Page 110 of Wolf's Reckoning
His hand was still on my hip. My breath still tangled in the space between us. And I hated that for a second—just one fucking second—I leaned into it.
Into him.
I shoved him again. Not hard. Just enough to remind us both that I could. He let me. Smirking like he liked the fight. Like he missed it.
“You really think I’m going to be the one who loses control?” I demanded.
Wolfe’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t break. “You already did. You just don’t want to admit it.”
I laughed—sharp and bitter. “I’ve spent years mastering my control. Do you know what that’s like, Wolfe? Do you have any idea what it costs to keep yourself in check when every damn person is waiting for you to fail?”
He didn’t flinch. “I know exactly what that feels like.”
And damn him—he said it softly. Honest. Like he meantit. I hated him more for it. Because he was the only one who could understand.
“You think this mate bond makes a difference?” I whispered, stepping closer, chest brushing his. “You think I’m yours now?”
“No.” The word was low. Final. “I think you’re minestill.”
The air crackled between us. Something deep inside me bucked against the truth of it, against the part of me that had never really let go of the way he saidmine.
I turned my head. “You’ve gotten good at pretending you’re not the one breaking.”
He moved fast—grabbing my wrist, not to restrain but to feel. His thumb skimmed the inside like he could map the wild beneath my skin.
“You think this is me breaking?” His voice was low, dangerous. “This is me holding back.”
I stared at him. My lips parted on a breath I hadn’t meant to give. That’s when I knew it—knew what the Goddess had done. Not a punishment. Not a gift.
A challenge.
Because if he was my mate…then she was testing me. Maybe she didn’t want us to fall in love. Maybe she wanted us to survive it.
“You need to get back to the house,” Wolfe murmured. “Your scent is intoxicating,” he said, his voice tight with need. “I just told the pack who and what I am, so let’s not give them more to handle tonight with the scent of your heat making them crazy.”
“If you just let me go to my old rooms?—”
“I had them cleansed and purified,” he told me, his grip on my wrist firm. “You belong at the house, where I am.”
“Why would you purify them?” I asked him in disbelief.
“Because the only place that should smell like you and the sweet scent of your pussy is in our house.”
I stopped walking, too stunned to respond to his crassness or my reaction to it. Wolfe didn’t stop walking, and his hold on my wrist yanked me forward to walk beside him.
“I can walk, unaided,” I snapped, yanking my arm free for the third time as he stalked beside me, one hand always hovering like he expected me to bolt. “I won’t run away,” I added like a petulant child.
“You’re right,” he growled. “You won’t. You’re not going anywhere.” His voice was rough, command woven through every word, and my wolfliked it. Worse—Iliked it, and I hated that most of all. “There’s nowhere you can go now, that I won’t find you.”
The house loomed ahead, the same one I’d sworn wouldn’t be my prison, and yet now…it didn’t feel like a cage. Too many eyes on me. Too many truths gnawing at the edges of the bond pulling taut between us. His three men hovered nearby, and I chose not to look at them, convinced I would see smug satisfaction on at least one of their faces as their alpha returned me to the house like I was a rebellious pet being returned to their master.
Wolfe pushed open the door and waited for me to walk inside.
I didn’t.
He didn’t say a word. Just stepped behind me, one hand grazing the small of my back—a touch so light it felt like fire—and waited. I swallowed my pride and walked in, spine stiff, fury barely banked.
He followed. “You can go,” he told his pack. “I won’t be leaving again tonight.” The door shut with a softclick.
