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While Maria remained with the pack, Derek took Iris back to the house for some private time.
Derek pulled his lips away, breathing heavily on Iris’s neck.
“I can sense your pain through our bond, Iris,” he said. “I know how much you struggled.”
“It was so hard,” she agreed.
The thought that Derek was back safe with her again was almost too good. All those terrible images she had formulated, preparing herself for the worst of scenarios, started to fade from her mind.
He moved in, kissing her neck and driving his fangs lightly against her skin. He sensed her anticipation.
“We can’t do this right now, can we?” Iris asked, nearly cursing herself for interrupting him.
The images that flowed through her mind were of a completely different variety. She wanted Derek to say no. She wanted him to keep ravaging her regardless of how much she begged.
But her new family waited for her, and they were struggling, having endured a great trauma. She needed to return to them and truly find vengeance for what had been done to Ava.
Derek laid his head on her shoulder. “I wish you’d talk to me,” he griped, rubbing his chin against her clavicle. “I can feel your adrenaline spiking. You’re angry. You want to do something really rash.”
Iris shook her head but couldn’t deny what her body was doing.
“I don’t get how you’re not,” she said. “We should be ripping them into pieces, not sitting here and biding our time.”
Derek moved away from her, pacing on the floor of the living room.
“There’s a time to rip, tear, and shred,” he said, through intermittent wandering. “There’s a time to make them pay. To savor their blood on your teeth. To look into their eyes as the last speck of energy leaves their body, and there’s nothing remaining but a husk.”
Her chest heaved, and she wondered how fucked up it was to hear him talk like this and be aroused. He had a calm, collected, and gentle face he used when he led his pack, but there was a deeper, darker side to him that the wolf in her loved.
“And there’s a time to recuperate. To rest and savor the things you haven’t lost. To gather your energy for the next hunt.”
He stopped pacing near the dining room table, then approached her and moved in close. When his eyes were level with hers, she could only marvel at the beautiful hues of gold and slight specks of crimson. His hand landed on the small of her back.
She so badly wanted him to bend her over.
“As my luna, you need to learn that distinction,” Derek said. “Stop overextending yourself. Learn to forgive yourself for being mortal.”
She nodded in response.
Just then, her sensitive shifter ears heard someone approaching. The front door opened, and Mason popped his head in, carrying toys from the bunker. Behind him, Jost hefted several of the blankets.
“Oh,” Mason said, nearly doubling back and averting his eyes. She heard the commotion of several more pack members behind him.
“I’m so sorry. Are we interrupting something?”
But he couldn’t hide the grin from his face. It was as though he had found a more polite way to tell themto get a room.
“What’s the matter, Mason?” Derek asked, moving his hand just off of Iris’s shoulder. “Never seen two adults kissing before?”
Mason muttered something under his breath, not so loud that others could hear, before chuckling to himself and carrying the toys into the playroom.
“Does the rest of the pack know Cyrus got away?” Iris asked quietly, breaking away from Derek as more members of the pack shuffled past them.
“I’ll call a meeting once everybody cools down,” Derek said. “You’ve all had a long day. I’m giving it time before we jump into it.”
Iris nodded. They helped everybody continue to move back to the pack house from the bunker, though Iris was worried that Cyrus would be on the loose, looking for revenge.
When they had finished moving everything, Iris cuddled up next to Derek as the moon sparkled in white beams through the windows of their suite. She had to keep herself from touchinghim too much. She was crazy with need, still recovering from the idea that he was finally back in her arms.
