Page 41 of Secret Wolf Baby

“I’m not trying to attack or insult you,” I cut in. “I care about you. I just want to know what’s going on. I’m worried about you. I want to help. But I can’t unless I know what’s really going on with you. Please. Just let me help.”

“You really want to know what happened?” she asked. Something like her old spark flickered in her eyes, but only for a moment.

“Of course I do,” I said. “I want to help you.”

She swallowed, glancing around before her gaze finally returned to my face. She took a deep breath.

“That night, when I came to your house…” She trailed off.

“I remember,” I said.

I didn’t think I could ever forget it. I’d regretted what I said to her the second she walked out the door, but I also knew I couldn’t walk it back. I knew what I wanted in that moment. But over the years that followed, I sometimes wondered if I had made the right call.

“I dreamt about a life with you,” she said. “Imagined all the things we would do together. Our kids. I had this perfect life planned out. And then…” She trailed off again. “The way it ended… it hurt… a lot. I don’t know how to articulate it better than that. But that night changed everything. I’d never been hurt like that before, and I never want to feel that kind of pain again. It’s the reason I left, and the whole reason I went back to a place I hated—because I had nowhere else to go, and no one I could turn to. On top of that, I basically haven’t been able to trust anyone since. I keep waiting for anyone I get close to to betray me one way or another. It’s easier to just keep to myself.”

I stared at her, dumbfounded. I didn’t know what to say. How was I supposed to begin to respond to that?

Absently, she started picking up the plate shards. She hissed in pain, dropping a shard, which broke again into smaller pieces. She clutched her wrist as blood began to well on the heel of her palm. “Shit,” she mumbled as she stood, hurrying to the sink to wash the cut.

I jumped to my feet and dashed to the nearby bathroom to grab bandages. I returned to stand beside her at the sink.

“Here.” I took her hand gently and placed the bandage across the cut.

“Thanks,” she said, talking to the Band-Aid instead of me. Seeing her like that stirred old emotions and regrets, ones I had denied I felt for years. Seeing her now, though, I could finally see how stupid my choices were.

Gently, I reached out with my free hand and lifted her chin so she was looking at me. “Audrey,” I said. “I am so sorry. For all of it. I can’t express how sorry I am.”

She took a deep breath. “You can say sorry all you want. That doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.”

“I know. But it’s the truth. And if I could take it all back, I would in a heartbeat.”

“You can’t take it back,” she said.

“I know,” I said. My hand went to her cheek. She leaned into it. I didn’t think she even realized she was doing it. “But I want to make it up to you. Starting now.”

I had made so many mistakes when it came to Audrey. There was something about her that just made me throw all common sense out the window. I wanted to do right by her, to make up for all the wrongs I had done her. I wanted to tell her just how much she meant to me, and how I would do anything to make her smile.

I didn’t know how to articulate any of that, though, or whether this was even the time. Instead, I did the one thing I could think to do in that moment.

I leaned down and kissed her.

An electricity ran through me the instant our lips touched, a yearning that I hadn’t felt since that night she came to my house. My wolf howled in longing and triumph. I sensedher own longing, too, in the way she instinctively pressed against me, the way one hand knotted into a fist, gripping the fabric of my shirt as it was pinned between us. Her other hand wrapped around my neck as my own snaked around her, pressing into the small of her back. My other hand gripped her head, fingers tangling in her hair as I held her in place.

For a long moment, all that mattered was the two of us.

Her hand went to my chest, and she stepped back, breaking the kiss. Her chest heaved, and I could see the longing and need in her eyes.

“We can’t,” she said. Her fingers remained clenched around the fabric of my shirt as if part of her didn’t want to let go. “I’m sorry, but I can’t go down that road again.”

I wanted to protest. Part of me, that primal part that belonged to my wolf, wanted to ignore her wishes and take her right then and there, to plunge my tongue into her mouth and claim her. The more rational side of me managed to hold those desires at bay, no matter how badly I wanted to pull her against me again.

I forced myself to nod, and her hand fell away.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated before turning on her heels and leaving the room.

Chapter 12 - Audrey

I spent the next day wandering around the house, trying to keep busy with chores, reading, TV, anything to get my mind off what had happened the night before. The way his lips had felt against mine, and how badly I wanted to do it again.

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