AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The music was lively, giving us the opportunity to engage in a bit of silly, flirtatious dancing. I spun Marley around and pulled her back in, swaying on the dance floor instead of bumping and grinding like teenagers.
Again, I thought of what it might be like to share a first wedding dance with her. To see her all dressed up in white. To take the garter off her thigh with my teeth.
I wanted everything with her. I wanted to give her everything. That feeling only deepened as the music changed to a heartfelt ballad that probably came out twenty years ago—something my parents may have even danced to. I held her close, one hand on the small of her back, the other cradling hers.
She looked up at me dreamily as we danced, her face faintly flushed from the alcohol and the exertion of dancing in a hot room.
“I love you,” she murmured.
The words were so simple, and I’d heard them a hundred times before, but they never failed to knock the wind right out of me.
“I love you,” I said back fervently. “I’m so fucking happy I found you, Marley. And I’m glad you keep me around, even with all my mistakes and baggage.”
“It’s easy when you’re so wonderful,” she said. “You’re impossibly easy to love.”
I smiled and huffed a little laugh before brushing my nose against hers. “Right back at you, baby.”
“May I have a kiss?” she asked sweetly.
“Of course.”
As I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers in this moment of levity amid a sea of uncertainty, I knew one thing for certain.
I was going to marry this girl.
Chapter 7
Marley
We kept having to delay Cole claiming me. Between my lessons with River, Cole’s meetings with his grandfather and other pack leaders, and the lunches and dinners both Travis and Jack insisted we have together, we were struggling to find the time for a chase through the forest.
I was trying not to be impatient, but every time I saw Cole interacting with another woman, I found myself wondering if she didn’t think I counted as his mate because he hadn’t claimed me. Some little secret part of me wondered if he would find someone he was more interested in while we were here. What if he met the perfect shifter woman?
I tried not to let the idea get to me too much. I knew my insecurities were coloring my perception of things. But I was starting to worry that Cole had changed his mind about claiming me. I was beginning to lose hope that we’d do it at all before the trip was over. We’d be going home in a few days, and I doubted that we could swing doing it there.
After the night at the brewery, Lana told us that Lanyon Clover hadn’t left yet despite Wyatt and Curt being past problems. She sent me some social media pages run by so-called “exterminators” who claimed to run down criminal shifters and get them detained by police. It looked like they ran a bunch of crummy self-defense courses, too, so I wondered if they were trying to radicalize other humans in the area and pull more people to their cause.
Whatever the case, there was no way we could do the claiming back home. There were too many people, and too many chances for something to go wrong and for the authorities to be called.
I tried my best to shrug it off. I only really needed to be claimed for the visit to the Georgia pack, anyway. And we were about to leave now. Maybe it was for the best that we didn’t push it.
At least, that was what I tried to tell myself as I finished cleaning up after making some dinner. Cole was at another meeting of the minds, this time with Travis, Jack, and Vic. He’d offered to let me join him, but they were going to be talking numbers for the dormitories and the community center, and I didn’t want to be in the way. Not to mention, Travis and Cole would be pretty focused, and Jack would be filming them.
I was still nursing some soreness from River’s lessons, anyway, so I decided to make something to eat and take a bath.
I was still soaking in the bath when Cole got home.
“Baby?” he called through the small house, a nervous edge to his voice.
“In the bath!” I called out.
I heard his feet on the stairs and then in the bedroom before he appeared in the bathroom doorway.
“Well, don’t you look cozy,” he said warmly.
“Mmm,” I said sleepily. “Trying to soak off some of the soreness. How was the meeting with Vic?”
“Good. We’ve got a solid business plan lined up,” he said. “Got some more information about the grant stuff, too. He gave me some contacts in DC to get in touch with. The man is remarkably well-connected.”
