Page 100 of Never Submit

She’s stressed. Her hormones are out of control, her scent like being hit with a thousand battering rams at once. My head goes foggy, swimming in a sea of her.

My wolf rises up and overpowers me for a moment. He wants her, desperately. And with my nerves frayed and my logic fragmented by grief, it’s hard to force him back.

“Walk with me?” I suggest.

Ren pulls up short. “Walk with you?”

“Yes.” I stare at her, imposing my meaning on her. As an alpha and as a man. “Come.”

Ren is ready to fight. She came here itching for one, and to be deprived of it now isn’t sitting well with her. Emotions flicker across her face faster than I’m able to interpret. Then she bites down on her lip, her brows thin into a single line, and her eyes narrow like I’m trying to pull one over on her.

“Come, sweetheart.” I start walking.

She waits a beat and then scrambles after me. Her scent is too pungent and sweet for me to ignore for long. It rips through me with every inhalation, filtering in through the cells of my body, taking up permanent residence. I don’t want to push her away.

I’m not sure I can.

“I understand things are fucked up right now, but Flora is pregnant. Shouldn’t that count for extra? What happens if she starts to go into labor while Andras has her?” Ren shudders. “I don’t have friends in the camp, Mathis. With Flora gone, and Torin telling me he’s got Carrigan somewhere safe, I’m just…I’m…”

“You have a good heart.”

“You act like you’re not panicking!”

We head into the comforting gray and brown of the forest. Under the shelter of the trees, I’m more at ease.

“Of course I’m panicking. Every wolf stolen from my pack is not only an insult but a huge loss. I want to get Flora back as much as you do, trust me. She’s only the latest in a long line of women Andras stole from my pack. And now Torin’s.”

“Then use me. I’m a wolf just like…just like you are.” Ren swallows audibly. “Teach me how to fully control my shift and I can go out and look for her, too. Maybe Dax needs someone to pick up scents with him.”

I glance at her sideways. “Dax has been doing this a lot longer than you have. He’s the best tracker we have.”

And yes, soon enough I’ll send him back out there. To search for needles in haystacks.

Ren stares stubbornly ahead, her nose slightly lifted. “Then he’s the best one to teach me how to do it. And you're the best one to show me how to control the shift. It hurts, Mathis. Even when I’m not in control, it still feels wrong, like my body is fighting it or rejecting it or something. Maybe if I’d been able to shift, I could have stopped the guy from grabbing Flora in the first place.”

“I agree that you need to be taught, but now really isn’t?—”

She steps in front of me, cutting off my movement, and pushes both her palms against my pecs. Heat immediately travels like an electric current from the place where we connect. My eyes widen slightly.

“What if now is the only time we have? Mathis, please. Show me!”

She’s pale, determined, and I swallow a groan, a lump forming in my throat. I’m powerless to deny her anything. Especially when she’s looking at me this way.

My wolf wants to get to her so badly it’s a physical ache in my gut. Without thinking, without stopping to realize what I’m doing, I kiss her. A soft peck of my mouth against hers that leaves me crying out for more.

“Fine. We can take a minute.”

“I know you’re the all-busy-alpha but I really appreciate it,” she says sweetly.

“You’re trying to butter me up.”I like it.

I nestle her underneath my arm and guide her back toward the main lodge where Torin and I have been conducting our business. Sort of a makeshift headquarters while we’re working together.

He took the camp’s office as his, and Dax and I holed up in one of the camper cabins nearby. Torin will be hard at work doing what he does best—organizing and making everyone’s life miserable with his micromanaging. But it works out all the better for me.

His beta might be Ren’s mate, but she sought me out.

The connection between us, although I’ve done my best to deny it many times, still exists. It’s a thrumming in my veins along with blood, a beat of my heart like something is pulsing in near-perfect time.

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