Page 98 of To Challenge a Wolf

“I didn’t know you were right. But…I…” His words fell away. Talking about this was so freaking hard.

“Youwerescared,” Vivian said quietly. “You sent me away from you out of pure old-fashioned panic.”

“It didn’t feel like panic. It didn’t feel like anything. It was just the only right thing I could do.”

“Well, you didn’t know you were panicking thanks to your dirtbag father, but you were, Rhett. At some point, you will again, because everyone freaks out sometimes. And you can’t go shoving me out of your life every time it happens.”

“No,” he said. “Never again.”

“So when you said you have no feelings for me, you lied to me.”

“No.” He knew this with every instinct in his soul and body. “It was me I was lying to, Viv. Feelings—” His voice broke. His throat seemed to close. He swallowed hard. “From a pup I was taught feelings are death to a wolf. People use them against you.”

“I never did.”

“I know that. But it didn’t matter. I had to lie to myself to stay alive. I had to tell myself I felt nothing, and…and since before I can remember, feelingsdon’tfeel like anything. It was a lie to myself, but it was true too. If I decide not to feel anything, I don’t have to.” He cleared his throat. “Didn’t have to. I think I broke that this morning.”

“Wow, Rhett.”

He ducked his head. Broken. That’s what he was.

“Okay, so…first of all… It’s probably going to bowl you over the first time you’re able to feel genuinely terrified of something, so when you do, I want you to come to me. Even if you think you can fix it yourself, because when a person gets too scared, hecan’t always think straight. As you abundantly proved the day we met baby Kolson.”

He nodded. She was making good sense. She usually did.

“Wow. This is…a lot. You’ve been through a lot since I left.”

“No more than I deserved.”

“You did not deserve what Stone did to you. Not one iota of it.”

He shrugged. Again. He had to stop doing that, but it was all he could do. Making too much of these things seemed risky and self-indulgent. Yeah, his dad had messed him up. He had to own that now. Didn’t mean he deserved a pity party.

Vivian was watching him too sharply, as if she saw things he hadn’t even given away. She leaned toward him, her ankles hooking around the stool legs to keep her balance. She reached out and took his face between her cool hands. Her thumbs traced his cheekbones.

“It’s big, Jamie. Figuring this out about yourself, fighting your way out of it. It’s huge, and I’m proud of you.”

But.It was there in her voice. He hadn’t done enough yet. She wouldn’t take him back. Yet. He shut his eyes and breathed in her black tea essence. He couldn’t savor every sub-note the way he wanted to, not until she’d showered away the taint of sour salt. But he let her presence fortify him for whatever came next. He would win her. He would win his mate.

“I can’t believe you came here…what, half an hour after going through all that?”

“Something like that.”

“I know the fading hit fast, but still, I wish you’d had more time to process everything.”

No way. His eyes shot open. He kept his grip gentle as he took hold of her wrists. He brought his face close to hers and unleashed a low growl. “Mine.”

A little smirk played around her lips. “Pretty hot, wolf. Tell me again.”

“Mine,” Rhett growled, louder this time, unleashing what he’d held back before. He tugged her wrists, and she slid off the stool onto her feet.

She stepped in close to him, planted her hands on his chest, and angled her face upward. “Prove it.”

He leaped down from the stool and caught her up in his arms in a single fluid motion. His mate wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, and their lips crashed together as they both went in at the same time for a kiss that quickly became hard and greedy. They were in competition with each other, tasting, proving, questioning, demanding. Vivian grazed her fingernails up his neck and into his scalp, and when he growled in response she gave a little laugh of victory against his mouth. When they finally ended the kiss to breathe, Rhett carried her to the living room, laid her down on the sofa, and continued showing her exactly who she was to him, who he was to her.

They were disheveled, breathless, but still clothed when he drew back. They faced each other, still wrapped in an embrace, and he let his wolf voice continue on and on, a low growl of satisfaction while Vivian snuggled up against his chest, her head tucked under his chin.

“How did you just kiss me like that when I smell so wrong to you?”

---