Wolf Moon (36 page)

Dropping my parents off
at the airport was even more difficult than I’d imagined. I knew they didn’t
currently belong in my world and we wouldn’t be able to peacefully coexist
until I had a firm handle on what I was and what I was capable of, but it still
hurt to watch them go. I tried telling myself that I was fortunate to have the
week that we’d just shared, but now that they were gone, it just didn’t seem
like enough.

Because we’d made it
through the visit without anything
too
awful happening—and with the coven out of commission—I figured that
a trip to Scottsdale in the near future might not be out of the question. Maybe
Nick and I could slip away sometime in the spring.

When we made it back to
the Manor, I wasn’t surprised to hear that Vince and Marcus were over at Vince
and
Layla’s
waiting for the window installers to fix
the shattered window. Because the attack happened over the holidays, they had
thrown a tarp over the broken window after we’d left for the hotel, but they
had to wait until after the holidays to get a
repair man
out there.

Our first day back was
pretty low-key. There was no need for morning patrols of the perimeter, which
meant the house was full and lively almost all day long. It surprised me to
find how much I’d missed it while we were visiting with my parents. I knew I’d
bonded with some of the Pack, but I hadn’t realized just how deeply those bonds
were forged.

With the full moon just
around the corner, the tension continued building in my body. It wasn’t as intense
as the last couple times, but I was still highly aware of it. My muscles were
tight, and the tingle had returned in my shoulder. By the next night, I
expected my arm to feel like it was engulfed in flames right before my shift; I
only hoped my recent acceptance would help ease the sensation…even if only a little.

Another thing that had
heightened was my libido. I couldn’t seem to focus on anything other than Nick.
I knew a large part of it was the moon, but when compared to last month, it
seemed a lot more powerful. Just having him next to me in bed sent my thoughts
into overdrive. My dreams were passionate, the
love-making
forceful yet caring. I could have sworn his hands were actually on me as we
writhed passionately beneath the sheets.

I awoke with a start when
my dream reached its peak. My skin was glistening with sweat, my hair likely
tangled and standing on end from tossing and turning, and my hands trembled
with the aftermath of my dream. I could barely catch my breath as I fell back
onto my pillow and stared up at the ceiling, trying to calm my racing heart.
The heavy pulse between my thighs forced my knees together in an effort to
quell it, but all it did was intensify it and make me more uncomfortable.

Beside me, the mattress
dipped as Nick rolled over. He leaned on both of his arms, which made me happy
because that could only mean the break was mostly healed and he was feeling
next-to-no pain.

“Good morning,” he
greeted, his voice low and gravelly with sleep still. His blue eyes moved over
me, his eyebrows furrowing when he registered my disheveled appearance. “You
okay?”

I inhaled deeply, running
my fingers through my hair, and nodded. “Yeah. Just had a wild dream,” I
explained, glancing at his hands and remembering them on my body. “How was your
sleep? Your arm feeling better?”

Nick acknowledged the
fact that he was leaning on his arms and smirked. “It’s still a little tender,
but it’s manageable.” He sat up and rotated his shoulder, then stretched out
his arm. “I seem to have full range of motion again, so that’s something.”

I rolled onto my side and
openly ogled his naked upper body. Seriously
;
I didn’t
even try to hide it. The heavy pulse between my thighs returned tenfold.

His scars from the other
night had lightened substantially, and were only slightly more noticeable when
compared to all the others that covered his body. His flannel sleep pants
rested right on his
hip bones
, showing off that
muscular “V” that dipped behind the elastic waistband.

It wasn’t the first time
it had happened to me, but something about one of his scars stood out to me,
and I didn’t know why; on his right hip was a small circular scar. All the
others were gashes, like he’d been cut or clawed during a fight. This one was
an almost perfect circle, and I was curious as to where he got
it from.
The mystery of its origin nagged at me.

I shook off the bizarre
feeling and rolled out of bed, noticing the time. I panicked until Nick helped
ease the guilt I felt about having overslept.

“Miranda told me before I
came to bed that we should sleep in today. She said it would be beneficial to
my healing…” He paused. “And it looks like she might have been exactly right.
Those extra couple hours seem to have done the trick.” With a sly look in his
eyes, Nick shifted closer to me and pulled me back onto the bed beside him.
“So, tell me about this dream.”

Embarrassed, I shook my
head as he nuzzled my neck and inhaled deeply. “It was nothing.”

He breathed in once more
before pulling his face from the crook of my neck. “Doesn’t smell like
nothing,” he retorted, arching an eyebrow suggestively as his right hand moved
down my arm, over my abdomen and teased the hem of my shorts until he stroked
my inner thigh.

Lust fogged my brain, but
I managed to meet his gaze, my eyes widening in disbelief, and said, “That’s a
creepy little talent you have there, you know that?”

“I don’t hear you denying
it,” he challenged, the amber ring around his pupils warming until the
aqua-blue of his irises popped. His fingers continued the back and forth motion
along the juncture between my legs.

My belly tightened, and
warmth spread across my cheeks as a surge of energy shot through me. Pulling my
lower lip between my teeth, I smiled at him. Now that the threat of the coven
had been dealt with, I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. No
one would come after us ever again which meant I might actually be able to move
on with my life and find happiness after so much tragedy.

