Page 39 of Married into the Mob
My wolf told me he couldn’t put a time on the hunt, that it depended on what food was available.
I undressed and left my clothes on the couch. After scribbling a note to my mate and pushing it under his door, I went onto the porch. Fuck, it was cold and it was snowing. Racing over the ground, my feet scrunching on the fallen snow, I gave myself over to my beast.
As soon as he took his fur and I faded into the background, the tension left me. My problems were when I was in my skin, and for the next however long it would be, I wasn’t me and the chaos I’d created was back in the city, and in the cabin, and in the stupid car.
Stop. You’re messing with my head.
Closing my eyes, I left my wolf to his hunt and enjoyed the floating feeling of being outside my own body.
When my beast caught the scent of a rabbit, I tucked myself further down inside him while his instinct took over. And whenhe’d eaten his fill, he moseyed back to the cabin. Not wanting to hang around in the freezing weather, I had him leap onto the porch as close to the front door as possible.
It occurred to me as his feet hit the wooden floor, we should have walked around the cabin, making sure Odell wasn’t up. But it was too late because my beast gave me my skin as the door opened.
I was crouching down when I shifted, staring at a pair of feet clad in socks. Raising my head, I ran my eyes over a quilt wrapped around my mate, whose face was frozen in a silent scream.
Could this day get any worse?
Doubt it. Trust my wolf not to know when to stay quiet.
I bundled Odell inside and closed the door, shutting out the cold, the searing wind, and the branches squeaking and groaning. This couldn’t be happening again. His body couldn’t cope with this. I’d have to get him to hospital and then therapy.
“You… you…”
“It’s me, Odell.” Without asking permission, I put my arms around him and held him tight. This was becoming a habit, but I’d prefer we were doing it for reasons other than him freaking the fuck out at the weirdest shit that had ever happened to him.
He mumbled into my chest, and it was then I recalled I was naked. Too late now, as I wasn’t about to push him away. “You were a wolf and then you weren’t.”
“That’s right, and I’ll tell you about me and my family, but you need some hot sweet tea and maybe that TV dinner you didn’t eat earlier.”
I got my mate onto the sofa and covered him with a second quilt, the one I’d been going to use. But his eyes weren’t on my face. Or my hands. They were lower. At his eye level. He was gazing at my cock. If I’d been human, it would have shriveled in the cold. But it was semi hard and swelling.
I bunched my hands over my crotch.
“Too late,” he deadpanned.
He didn’t freak, so that was a plus.
After pulling on my pants, I busied myself in the kitchen and put the dinner in the microwave. I brought the meal and tea on the tray, and Odell sat up.
“I’m not like you.”
He closed one eye as he scooped a mouthful of curry onto the spoon. “I get it. You’re mafia and I’m not.” He studied his mating mark. “But we’re linked through this.”
He was right, but he didn’t understand how we were connected.
SIXTEEN
ODELL
I huddled on the couch with the quilt or two quilts bunched around me.
Images flitted through my head of guns, a panic room, marriage certificate, car, men dressed in black, a long drive, and now a wolf. There was no room left in my head for anything new, and I put up a mental “Full” sign.
But a spicy fragrance weaved its way to me, and my mouth watered. It’d been how long since the sandwiches in the car? And whatever I’d eaten while we were underground.
My tummy rumbled just as a pair of feet appeared, and I lifted my head. Curry and rice and a soda plus berries were on a footed tray. I sat back, and Hunter placed the tray over my lap. I attacked the food, the combination of spices lighting up my tongue. Shoving in the curry, my belly settled, and I took a sip of soda, the can hiding my eyes that alighted on Hunter.
“Talk.” I’d barked that order rather than speaking softly, but damn it, I was owed an explanation for the man becoming a wolf trick. It had to be a joke, a sleight of hand. But why? Whatever the reason, I’d hear him out before calling Aunt Louisa to comeget me. I’d take my chances with Draven, though I’d worry about Uncle’s safety.
