Page 77 of Moonlighting with the Werewolf

It hit me then that Conall was right. Making the dealwasthe only way to protect his people, along with my life and his. When it came down to it, losing any of his pack members would destroy all those big and little pieces that made him who he was. Those pieces also made him the man I’d fallen so desperately in love with that I didn’t think there was a tunnel, much less a light at the end of it.

“Call it extra insurance. Only whenIhave what I most want will you be granted what you most want—your mate’s safety. Or your former mate’s, as the case may be.” The glee radiating from Andromeda fueled my hatred, and as the last clause scribbled itself across the bottom of the contract, she mentioned the failsafe spell would be similar to the one she placed on some private investigator. While her statement didn’t mean much to me, Conall turned so deathly pale I feared he might pass out.

Ironically, a spell like that required my consent—as if anything about Conall and my time in Andromeda’s house consisted of free will. Thoroughly dejected, we signed our names and added the requisite drops of blood.

An awful darkness slunk through me as Andromeda cast the spell, and the final line of the contract had seared itself into my memory:

When—and only when—an heir is born with both alpha shifter and high priestess blood will Dr. Kerrigan Ryan be completely free of the hex on her life. Until that point in time, the Oldenwilde Coven is also at liberty to call upon her, for the purposes of help, medical or otherwise, and/or to assure the alpha’s cooperation in protecting the sisterhood.

The dam on my emotions shuddered, my hands trembling as I labored to open the antiseptic.Get it together. You’re so close to patching up the last werewolf.

After tomorrow, they’ll be able to regenerate all by themselves, and you’ll...I literally heard Sebastian the crab in my head say,Just be...just be miserable for the rest of your life.

So yeah, doing a bang-up job of distracting myself. Sabine relieved me of the antiseptic and cleaned out the gash in Josiah’s leg. As I threaded a needle, I pulled myself together. Then I stitched up his wound and gave him antibiotic ointment and pills for the pain.

Right as I was sending him on his way, a steaming mug was thrust under my nose. I inhaled, frowned at the unexpected aroma, and then took a sip. “That’s not coffee.”

“See, this is why I maintained you were the right doctor for us,” Conall said. “You pay attention to detail.”

I summoned up the best dirty look I could under the exhausted circumstance, but due to all the sorrow, it came out watery and pathetic.

He cupped the mug over my hands and tipped it to my lips again. “It’s some of your hippie tea—stress-relieve-something-or-other. I learned from the best.”

“Sneaky bastard.”

Conall granted me the first genuine smile I’d seen on his face since everything went to shit, and how many times could one prevent themselves from bursting into tears in a day?Notasking for a friend. He placed a hand on the small of my back, and I leaned into the embrace like the masochist I’d become. “Sabine, will you close up shop for the day? I think Doc needs some R-and-R.”

A protest traveled up my throat but didn’t make it to the tip of my tongue. I drank the rest of the tea and set the mug on a random table as Conall propelled me away from the makeshift medical unit. As soon as we stepped outside, he scooped me into his arms.

“I can walk,” I weakly protested.

“Not very well. And that’s on a normal day.”

I smacked his chest but without my usual heat behind it. Not that any of my smacks affected the giant werewolf carrying me in the classic bridal stance—a comparison I wished I hadn’t made.

The giant hollow canyon that’d overtaken my chest shuddered, yawning wider to allow for the extra misery filling the gap.

Life wasn’t fair. It was a cold, hard fact. But did it have to crank up the unfairness to agonizing?

“Do you...?” The muscles along Conall’s jaw flexed. His gaze implored mine, so unguarded and full of longing that my heart snagged on its beats, too afraid to take any full thumps in case his next words caused it to crumble apart. “I know I shouldn’t ask, and it’ll probably only make tomorrow that much harder, but if you want to spend the night with me?—”

“Yes.” I slanted my lips over his, kissing him with all the built-up hunger going without had caused. I placed my hand on the side of his face, enjoying the tickle of scruff against my palm. The sense of security I felt in his arms was unlike anything else, and I wasn’t ready to call it a day yet.

I’d never be ready, but that was a problem for my future self.

“I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that I’d regret it forever if I didn’t spend one last night with you before...” Finishing the statement would hurt too much, so I planted my lips on his and reiterated my first response. “We have one last night together, and I vote we make it count.”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Evidently,Conall was as eager as I was, because he used his preternatural skills to reach his place in record speed. Same went for the bedroom. The living room passed by in a blur, and then I was being tossed onto an enormous mattress.

As I sank into the cushy comforter and pillows, I decided the bed was where it was at anyway. The linens smelled like him, too, and I turned my head and inhaled, reminding myself to savor every second, every nuance, every everything.

Conall stripped off his shirt and stood over me, and I propped myself up on my elbows and soaked in the sexy view. “I know you haven’t been sleeping,” he said. “If you’d rather rest up first, I’m happy to let you take a nap before I wake you up with my head between your legs.”

The apex of my thighs throbbed to life, and I pushed myself up, snagged the waistband of his pants, and hauled him to the edge of the bed. “As nice as that sounds, my body’s gone way too long without yours. I can’t wait any longer. Seriously, if you don’t get that thick cock inside me within the next few minutes, I’ll...” I paused to conjure a proper threat, and he simply watched mewith an amused expression. “I’ll do bad things. But not, like, the bad things that you’ll enjoy.”

Conall braced a hand on either side of my hips and brushed a too-quick kiss across my lips. “Afraid that’s not going to work. Just putting you and bad things in the same sentence is making me horny.” He sucked on the spot at the base of my neck. “I get off on bad things.”

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