Page 49 of Hawke

“Delilah, wait.” I reached for her, but she’d already grabbed her work clothes from the dresser. She stomped into the bathroom and slammed the door.

Damnit.

“Yup, already fucked it up,”my wolf howled in laughter.

“This is all your fault,” I whispered, only to see Delilah standing in the bathroom doorway with the toothbrush in her mouth.

She scowled, grabbing the hairbrush that was on the dresser and stomped back inside.

“Goddess, why do you torment me!” I growled, pulling at my hair. “For once, can you make things easy on me, for the rest of us?!” I stormed to the window. Darkness still loomed over the city, the moon slowly disappearing.

“Can you make this easy? For once?” I cursed at the blasted rock. “I’m trying to protect her, protect my brothers, yet you mock me. Am I going to go insane once I finally start believing that she could be my fated?”

I punched the wall to the side of the window, leaving a large indentation. I pressed my forehead against the window. I didn’t know if I was mad at my wolf for tasting her before I had, at myself for pushing Delilah away for all those years, or at the Moon Goddess. It could have been all three.

Shit.

“Alright,” I whispered, my breath leaving fog on the window. “Please help me.” I swallowed. “If Delilah is to be mine–”

The door to the bathroom swung open. Her hair was in a messy bun, and her black shirt was tucked into her black pants which showed off her tiny waist. “I’ll be back after my shift.” Delilah grabbed her bag and went to open the door.

“I’m taking you,” I growled, stepping in front of her.

Delilah ripped her arm away from me before I could even touch her. “I think you have done enough for the day.”

She opened the door, but I slammed it shut with my hand, making it shake against the thin walls of the hotel. “No, Delilah.” I pinned her against the wall.

My hand grazed her skin, and an electrifying shock ran through my body. My wolf purred, and Delilah relaxed despite the lightning sparking between us. Her body didn’t shake and tremble with fear at the venom laced through my voice. “You will ride with me to and from work. I will make sure you are safe, and you will not leave my sight.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you gonna sit in the restaurant looking like that?” She eyed me up and down. I was still in my gray sweatpants with a thin, loose white shirt.

“I will sit in that restaurant bare ass naked if it means keeping you safe. I’d fight off the cops in this corrupt town if I had to, just so I can watch you sway your hips and bend over to pick up a stray fork from the floor. But if you give me a minute…” I winked. “I’ll get dressed in something more suitable.”

Delilah swallowed, clutching her bag.

As I smirked, I leaned away from the door, but before I left, I kissed her.

“I want to do this right, and I took advantage of you. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again, and we will discuss our limits after your shift.” My nose traced along her neck. “Do not run away from me, Delilah. We both know I’ll track you down. The next time you run from me, I’ll redden your ass.”

Delilah

“You smell different,” Bram said. I’d just delivered his breakfast—pancakes with two eggs for eyes, a bacon happy face, and I even put a little of whipped cream in his coffee, which he loved.

I think the old man just needed some good-old-fashion loving and a belly full of food. Maybe no one babied him in his life and that was why he could be such a grouch.

“I bathed with the same shampoo last night?” I shrugged, taking a napkin and wiping his chin.

He smiled, digging into his pancakes.

“No, it isn’t the shampoo. You smell more like a–” He paused, looking at me. He stared at me up and down and squinted his eyes. “Like a dog.”

I blinked. “A dog? I don’t have a dog. And why are you telling me I smell like a dog? Do I stink?” I raised my arms to smell my armpits, but no dice. I didn’t smell like anything.

Just that peppermint smell Hawke seemed to have left on me.

I left Bram’s table to go to the adjacent one to pick up the dirty dishes so I could put them away, but Bram continued to watch me.

“Do you have a friend that has a dog?” He slurped the syrup from the corner of his mouth.

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