Page 34 of The Broken Wolf's Redemption

“Oh. That’s easy. It’s called desire. What did you expect when you watched me get myself off? Did you think you wouldn’t feel anything? That you wouldn’t get some level of invested? You want the real thing.”

She let the cold, stark implication hang there in the air, enjoying being the one in control for once. When she’d gone to pick him up from the hospital, he was so wounded that she couldn’t derive any satisfaction from him having to depend on her.

“You’re wrong. It’s something shifter related. It’s the wolf. It’s not used to being locked away for so long. It’s caged inside my body. It’s like going to war with myself.”

She rolled her eyes. Keep on believing that. “Then go back to Brooke and get her to help you. Go run with your family on her land or someone else’s. Organize a secret meeting with Casper wolves and find some land and have at it. You have a babysitter, or I can watch Waverly. I can’t help you in any other way.”

“That’s the problem. You can.”

She could easily see how that was definitely a problem for both of them, but there was no way she was taking that on.

“When you’re around, I feel something that doesn’t make sense.” He sounded like he was going to burst out of his body in an incident unrelated to his wolf. “I don’t know what it is. I don’t want to know. I only ever wanted to get close to you to figure out what it was so I could make it stop.”

She heard what that honesty cost him, and it bit deep. He was losing it. All of it. He was in some kind of spiral and seeking her out to make his confession was the very bottom.

It should please her, the way he was losing his sanity. He deserved to lose his sanity.It should feel good, knowing that he was consumed by her, but it frightened her instead. What more could he do to her when he wanted her versus when he didn’t. He’d never be the kind of man who allowed himself to have regular, healthy emotions. She didn’t want that kind of attention. She didn’t want to be this man’s obsession.

She needed to make that clear. She needed to stop whatever this was before it went any further. She walked to the front, her footsteps heavy and filled with dread. She went straight to the glass door so she could look Rome right in the face.

She might as well have walked herself straight to a mirror and looked deep into her own eyes. She needed to convince herself that was true as badly as she needed to make him believe her. What did that say about her mental state?

He didn’t look wrecked. He looked strong. Put together. Sin wrapped in leather, cotton, and denim. His hair was neat, not an out-of-control birds’ nest from him raking his hands through it. He was freshly shaved, dark eyes gleaming like the moon had suddenly eclipsed the sun. He was so big and so real, and she was appalled at her need to open the door and touch him. Somewhere. Anywhere. She wanted to know if it was real, his sudden one eighty. Was this just another trick or was he truly haunted?

How had she done this to him?

Looking at his fierceness, his strength, the way he was broader than the fucking entire doorway, no one would ever know he’d been so badly hurt just a few weeks ago.

“I’m sorry,” she choked into the phone. She was still holding it in wooden fingers. She’d almost forgotten, since it was so long since she’d said anything.

She was torn, and that was all wrong. There was nothing that should pull her towards this man. He wasn’t the least bit decent. His humanity was entirely in question. His darkness would consume both of them.

“Please, just go back to your family.”

He stared back at her, unblinking. She couldn’t smell him through the glass. It was midafternoon, but he’d smell like the darkest dark of night. “I don’t want to do that.”

“I’m not letting you in.”

“I’ll break the door down.” His hand shot to the knob. He looked ready to push it in. To fit his shoulder to the door and shatter the frame. To kick it down with one strong blow. To shift into his wolf and let the madness loose, jumping through it to obliterate it entirely.

“You will not. Get your shit together, Rome. This side of you makes the controlling asshole side look appealing, and that’s really saying something.”

For once, he didn’t give her a nasty comeback about how much her body liked to be told what to do.

“I have a dinner I have to go to. My friends are starting to wonder what’s happened to me. They never see me, and they know what strain I’ve been under. I don’t want them to know about the money and what I’ve done for it. I just want them to have this place and be safe. I was enjoying drawing on an unexpectedly free day, taking a few hours just for me, which is something I haven’t done in a very long time. If you have any decency, go back home and enjoy your sister and her barely good enough for her mate, who seems like a great guy. What did you tell them anyway? That you forgot something at the office?”

“Briar May is pregnant. Already. She just was pregnant. She was craving mint chocolate ice cream. I volunteered to go out and get some.”

She took a step back, eager to retreat, eager to get this conversation over with. “They’ll think the entire city is sold out. They’ll be worried you’ve gotten yourself lost and decided to eat the whole tub as a last resort to ward off starvation. They’ll think you got caught in an unexpected time warp portal and ended up in another dimension. What’s the real reason you didn’t want me over there today? Were you afraid they’d learn the truth? Were you afraid there would be repercussions for what you’re doing?”

“No.”

“Seriously? You think you’re the only one above them?”

“In this situation, yes.”

“Your arrogance truly knows no bounds.”

“Seren. Please.” His hand fisted. He didn’t find any of it amusing.

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