Seduction (The Journal of the Wolves of Spruce Hollow) (38 page)

He was just about to start stitching him up, when Griff and I walked in. I took in Roan’s chiseled features and the skin beneath his eye and a wave of nausea reached up out of nowhere and punched me in the gut. I couldn’t help it, it was disgusting, seeing Roan’s skin split open like a piece of raw meat.
 

“Feeling a tad squeamish, young lady? If you’re going to throw up, the bathroom’s down the hall to the left,” Dr McArdle said as he knelt by Roan’s prostrate form.
 

I couldn’t watch as he pushed the needle through one side of the gaping cut and pulled it back up through the other side. I closed my eyes and prayed that he’d be done soon. I wondered if it would scar?
 

Not that it would make Roan any less attractive. On the contrary, I’m sure it would add an air of ferocity to his already potent lupine sexuality. Great. I would be beating the women off him with a stick now. Or teeth and claws. Take your pick, ladies.

Mine.

Roan belonged to me and I would never let him go.

I was surprised by the intensity of possessiveness I felt. It roared through my body as I opened my eyes and looked across the room to search out my mate. Roan was still unconscious on the floor but the wound under his eye was closed and a neat row of stitches followed the curve of his cheekbone.
 

Blessedly Dr.McArdle worked quickly and had moved on to Roan’s busted up knuckle.
 

“Oh, this isn’t bad at all, he only needs a couple of stitches to close it up.”
 

It looked bad enough to me. My stomach churned as I imagined the skin opened to the bone, which in turn made me feel like throwing up again.
 

I averted my eyes and concentrated instead on Caver, who was watching Sorcha talk to Griff with hidden irritation marring his handsome features.
 

Great, he was jealous and lusting after her already.
 

There was no way in hell that I was going to let the two of them get together, Sorcha deserved far better than the demented existence of Were life.
 

I refused to let Caver drag her into our world. Besides, I knew Caver and he would only tear her open, use her and toss her aside like garbage. I would kill him with my bare hands before I allowed that to happen.
 

I mean, I didn’t even understand the attraction. Sure they were both exceptionally physically attractive but I’d seen the women that Caver typically went after and Sorcha was not his type at all. She was too innocent and inexperienced.
 

If he thought the way she was dressed tonight was the way she normally looked, then he was in for a rude awakening.
 

Sorcha had worn a purity ring since high school and was saving herself for “the one”. I couldn’t wait to tell Caver about it. Because I knew he would call off his pursuit immediately once he found out that she didn’t sleep around.
 

And that was just fine with me.

Thankfully, Roan was quickly patched up under the experienced hands of Dr. McArdle and we were soon loaded back into the truck and on our way home.
 

I made sure that Griff dropped Sorcha off first. There was no way that I’d knowingly give Caver the opportunity to offer to drive her home later. Sure it would seem innocent enough but I knew that offer would turn out to be disastrous in so many ways.
 

I didn’t even want to think of it but knowing Caver the way I did, it would definitely involve him putting the moves on her and trying to wrest her virginity away.
 

Sorcha was too good and pure for this life and there was no way that I was going to allow Caver to drag her down into the mud with the rest of us.
 

I smiled and waved as Sorcha turned around and waved good-bye from her driveway. Her mouth was smiling but it didn’t reach her eyes. They were boring into mine in the back seat. She was completely confused and muddled by the night’s activities but like a true friend, she never faltered and had been there for me like a champ. I knew, without a doubt, that I would soon be getting a flurry of texts questioning what the hell was going on.
 

As soon as we drove off, Caver turned around in the front seat and started questioning me.
 

Was she single? Was she interested in anyone? Did she work or go to school?
 

I answered his questions as detachedly as possible. She was single (because guys always dumped her as soon as they found out that she wasn’t going to have sex with them). She was twenty-one, just like me. No, she wasn’t interested in anyone, although I was pretty sure she was interested in Caver but there was no way I was going to inflate his ego any more than it already was. She was going to college and was working on her parent’s farm for the time being. I was ready to lower the boom of her purity pledge when he surprised me by saying, “She’s really beautiful. She would be even prettier without all that makeup.”
 

What!?!
 

I’d seen the kind of women that Caver typically liked and they were all trashy looking, barely dressed and had enormous breasts.
What would possess him to say such a thing about Sorcha?
I knew Caver and he didn’t like decent girls like her.
 

“She doesn’t normally look like that, you know. She’s a nice, respectable girl,” I said, “She even wears a purity ring. She’s saving herself for her husband.”
 

I didn’t know if Caver could detect the glee in my voice but I hoped this final bit of information would put the final nail in the coffin of his interest in Sorcha.
 

“Oh wow, really? Huh, that’s one lucky guy who wins a woman like that,” he said as he stared wistfully out the passenger side window.
 

What the hell? He respected her decision to save herself until marriage?
 

What freakish alternate reality was I in where Roan was an aggressive drunk and Caver was a gentleman who respected virgins?!?

 
I was so done with tonight, it wasn’t even funny. I just wanted to go home and go to bed. Hopefully I would wake up on the right planet tomorrow.

Once we arrived back at my mother’s house, Griff and Carver carried Roan inside and dumped his unconscious body on his bed with a muted thump. He grunted softly as he landed on the bedspread.
 