Another wave of lust
rolled over me as his fingers pressed a little harder, making my body hum with
the possibilities. “How can I deny it when you can sense every little shift in
my body chemistry?” I quipped, warming to the idea of giving in more and more
with each passing second. “The way my body grows hot when you’re near me, how
my pheromones spike and my heartbeat quickens.”

His own desire thickened
the air as he pushed his hips against my outer thigh. I could feel his arousal
as much as I could sense it. Lowering his lips to mine, he kissed me gently at
first, testing the water. My hunger for him consumed me, and I deepened the
kiss, threading my fingers into his hair and holding him in place.

With a groan of
satisfaction, Nick slipped between my thighs, and I celebrated the fact that
maybe we were finally ready to take that step.

Unfortunately, voices down
the hall reminded me of our lack of privacy, and a loud knock on our door
yanked us from the moment.

Breathing heavily, I
dropped my head back to the pillow and closed my eyes. Nick rested his head
against my shoulder and groaned. “What?” he demanded, his breath hot against my
skin.

On the other side of the
door, Zach stammered. “Sorry, man. Marcus wants to see you.”

Nick lifted his head, his
expression apologetic. “Rain check?”

“Yeah,” I whispered
softly, trying to keep the disappointment from my face. I was pretty sure I did
a lousy job of it. “Of course. I should do some laundry, anyway.”

Nick grinned broadly. “I
knew I could domesticate you eventually.”

Rolling my eyes, I shoved
him off of me and stood up. “Go to your Alpha and stop pestering me.”

I was bending over to
start gathering our laundry when Nick slapped my ass on the way to our
bathroom. I squealed, and he chuckled before closing the door behind him so he
could get ready.

After throwing the first
load of laundry in the wash, I headed back upstairs to put away the clean
clothes from our little holiday. I opened up our bags and started sorting
through everything. Once my stuff was where it all belonged, I opened the
drawer to put Nick’s T-shirts away only to find it cluttered and disorganized.
It looked as though a bomb had gone off inside his dresser.

With a laugh, I shook my
head. “Glad to see some things never change,” I muttered to myself, setting his
clean and nicely folded shirts atop the dresser before folding the others. It
was beyond my comprehension how he could find anything in a drawer like this.
As I folded, I put each shirt on the pile I had built on the top of the
dresser, and I reached back into the drawer for the last one when something beneath
the cotton fabric caught my eye.

I yanked my hand back,
clutching it against my chest like I was afraid it might bite me. I froze,
unable to bring myself to touch the royal blue velvet box. Suddenly, my memory
registered the box; I’d seen it before—handed it over to Nick’s mother
seven years ago in an effort to move on with my life.

I tried to tell myself it
wasn’t the same box. How could it be? Who holds onto something like that for so
long?

Slowly, and with
trembling hands, I reached out and picked it up. The velvet was as soft as the day
Nick gave it to me. The hinges squeaked as I opened it, and I gasped upon
finding my engagement ring gently nestled within the box. The diamond wasn’t
very large given Nick had only just started working at the time, but it was
extremely beautiful. The round diamond sparkled in the light of my
room,
the fire dancing around each facet of the stone, and
the white gold band hadn’t tarnished much with age. It was nothing a little
polish wouldn’t fix.

The bedroom door clicked
shut behind me, making me jump. Nick’s eyes moved from me to the ring in my
hands, and his eyebrows rose.

“Y-you kept it,” I
whispered. “After all this time?”

Nick took a step toward
me, his gaze colliding with mine. There was a passion in his stare that pulled
me toward him like a moth to a flame, but if I looked deep enough, I also saw
fear. “Like I said before, I remained hopeful that you’d take me back.”

At a loss for words, I
set the box beside the freshly folded shirts and took a step toward Nick. My
heartbeat quickened, and my stomach fluttered as his eyes burned into mine. I
couldn’t figure out what it was he seemed afraid of.

My desire for him sparked
to life the second we were within inches of each other. The flames beneath my
skin burned hotter when Nick reached out and cradled my face in his right hand.
My eyes fluttered closed, and I sighed, covering his hand with mine.

“I love you, Brooke.” His
confession forced my eyes open. “I need you to know that this is me and not
tonight’s full moon.”

My eyebrows pulled
together in confusion, but it all became clear when he pressed his lips to
mine. The kiss was hungry and insistent as he wrapped his arms around my waist
and lifted me off the ground. I moaned, and he took that brief second to deepen
the kiss and bite my lower lip. In one fluid moment, he slid his hands down
over the swell of my ass and gripped my thighs, parting them. He wrapped my
legs around his hips as he spun us around and walked over to the bed.

When he lowered us to the
bed, our desperation for one another took over as we pulled at each other’s
clothes, stripping away every barrier between us, no matter how small. Ever
since we acted so impulsively in the shower and I let my lust take control, I
wanted to savor this moment, but after everything that had happened, I couldn’t
take the chance of anything else coming between us.
 

That, and my primal
instincts seemed to gain momentum over rational thought.

When he stopped without
warning, I stared up at him, confused and out of breath. My body ached for
him—
craved
him—and my
brain was so clouded with desire that I couldn’t figure out what was going on.
His eyes held mine, like always. The way the blue-green irises gradually turned
to amber in the center was mesmerizing. In them, I saw our past as well as hope
for our future.