Page 31 of Betrayed By the Wolf

Vera pulled one of Jessa’s stuffed toys from the diaper bag and launched it at Rami’s head, careful to avoid the baby in his arms. He took it to the forehead.

“Bastard,” she muttered, sweeping past him into the backroom. “And I’ll write it down once we get home.”

“I know you will,” he said in a sing-song voice.

She found the hot plate and a pan and warmed the water up, testing it on the delicate skin of her wrist before mixing it with the formula. “You know what I could do to you back here? And no one is around to hear you scream.”

Rami took the bottle and leaned against the wall, supporting Jessa in the crook of his arm. “I’ve thought a lot about what you could do to me back here, actually, only I’m not the one screaming.”

“Rami,” she warned. That familiar throb started between her legs, the ache for her mate and all the unspeakable, delicious things he did to her.

He shrugged. “I can’t help it, Vera. I spend far too much time thinking about you.”

Her heart spasmed. She felt torn in two. On one hand, she was grateful that Jessa was there. The baby was all that was keeping her from throwing herself at him and tearing off his clothes. He looked so damn good in the low light, casting his jaw in deep shadow. On the other, she was furious that he was doing this to her, now, when she’d finally shut him out of her heart for good.

Before Rami, before she’d been struck by the lightning of the mating bond, she’d never let anyone close enough to let them break her heart. He’d burrowed into her, found the tenderest place inside of her chest, and then left it raw and hollow.

At times, she’d wondered if it was just the challenge of him that had made him so irresistible. The way he hid so much of himself was a puzzle for her to unravel, and she’d never beenable to put down an unfinished puzzle. Too late, she’d realized it was so much more. It hadn’t been the puzzle driving her to get closer, but a deep need to know all of him.

And he’d never let her in that far. She’d laid her cards on the table, and he’d kept them close to his chest. Kept her wondering what she meant to him, wondering about the pieces he kept hidden, wondering about their future. It was supposed to be simpler than that with your mate.

What he was doing to her now was just driving the knife in deeper.

“You made me feel like a fool,” she whispered, afraid that if she spoke up, her voice would crack, and tears would follow. “But it won’t happen twice. We can be friends now, Rami, because that’s what we need to be. Nothing more.”

He dropped his chin, hiding his eyes from her, but not before she saw something that looked remarkably like pain flash across them. Rejecting her had been his choice. She’d fought for them again and again. So why did it feel like she was the one walking away?

Chapter 14 - Rami

Rami loved working on cars. Old ones, new ones, crappy ones, nice ones. Whatever it was, he was happy to roll his sleeves up and get under it. Loved the satisfaction that came with solving the problem with nothing but his hands, his brain, and some tools.

It’d been his refuge as a teenager. When his parents got to arguing, he’d pull out the manual and start tinkering with his car, a shitty little beater he’d kept running far longer than it had any right to. He almost couldn’t hear them screaming at each other in the driveway or the garage.

If it got really bad, so bad he knew the neighbors would be calling the cops, he’d hop in and go for a drive. One day, he’d started driving and never turned around. After a few months on the road, he’d been bitten by a were on a drunken night out and had his life changed forever.

Rami had Vera’s car up on the jack. She was due for an oil change, and he wanted to give the thing a once-over while he was down there and make sure she was driving around something safe. He set down the pan to catch the oil, but the smell of smoke hit his nostrils, sharp and bitter, before he could unscrew the cap.

He grabbed the front bumper, pulled himself out from under the car, and leaped to his feet. The smell was coming from the house. Fear seized him. Rami sprinted for the door and threw it open, prepared to race up the stairs to grab Vera and Jessa.

“No, no, no.” He heard Vera begging from the kitchen. She didn’t sound scared, just frustrated. Some of the tension eased itself from around Rami’s chest.

“Vera? Is something burning?” The answer to that question became obvious when he stepped into the kitchen.

She slammed the oven door shut, cutting off the billowing smoke that was emanating from inside it, and whipped around.

“I thought you were working on my car!” Her hair was pulled back off her face in a ponytail that bobbed as she shook a dish towel at the smoke, waving it away from where Jessa bounced in her green walker. “You weren’t supposed to see this.”

Dishes and pans were scattered over the counters, along with an improbable number of knives, like she’d used a different one for everything she’d cut up.

“You do know knives don’t need to be sterile? Like, you can cut a carrot and an onion with the same knife, and nothing bad is going to happen.”

Rami rubbed Jessa’s fuzzy head, smiling down at the vivacious girl who seemed captivated by the whirlwind of activity that was Vera in the kitchen. He’d stopped by Vera’s vet clinic often enough to see her unflappability while working—panic was strictly reserved for the preparation of food.

“You say that, and then we all get salmonella.” Vera ran her hands through her hair, smearing tomato sauce across her cheek. Paired with the fierce look in her eye, it resembled war paint.

She turned back to the stove, pulling the lid off of a pot. The smell was anything but appetizing. He wondered if he should be removing Jessa from the biohazard that was the kitchen, but she was happily bumping around into the cabinets.

“Oh no,” Vera gulped. Her shoulders slumped, and Rami got the feeling she was fighting back tears. “I’ve ruined everything.”

---