Page 117 of Big Bad Bully
A tight band closes around my throat. Tears spill from my eyes. I cover my mouth.
Billy took down a billion dollar company. For me.
And then he turned it into a place to make and showcase art. He listened and parsed the deepest desire of my heart and made my dream come true.
The man I thought wasn’t sure about me just made the grandest gesture possible while I was licking my wounds at home believing he’d decided I wasn’t worth the trouble.
“So…I am his mate?” I don’t know why, but I just need someone to say it out loud. Billy won’t.
“He may not have marked you, but he’s clearly yours. He’s slaying your dragons, even when you’re not together. He’s trying to make your dreams come true.”
God, I’m crying like a baby. I cover my mouth to hide the ugly sob.
Why did I doubt him?
Billy is broken, that’s for sure. But it doesn’t mean we can’t work. He may not be willing to admit yet I’m his fated mate, but I can admit he’s mine.
It’s time for me to fix this.
If he’s not willing to claim me, I’ll go over there and claim him.
I swipe at the tears under my eyes and lift my chest. “Take me to your place.”
Chapter Thirty
Billy
I sprawl on my couch and attempt to get drunk while I stare at the grey flower study spanning my wall. It’s bold and brilliant and begging for color.
Aubrey did that on purpose.
She did that to me.
She walked into my life, showed me texture and beauty, and pointed out how colorless I am. How soulless. How empty and flat and grey.
Until I met Aubrey, I thought I was satisfied. I clawed my way out of my childhood, and fate delivered me to the side of the most powerful alpha in the country. I wasn’t the biggest or strongest wolf in his pack, but I was the most vicious. The most paranoid, calculating, and conniving. I won every challenge for dominance and made myself indispensable to Brick when his life imploded. I helped him hold his pack together when the Adalwulfs nearly took them. Helped him more than replace the wealth that was ripped from his pack.
I had my life in complete control. I was wealthy, successful, and stood at the side of the most powerful pack in New York.
Then she waltzed in and set everything on fire.
Fuck.
I chug from a bottle of gin. I’ve downed almost the entire container, but with my shifter metabolism, the buzz is hard to maintain.
Someone opens my door without knocking. My teeth bare in a snarl as I tear to my feet to eviscerate whoever it is.
“Honey, I’m home.”
I go still.
She’s here.
Mate, my wolf howls.
I know.
I froze when she asked me.