“Sweet dreams, princess,” Caver laughed as they both turned around to walk out of the room. Griff stopped on the way out and hugged me as Caver called out “See ya later, Aspen!”
 

“Look, he’s going to be hurting pretty bad tomorrow. He’s a good man, Aspen. I know he’s screwed up repeatedly with you but I promise you that he’s always had your best interests at heart. He loves you desperately, you know. I’ve never seen him so torn up over a woman before. Try to forgive him.”

I sighed deeply into the hug, the tension from the night’s activities leaving my body as he patted me on the back. Griff was like my older brother and now that I was a Were, the connection between us was even stronger.

“I know Griff, I just feel hurt and confused about why he didn’t tell me about Dr. McArdle’s phone call this morning. Add to the mix the fact that I’m pregnant and I just feel overwhelmed with everything.”

“Exactly. Maybe you and Roan and not so different then. Just think about that. Either way, don’t make him pay for it for too long because he’ll be a bitch to work with on Monday,” Caver said as he ruffled my hair and left the room.

I crossed my arms and gave myself a hug as I turned and looked at Roan lying on the bed. He looked terrible. His skin was pale and sweaty with bruising along his cheekbone and around his eye socket. His hair was mussed up and his clothes were full of mud.He looked hard and completely disreputable

This was my child’s father.
God help the three of us
. We were going to need it.

I protectively put my hand over my stomach as I contemplated everything that having a child would mean to Roan and I. How would it change our relationship? Would Roan still love and desire me when I was waddling around with a huge pregnant stomach?
 

I suddenly felt nauseous as sour bile crawling up my throat. Running to the bathroom, I hastily flicked on the light and promptly emptied the contents of my stomach into the toilet.
 

If this was what being pregnant felt like, it was going to be a long nine months for me. Ugh.

I pulled myself up off the floor, washed my face and brushed my teeth. Roan hadn’t woken up from the sound of me throwing up, so chances were, he was out for the night. It was just as well, I didn’t want to rehash everything right now anyway. I still needed time to digest everything that had happened tonight.

Besides, I was exhausted enough as it was. I couldn’t wait to crawl into bed and fall asleep under the umbrella of comfort and safety that Roan’s presence always seemed to bring me.

Roan woke sometime in the night and stumbled to the bathroom. He seemed dazed and unsteady on his feet. Whether due to the alcohol or the residual tranquilizer, I wasn’t sure which, but I was wide awake and unable to sleep as I listened to him.
 

Turning on my side, I faced the wall and pretended to be asleep. My body was exhausted and I was in no mood to have a soul baring conversation about the baby and our future together with a semi coherent Roan.
 

However, I did listen intently to make sure he didn’t fall down and break his neck. He was okay though, I could hear him running the tap and getting a drink of water. So, obviously he was partially in charge of his faculties.
 

He returned to the bedroom and sat down heavily on the bed to remove his boots. You could tell that his senses were impaired because he yanked them off and plunked them down loudly onto the hardwood floor.
 

As he stood, unzipped his jeans and tossed them onto the floor, I could picture his hard, perfect body and the way his boxer briefs fit on his ass and hips.
 

The bed creaked under his weight as Roan half crawled, half fell onto the bed.
 

“Aspen?” he whispered quietly in the dark.
 

Silence.
 

There was no way in hell that I was going to get into it with him right now. That rough encounter was better saved for the light of day. He sighed heavily, moved to my side of the bed and pulled my back into his chest.
 

My body instantly relaxed against him as I melted in his arms.
 

I was safe
.

My eyes closed as I listened to the soft sound of Roan breathing right behind me. As I drifted off into oblivion, the last thing I remembered as sleep blessedly claimed me was Roan laying his hand protectively over my stomach and whispering words of love and devotion into the darkness.

Chapter 42

~Roan~

Aspen laid on her side in my bed with her pink t-shirt pushed up in the back. I drew lazy circles on her skin with my fingertips. She was quiet, but I knew she liked it from the little shivers and goose bumps that broke out as my fingers skated by.
 

She was angry and pretending to be asleep. But I knew she was awake from the rhythm of her breathing and the pounding of her heartbeat in her chest.

I rolled her limp form over and pulled her into me, with her back into my chest. The feeling of touching her, naked back to my naked chest was enough to get my dick hard. It didn’t help matters any when she wiggled her little butt into my crotch and snuggled deeply into me. I was still buzzed from drinking and could think of nothing more exciting than ripping her panties off and doing dark, unspeakable things to her.
 

But then she yawned softly and tucked her arm in like a little wing like she used to do when she was a kid -
and the world suddenly stopped.
 

I looked down at her and the protective urge that suddenly surged throughout my entire body from seeing her so defenseless, pregnant and trusting in my bed, made me quickly change my mind about sex.
 

I knew right then, without a doubt, that I would protect this beautiful and vulnerable little creature with everything I had to give.
 

Fuck me, I was
in love
with my mate. It all made sense now. The insane jealousy at the bar, the insecurity about not being good enough for her, then incredible sex. I
loved
Aspen.

It was truly an epiphany for me, as I’d felt many things towards Aspen over the years: possessiveness, dominance, anger, frustration, happiness, fear and sexual attraction.
 

I’d always “loved” her, since the day I first met her when she was six years old. But loving someone and being “in love” with them are two very different things.
 

There was no question in my mind anymore because now I’d felt the difference between the two.

I was in love with Aspen.