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They were joined by those of Graham, low and deep as he spilled into her, the veins in his neck now bulging with the force of this climax, his eyes almost feral as he watched her. Both of them shared a moment of sheer bliss until there was nothing left to give.
She leaned back against Jude, who kissed her damp cheek, Graham still inside her as her walls quivered and throbbed. He pulled himself up with his strong core and kissed her forehead.
There she sat, wrapped up in them, never feeling happier or more satisfied in her life.
Chapter 28
Delilah
“Youskank!”Mirandashouted,covering her mouth when she attracted the attention of a few customers. She had come in to get some coffee at the end of Delilah’s shift and wanted the juicy details of her date.
Delilah blushed. “Do you want to hear about this or not?”
“Sorry, sorry. Yes, I want to hear about it, sorry. Tell meeverything. I’ll be good.” The impish grin and the sparkle in her eyes told Delilah otherwise, but she continued.
“They took me to the Rembrandt Gala and then LeFae’s. Have you ever been?” When Miranda shook her head, Delilah described the evening in great detail, leaving nothing out as she’d been prompted.
When the story was finished, Miranda gave a long, dramatic sigh, fluttering her eyelashes and dropping her chin into her hands on the countertop. “Oh, Delilah! You’resooolucky!”
Unaccustomed as Delilah was to sharing the personal details of her life, it was good to tell a friend about her relationship. Anyway, Miranda was right. She felt like the most fortunate girl in the world.
Taking off her apron and bidding the staff goodbye, she pushed her way out the front door and walked heavily down the sidewalk toward the pack’s block. It had been a long day, but she wanted to see Graham and Jude if she could before going back to her apartment for some rest.
A couple of blocks down the street, though, the hair on the back of her neck stood on end the way it had in the grocery store just a few days before.Not again,she complained to herself. She felt like she was walking down the street completely naked, all eyes on her.
Taking out her cell phone, she dialed Graham and then Jude, then a couple of other pack members with no answer from any of them. A few of them not answering was normal, but not all of them, not at this time of day.
Walking a little faster, she mentally attempted to shake the feeling off, but it only intensified. It spread through her chest and settled on her shoulders like someone had dropped hot rocks down her shirt. Before she knew it, she was running down the street.
The wind whipped her hair into her eyes and sweat streamed down her back. She focused her thoughts on making it to the pack block before whatever it was caught up with her.
She didn’t stop to think about whether anything was actually there. It was enough that it felt like there was. She knew her pack would take her seriously.Her pack. Technically, that wasn’t accurate. She didn’t have a pack yet. She was still a lone wolf. More and more, though, she knew what her answer to Graham and Jude would be.
She had never felt so at home in the pack she was born into, and it would be sheer madness not to join the shifters she had come to care for so deeply. The simple knowledge that she had a place to go when she was scared, people who would take her at her word that something strange was going on, slowed her heart rate and calmed her thoughts.
Delilah settled into a more intentional pace, hurrying the rest of the way to Graham’s house. Letting herself in, she called for him several times with no answer. That in itself wasn’t something to worry about, but coupled with her call attempts, she began to get alarmed.
Running to Jude’s house, she found it the same—dark and empty with a somewhat sinister feeling. She rushed from room to room, knowing the house was empty and unaware of what she was checking for.I’ve got to remember to tell Graham and Jude never to throw me a surprise party,she thought.This is creepy.
Deciding to check the pack house, she ran to it with more hope that someone would be around. Surely, they would all be talking and laughing, sitting at the table with their phones off or something, and all would be well. They’d get a kick out of how panicked she had been.
She found no one at the pack house. The situation had officially escalated to worrisome. She even found signs of a hasty exit—doors half open, tasks half-finished, papers strewn here and there like people had literally dropped what they were doing and left.
As she wandered around, she searched her thoughts for ideas. No one had prepared her for this eventuality, and she didn’t know where to check next for someone who could tell her what the hell was going on. Just as she considered giving up and crying, the clock in the back room struck six, drawing her attention to the windows overlooking the courtyard.
Her wish to find somebody had been granted in spades. A crowd had gathered among the shrubbery in something of a messy circle, their backs to the windows. Instantly forgetting her alarm that everyone had bugged out without her, she strained to see over their heads to discover what had captured everyone’s interest.
No dice.She ran up the stairs to the second story and then the third until she could see straight to the middle of the circle. The first face she made out was Jonah’s and her heart slammed in her chest. He was in wolf form, teeth bared and snarling.
Jonah’s beta was also present in wolf form, but that didn’t scare her nearly as much as seeing Clark’s distinctive lope through the crowd. For all the world, they looked like they were stalking somebody. They circled like vultures, growling at somebody on the other side.
Delilah hoped beyond hope that she wouldn’t catch a glimpse of russet fur even as she did. She squinted, trying to find Jude in the shadows, and her heart sank as she saw him exactly where she had expected him to be, backing up Graham with their enforcers.
She also saw two other wolves she didn’t recognize from her perch at the third-floor window, but she didn’t need to know who they were to know that she had engendered this uncomfortable situation. Graham and Jude had to know this was her fault, but to their credit, they hadn’t sent anyone to get her.
Maybe they had actually been serious when they said they didn’t care about her past. Serious or not, however, they couldn’t have been prepared for her past to follow her here and cause such problems for the Grimmaw pack.
Still, they hadn’t sent for her, and she had to consider the idea that her presence might cause more problems than it would solve. She could leave now, bow out gracefully, and disappear. They would have plausible deniability, and Jonah wouldn’t be able to do anything when they couldn’t produce her.
