you don’t know me, either. Come here. Come sit in my lap.”
“I should probably turn on the light.”
“I find these things often work out better in the dark. I’m not angry at you. Trust me, Simone. Trust me enough to come sit in my lap.”
She walked over to him, and he drew her onto his lap. It felt natural to wrap her arm around his shoulders as his arm curled around her middle. At first, she was nervous and as rigid as a board, but he did nothing other than to hold her and just let her be. There was something intimate about sitting there with him, alone in the fading light.
She inhaled his scent. There was something warm and masculine about him that she’d never encountered before. Her body softened as he began to rock her, holding her close and almost humming to her. But she realized it wasn’t an actual sound, but rather something she heard internally and felt as well.
“I’m sorry you thought I was angry at you. I’m not. I could see how upset you were with not telling me to begin with and even more that you’ve been denied a part of yourself that should have been as natural as breathing. That had to be frightening.”
“It was, and no one can explain it. No one says it to me directly, but the gist of it is I’m lacking or I’m broken or something just isn’t right.”
“None of that is true.”
“You don’t know that,” she said with a sob.
“I do. I may not know why you can’t shift, but I know it isn’t anything you did or that you can control. I just want you to feel safe and to know that we are your pack now, and the Tangled Vines pack takes care of their own.”
“I’m sorry I ran out of the room like that. I was having a really good time.”
“Good. Were you having a good enough time to trust me just a little bit more?” he asked in a deep voice that seemed to permeate her soul and take up residence there.
She nodded and he helped her off his lap. Simone was disappointed because she’d begun to enjoy sitting there wrapped in his arms.
He reached for the hem of her sweater. “Let me get you undressed. Nothing will happen that you don’t want to happen, and I will remain completely clothed. I just want to give you a bit of pleasure so that when I tuck you in bed, you can sleep and perhaps dream of me.”
When she said nothing, he drew the sweater over her head and tossed it onto the bed. Kneeling down, he helped her out of her booties before unzipping her jeans and shimmying them past her ass and down her thighs before helping her step out of them. His breath was warm on her belly, and every place their skin connected, it was if there was a live wire arcing between them. He hooked his fingers on either side of her panties and pulled those down, as well.
He took a deep breath at the apex of her thighs and smiled up at her. “Do you have any idea how incredibly beautiful I think you are? Or how much I want to let the feral beast inside me take control, drag you underneath me, and impale you with my cock?”
She shook her head, but she wasn’t afraid. “No. Does it make me bad to like hearing that?”
