Page 49 of Possessive Alpha

“And the reason you spend more time running from me?”

Silence.

He offers me a brief smile. It’s an empty ghost of a thing that makes my heart ache because I know I’ve hurt him and that’s the last thing I would ever want to do. “Go to bed, Martha. I won’t force you to stay when you want to leave.”

Isn’t that what I wanted? To check he was okay, then once I was sure he was, return to my bed?

He’s practically encouraging it.

I sit up.

He closes his eyes as if he doesn’t want to watch me go.

I throw my leg over his, straddling him.

His eyes fly open. “Martha?”

“I want you,” I say quietly, ignoring the way my sleep shirt is riding up my thighs.

He cradles the nape of my neck, and his eyes flash with heat, evidence all the skin I’m flashing him hasn’t passed him by. Yet he keeps his attention focused on what I’m saying. “But?”

“It’s not…” I sigh. “It’s not straightforward and I wish it were. A long time ago, I wished for you and this isn’t going the way I thought it would. But I do want you. It’s complicated.”

I know I’m lucky. Few shifters even meet their mate. If Ty was just another guy, it would be easier to tell him that my priority is Clara, and I need to be with her.

But this is Ty. My mate. I literally feel torn in half.

Seeming to read my struggles, Ty flashes me a faint smile and pulls me down to brush a kiss across my forehead. “I wished for you in my well accident. When I didn’t think I would get out, I wanted the last thought I had to be of you.”

I look at him, then I punch him softly in the arm.

“Martha?”

“You keep saying things that make me…” My voice trails off.

From the sudden awareness in his gaze, he knows where I was going. “That makes you what, sweetheart?”

I stare down at him, and he peers up at me, and I don’t think I’ve ever come so close in my life to telling someone I think I’m falling in love with them.

“Not ready to tell me, huh?” His lips quirk into a half-smile.

I shake my head.

He releases the nape of my neck to lie back, his eyes on the ceiling, his hand lightly stroking my bare left thigh.

“My accident was a stupid one. New workers, a bad case of distraction, and that’s how I wound up in a well. Then I heard about an alpha building a new pack here, and I thought I’d help out and get a handle on my nightmares before I moved on. Two weeks. That’s how long I told myself I’d stay.”

“You came here to recover from your accident?”

His eyes briefly capture mine. “I did. Never expected to step out of my truck, clock the most beautiful girl in the world, and realize I just came face to face with my mate.”

I smile faintly. “It was a shock to the system for me, too.”

I’d run away from him when I’d wanted to tackle him to the floor and inhale more of his delicious scent, the best I’d ever smelled in my life. My wolf had spent the rest of the day swiping at my insides, wanting to know what the hell I was doing hiding out in my room instead of pinning down my mate or having him pin me.

He returns my smile. “But the best kind.”

I examine the tired lines on his face and think about how I can help him heal. “Does anything help your nightmares?”

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