Page 114 of The Beta's Blind Date

He flinches. “I—”

“No, no, I wasn’t—I wasn’t saying that to make you feel guilty, or to—” I groan and rub my temples. “Goddess, I’m sorry. I’m so tired, and everything is coming out jumbled when I speak.”

His hands cup my cheeks and he lifts my face to meet his eyes again. “You should get some rest, Cadet,” he says, leaning down to kiss my forehead. “We can talk tomorrow. When you’re less jumbled.”

I close my eyes and nod, his lips brushing my skin. “You’re right,” I murmur. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Good night,” he says as I go into my guest suite.

“Night,” I reply.

He turns and leaves, and the bond strains, just enough that it’s uncomfortable. My chest is tight, and he takes part of me with him as he leaves.

The door is almost closed behind me when I realize I don’t want him to go. I open it again and step into the hallway to invite him to stay with me, but he’s already gone, leaving behind only a hint of his scent.

Thewindracesandhowls across the grounds, rattling the windows and spraying frozen flakes and flurries against the glass and the walls of the packhouse, and I toss and turn in my bed, my movements an echo of the unrest outside.

I can’t sleep. The bed is too big, the storm is too loud, and my heart is too empty. The bond stretches and tugs, my wolf whines in my head, and it’s all I can do to stay in the room and not go hunt for Reid.

I could reach out to him through the pack mindlink, but that’s not how I want him to find out I joined Crescent Lake. I want to tell him face to face and see his reaction when I mindlink him for the first time.

I roll onto my other side and squeeze my eyes shut, focusing on deep, even breathing. I’ve gotten maybe a total of one hour of sleep since he said good night to me a few hours ago. He said we’d talk tomorrow, when I’m less jumbled, but at this rate and with the lack of sleep I’m getting, I’ll be more jumbled.

With a sigh, I kick the blankets off and stand from the bed, leaving the room to go into the small kitchen. I grab a glass from the white cabinets and fill it with water from the fridge dispenser, then lean against the counter, running my hand over the cool, smooth surface of the white marble.

The snow falls in sheets, visible even in the darkened sky. It’s fallen nonstop since it began while I took my vows to join the pack, and at this rate, it won’t let up for at least a day, maybe more.

In the year I’ve lived here, there has yet to be a storm of this magnitude, and I haven’t decided how I feel about it hitting at a time like this. It gives me time to process and bond with Reid without the fear and stress of my former alpha looming around me, but it also slows down the search for the rogues and Dominic, and means we’ll have to wait that much longer for answers about the attack.

A thud against the door jolts me, and I clutch my hand to my chest, butterflies swarming in my stomach and my heart galloping. I set the glass on the counter and approach the door with caution, walking on my tiptoes and keeping the lights off.

“Fuck,” someone mutters from the hall.

I snicker as I recognize Reid’s voice and catch his scent, fragrant and powerful, even through the door of my suite.

I pull myself together, hiding my smile and my laughter, and yank the door open, staring at the floor where Reid is curled into a ball, wrapped in the black blanket he let me use when we had our movie night. He stiffens but otherwise doesn’t move, his back to me and his face to the hallway.

I shake my head and nudge him with my foot. “What are you doing?”

“Sleeping.”

“On the floor?”

“Well, my wolf wouldn’t stop whining, and I was worried about you. But I didn’t want to bother you or overstep, so I figured I would sleep out here.”

“Get up,” I say with a sigh.

He sits up and finally looks at me. “What?”

“I said get up. Come inside.”

I turn and don’t wait to see if he follows. I know he will. He wants to be near me as much as I want to be near him.

“Thanks,” he says, stopping in the living area. “I’ll sleep here.” He points at the couch and tosses his blanket on it.

“Like hell you’re sleeping on that piece of shit rock disguised as a couch,” I tell him, snagging the blanket off it. “I’m pretty sure I bruised my ass sitting on it earlier. You can sleep in the bed.”

“With you?” he asks as he follows me down the hall.

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