Page 23 of Tamed By the Alpha Wolf

His hands moved up my back, tugging me closer. The heat of him was a balm to my inner beast. My pulse slowed. The tension melted from my muscles. I closed my eyes and breathed in his scent, cedar and espresso and wildness.

Mine.

My mate. My responsibility.

No matter what he’d done.

“So,” he said after a moment. He traced idle patterns on my back, and I didn’t move an inch. “Dinner tonight? I promise not to burn the beans this time.”

I made a face, stomach turning at the thought of another night of camp food. “I can’t. I need to do something for Tara, anyway.”

Nico’s lips quirked in a forced smile. “What, you’re not dying for the best campfire treats in town for the eighth night in a row?”

“If I never see another fire again, it’ll be too soon,” I deadpanned.

He laughed, but his scent flooded with disappointment. “I get it,” he said, trying to sound nonchalant. “Even my wolf is sick of canned goods and takeout.”

The unspoken question hung in the air between us. I could feel his eyes on me, searching for any hint of my thoughts. My wolf paced restlessly, torn between the desire to claim him openly and the fear of what Rafe would do when he found out my dirty secret.

“Nico...” I began, searching for the words in the branches overhead. The answers wouldn’t come, so instead, I tilted my neck to the side. Baring my markless throat. “Are you even ready to be integrated into a pack?”

He went still beneath my hands, his expression closing off. The warmth in his scent turned to ice, but he didn’t speak.

He couldn’t say he was safe to be around people. And I couldn’t pretend I didn’t understand why.

I sighed, resting my forehead against his. Things were getting more complicated by the day. Even the forest seemed to mirror my unease, with dark clouds rolling across the sky and the wind picking up speed. It would be so much simpler if I didn’t have to answer to anyone else.

If I were alpha.

The thought sent a jolt through me. It wasn’t the first time the idea of challenging Rafe had crossed my mind. But every time, I shoved it away, terrified of the implications.

If I challenged Rafe and won, I’d be killing Violet’s father. Robbing that little girl of the chance to know her dad, all because I was too weak to step up when I should have. The guilt of it threatened to choke me.

I closed my eyes as memories of my father’s reign of terror flashing through my mind. The violence, the bloodshed, the way he’d twisted the pack to serve his own selfish desires.

But what if I became just like my father? What if the power corrupted me and turned me into the very thing I despised?

My wolf snarled and paced under my skin. She hated the insinuation. She wanted to prove me wrong. She wanted to lead our pack to greatness.

I didn’t want Rafe to die.

Nico’s arms tightened around me. He nuzzled against my neck, his breath warm on my skin. “You’re thinking too loud,” he murmured.

I let out a shaky laugh, grateful for his steady presence. Whatever else was going on, however tangled our fates knotted together, Nico was my mate. Whether or not I wanted him to be. And as long as I had him, I had to believe we could handle whatever was thrown at us.

“Sorry,” I said, pulling back just enough to meet his gaze. “Occupational hazard of being me, I guess.”

“Lucky for you, I like running overthinkers off their tracks.” His lips twitched in a ghost of innocence as his fingers toyed with the button of my jeans. “Want to talk about it?”

I grinned down at him as the first fat drops of rain splattered across the ground. Tempting. So very tempting. My body already warmed at the thought of his fingers working me free of tension. And sharing my burdens? He could wring out all the words he wanted so long as that talented tongue was involved.

“I should get back to work,” I said reluctantly. “Try to be a good boy while I’m gone, okay?”

Nico’s eyes darkened with heat. He dragged me closer, his lips brushing against mine in a whisper of a kiss. “I most assuredly will not,” he growled.

CHAPTER EIGHT

NICO

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