Page 11 of Wolf Reborn

There was a thump above them, and everyone turned their eyes to the ceiling. It was swiftly followed by rushing footsteps, and then a very naked Gavin racing down the stairs.

He hesitated when he saw them all standing in the kitchen, but not because of running into the room naked. No, it was seeing Miles, seeing Miles’s shock, that gave him pause.

Miles barely heard Dez shuffling everyone out of the kitchen behind him. All he could focus on was Gavin.

Gavin, who’d been out of control the night before in a way he never was.

On the full moon.

Gavin, who had bitten him.

His hand flew to his neck, still tender where Gavin had bitten down.

Gavin watched him, and the shock and horror on his face was enough to answer any questions Miles might have had. “I would never—”

“Of course not,” Miles agreed, numb. “You’ve got your family. Your... your pack. What the hell would you need me for? None of them ever wanted me here either.”

He turned and headed for the door.

“Miles,” Gavin said, reaching for him.

“Don’t touch me.” He didn’t know how, but his voice was deadly calm. On the inside, he was pretty sure he was having a nervous breakdown. “I’m—I’m gonna go. I need—” What the hell did he need? A stiff drink? A convenient concussion to make him forget the last ten minutes? The last eight months? “I need to go,” he finished, and Gavin didn’t try to stop him as he left.

6

Foreigner’s God

His instinct had been to reassure, as it almost always was. As usual, his instincts didn’t do him any favors with Miles. He’d assumed the man wanted to know he was safe, that Gavin hadn’t bitten him and turned him into “a monster.”

That was what people always wanted in the movies. They wanted to not be werewolves.

They didn’t want their boyfriends to bite them without permission.

Was that what Miles had wanted?

Dimly, he heard Dez taking charge in the other room, sending everyone out for breakfast while the food he’d made in the kitchen sat on the stove next to Gavin.

He wasn’t sure how much time passed before something soft hit him in the chest. He caught it on instinct and looked down at it, eyes removed from the door for the first time since Miles had walked out.

Since Miles had left him.

Sweatpants. Dez’s, most likely, since they smelled mostly of him and Sawyer. That was fine; they would fit Gavin. He pulled them on mechanically, without looking up again.

A huge plate of eggs and what had to be half a pound of bacon appeared on the counter next to him with a thunk. A moment later, Dez was setting another beside it, then settling onto one of the chairs there.

“Ash is never gonna forgive himself,” Dez observed casually.

Gavin could have collapsed with relief.

Yes.

This was what he needed. He needed problems to fix that weren’t his. Problems he hadn’t created. Problems he could actually help with.

“Ash didn’t do anything wrong,” Gavin told him, like Dez didn’t already know that. “It’s the pack house, and Ash should never feel like he can’t be himself inside it.”

Which was why he’d never invited Miles in before. It wasn’t about what Gavin wanted, could never be about that. It had to be about the good of the pack, or Gavin was being a selfish ass.

He’d seen bad alphas before. The alpha who had made Dez and himself had been a feral monster who hadn’t even had a pack. The alpha of Ash’s childhood pack had put his own selfish wants over the pack’s needs, and the pack had crumbled under his poor excuse for leadership.

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