Page 13 of Craved By the Werewolf
The memory was burned into my brain. "She froze."
"Scared frozen or 'sweet Goddess, this man is about to be the death of me' frozen?"
Despite everything, I almost smiled. "The second one."
"That's what I thought." He nodded sagely. "Thorne, in all my years watching you, I've never seen anyone who could twist you up like that. Hell, you practically announced to Mystic Ridge that you've got the hots for her."
"I didn't?—"
"You told them exactly what you wanted, then sat there in silence like you wanted to finish the conversation somewhere private. With her." His grin was pure mischief. "If that's not broadcasting your intentions, I don't know what is."
He wasn't wrong. That was the hell of it. For those few seconds, there might as well have been no radio station, no listeners. There had been nothing but Vala and the challenge in her eyes and the sudden, overwhelming need to show her exactly what I'd meant.
"This can't happen," I said.
"Why not?"
"Because..." I struggled for words that didn't sound like excuses. "Because she's not pack. Because she's got her own life. Because I don't do relationships that matter."
The older wolf was quiet for a long moment, studying me with the kind of focus that came from decades of reading people's hearts.
"You know what your problem is?" he said finally.
"I'm sure you're going to tell me."
"You think you get to make that choice for her." He stood, brushing imaginary dust off his jeans. "That girl's got backbone, Thorne. More backbone than half the wolves in this pack. Maybe it's time you trusted someone to decide if they can handle what you are."
He headed for the door, then paused to deliver his parting shot.
"Besides, son, way I see it, she's already handled you just fine." Knox's grin was downright wicked. "Question is, what are you going to do about it?"
I narrowed my eyes, but he was already halfway out the door, clearly enjoying himself far too much.
He paused in the doorway, glancing back over his shoulder. "Looks to me like the wolf's already made up his mind."
5
VALA
Buzz. Buzz-buzz. BUZZ. Buzz-buzz-buzz.
I cracked one eye open and squinted at the glowing menace on my nightstand. 10:08 AM. The notification count was climbing so fast I couldn't even read it properly.
"What the hell?" I croaked, reaching for the phone with all the enthusiasm of someone defusing a bomb.
347 notifications.
Three Hundred. And. Forty. Seven.
"Oh, shit."
I sat up so fast my head spun. My Glitter mentions looked like a war zone. Glimpse was having what could only be described as a collective meltdown. And Fangbook—sweet Goddess, even Fangbook was losing its mind, and nothing interesting ever happened on Fangbook.
The first post I saw made me drop the phone like it was on fire.
OMG DID ANYONE ELSE JUST HEAR THE SEXUAL TENSION BETWEEN NIGHTINGALE AND THORNE??? I'm DEAD.
"No, no, no, no, no."
