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I rub my chest as I look at the floor and shake my head. My words don’t match the action when I whisper, “I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” the words are like barbs and my head snaps up and my eyes narrow at him. He holds his hands up, amusement in his gaze, “That’s not how I meant it, little moon.”
The shards of glass around my heart pull away and it’s like I can take a full breath again. It feels like it’s been forever since I was able to fill my lungs completely.
“I don’t understand what’s happening,” I murmur, Crew’s blue eyes holding me captive and pulling the truth from me no matter how much I want to stand strong in front of him. “There’s been this pain in my chest,” I rub the spot again absently, “but it’s better right now.” I shake my head and force myself to look away from him, my words defensive, “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“It makes sense to me,” he mumbles more to himself than me.
Since I don’t know what he’s talking about, I don’t say anything in response. How can he understand my pain? Why am I even feeling it?
I turn back toward where I left my cup and dump the last of the milk into the sink. “Hopefully it’ll go away when I go back to college,” I try and placate him, me, and this entire situation.
I’m sure Crew will be thrilled when I leave here. He’s made it clear that he’s not my biggest fan even though I haven’t done anything to him to earn his displeasure.
A strong, warm chest presses against my back and every muscle in my body relaxes, even those I hadn’t realized here tensed and tight. The pain in my chest evaporates completely as tingles race over my skin everywhere Crew is touching me.
This time when I gasp it’s not in pain, but in pure pleasure. I’ve never felt something so good against my skin. It’s hard to breathe with how good it feels.
“I’m sorry about your pain,” he murmurs against the shell of my ear.
Before I can even process what is happening, the weight of him at my back is gone. I spin around to look at him, but he’s gone. Was he even here in the first place?
The way his burning wood and crisp apple scent lingers in the room tells me that it wasn’t a figment of my imagination. But where did he go? How did he leave so fast?
The ache in my chest creeps back in with every breath I take, the relief short lived. The tingles are gone completely, and I find myself missing them.
As I make my way back upstairs to my room, I try and figure out what the hell just happened, but I’m at a loss. For the first time in days, when my head hits the pillow sleep consumes me.
CHAPTER 8
CREW
After talking with Elodie last night, I was finally able to get some sleep. I think it was because I had her scent on my skin from when I pressed my front against her back. I wasn’t the only one settled for the first time in days; my wolf was finally satisfied because I spoke with our mate instead of avoiding her.
“You need to let her in,” my wolf growls. “Didn’t you see the fire in her eyes when she gave you shit about the other females?”
I can’t help but smile at the memory, which my wolf helps along by projecting an image of the look of contempt on our mate’s face. It shouldn’t make my grin widen, but it does. Not the contempt part but remembering the edge of jealousy she couldn’t hide from us.
Even though I haven’t encouraged the females of the pack that I’ve had arrangements with in the past, they’ve been pushing even harder the last few days to get my attention. I barely stopped myself from snarling at the women whenever I would get a hint of my mate’s hibiscus and spun sugar scent nearby. I would smell her, but I couldn’t get a good look at her.
It became clear very quickly that she was avoiding me.
That only made my wolf more intent on hunting her down to be near her. I barely kept him contained. He loves a good hunt and her teasing scent had us on edge.
The only reason I went down to the kitchen last night was to stop myself from going to her room. I don’t know how she would have reacted to me showing up at her door, but I can’t imagine it would have been good.
Fucking hell, she was looking sexy as hell last night. Her pajamas weren’t overtly sexy, but I’ve never seen something more enticing on a woman. It wasn’t easy to stop myself from sucking one of her hardened nipples into my mouth through the tank top she had on.
I dreamed last night of all the sounds she would have made if I had given into the impulse to touch her even more than I did. I probably shouldn’t have done that much, but I couldn’t stand her being in pain any longer.
She wasn’t alone in having an ache in her chest; I’ve been experiencing the same thing. Maybe it helps knowing it was because we weren’t near each other and denying the bond. She doesn’t have to know about the connection between us because avoiding me is a form of denying the bond.
The way Elodie fit against my body last night was perfect. It only brought home what my wolf had already been pounding into me—she’s my perfect fit and made just for me.
“Told you,” my wolf gloats.
I roll my eyes at his words. For as big, bad, and violent as my wolf can get, he’s been acting like a pup all day. I would make fun of it for him, but I’m not that much different.
