Page 91 of Unwilling Wolf

Garret crawled into bed beside her, and she stifled a smile at how much room he took up. Giant man.

They settled with their backs together, and Eliza stared at the wall as she waited for her body to settle down. Currently, her heart rate was galloping faster than Buck ever had.

It felt like a long time before he broke the silence. “I don’t want to break you, Eliza. And I don’t care for Anna. I danced with her because I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to tell her I was sorry the match didn’t work out. I know she had liked me for some time. I didn’t return it, but it was closer than you know. The wedding was already being planned.”

“You proposed to her?”

“No. It was her father pushing negotiations and putting a lot of pressure on me. He was beginning to plan it so he could move things along.”

“I despise her, Garret. You should know what is in my heart. Judge me if you will, but I can’t stand any of those Jenningses, and I won’t feel like some sort of mistress for you. I didn’t come here to trap you into a marriage. That happened when Roy got hurt. That wasn’t some master plan of mine, and I won’t pay for Anna’s feelings.”

“I respect that. Hell, I saw Jimmy Yule touch your back and I thought about killin’ him.”

“Garret,” she admonished.

“Well, you said not to judge you, and I’m not. Would you rather me lie about the way I am, or just own it?”

“Own it.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“I got really upset when you took her to the dance floor. You didn’t seem to want to dance with me, but you danced with her.”

“I wanted to have my talk with her, tell her I was sorry her plans didn’t work out, be a man about it, and then ask her to call her family off. I don’t want them hurting you. I can feel how I’m becoming. Eliza, I will take out an entire Pack for threatening you. That was going to be my olive branch. Last chance for peace. And then you dragged Wyatt out there, and all I could see was red. I didn’t say two words to Anna. I was watching you and Wyatt the whole damn time. And if you thought me fantasizing over killing Jimmy Yule was bad? You would hate what I thought about doing to Wyatt, and in front of the whole damn town. I had plans, just so you know.”

“What kind of plans?”

“I would’ve gotten the nerve sooner or later to ask you to dance with me. It’s been a long time for me, and I never went to one of those shindigs with a woman. I always danced with a lot of girls when I was younger. And then you lit me up on our way out of the barn. I had in my head what I wanted to say, and what I wanted you to understand, and how I expected you to behave in the future, but the things you said…I handled it wrong. Fuck, Eliza, I hate admitting I’m wrong on anything. You said I need to learn how to apologize. So…I’m sorry.”

Eliza was quiet for a time as the hurt inside of her cooled. “I’m sorry for dancing with Wyatt. Oh boy, am I sorry.”

“Why did you, anyway?”

“He wouldn’t leave it alone. I made him give his word to stop talking to me if I danced with him once. And honestly? I wanted to hurt you back, you know? I wanted you to feel like I felt when I saw you and Anna.”

“Spiteful,” he accused softly in the dark, but there was a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Well, don’t make me angry. I can make you angry right back. You poke the bear too much, sir.”

He chuckled. “I’ve never wanted to kill somebody so badly.”

“Our hands only touched two times that whole dance. You’re being ridiculous.”

“That’s not why I wanted to kill him. It helped the anger, but that’s not why.”

“Why then?”

“Because of the look on your face when he talked about me not bedding you. I’ll never forget it. I never cared before, Eliza. Or maybe I did when I was still human, but I don’t remember. Since the wolf, I don’t feel like other people. The things I feel are protectiveness and anger. I’m territorial. I want to put every man who tests me in their place, and then you come along, the size of a calf, putting me in my place, and I hate it some days. Not because you don’t have a point, but because you do. You call out the things I’m meant to be working on as a man, but I don’t know how. You push for progress faster than I’m ready to make that progress. I don’t like it. I don’t like being pushed.”

“We sure have gotten ourselves into a mess with this marriage, haven’t we?” she asked softly.

“I want to throttle Roy some days, but sometimes…some rare times…I think I’ll probably thank him when I see him again.”

“Really?”

“Well, you’re fair to look at, and you sure make things exciting around here. I get into a new fight almost every day, and it has something to do with you each time. I can’t for the life of me tell if you are bringing out the best in me, or the worst in me.”

“You definitely bring out the worst in me.”

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