Page 125 of Wolf's Reckoning
“Only when I’m invited.”
“You weren’t.”
“Wasn’t I?”
She turned then, arms falling to her sides, expression unreadable. “You trying to be funny?”
“No,” I said honestly. “But I think this is our home, and we live together. So you tell me how we’re supposed to do this without tearing each other apart.”
Rowen shrugged and then got up and walked to the window. “Maybe tearing each other apart is all we’re good at.”
“Or maybe it’s how we started,” I said, walking over to where she stood now, only a breath between us. “But does it need to be how we end?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I don’t want you to be soft.”
“Good,” I said. “Because I’m not built for gentle.” My hand lifted, not touching her, just hovering near her jaw. “But I am built for you.”
Her breath caught, barely. Just enough to betray her. “You’re not supposed to say things like that,” she said, voice quieter now, more a warning to herself than to me.
“Why not?”
“Because then I have to choose whether or not to believe you.”
“Then believe this,” I said, finally letting my fingers brush down her arm, circling her wrist. Her pulse thudded hard under my touch. “We’re mates—it’s not going to go away. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. You don’t have to want it yet. You don’t have to like me. But stop pretending like you don’t feel it.”
“I never asked for a mate,” she said, chin lifting.
“I never said you did.” I laughed. “I never thought I’d have one, but here we are.”
“What do you want, Wolfe?”
I stepped in, close enough to steal her air. “I want this house not to feel like a battlefield every time I walk in. I want my pack whole. And I want you to stop treating me like I’m your enemy every time I make a decision that saves this place.”
Rowen stared at me. “And if I can’t?”
“Then I’ll keep doing it anyway. Because I’m the alpha, whether you like it or not.”
She didn’t respond, but when she finally looked away, it wasn’t with fury. It was with something far more dangerous.
Acceptance.
Maybe not of me. But of the situation we were in.
I left her at the window, standing in the soft hush of twilight, and for the first time since stepping back into the Hollow, I didn’t feel like an intruder.
Not completely.
Later, I was lying on the bed, Rowen asleep beside me, both of us very careful not to touch each other. I envied her ability to sleep so soundly. She was mere inches from me, and she wasn’t close enough.
Stupid mate bond, making me want something that she wasn’t willing to give. I’d be damned if I took it. Rowen would either submit to me willingly or not at all; if not at all, well…I’d need to consult an alpha whose mate rejected him after the mating bond had clicked into place to find out how to survive not being able to touch her.
Goddess knows where I would find one; my understanding was that mates meant happiness.
Not this fucking misery I was in.
You awake?
No, Killian, I’m sleeping,I told my beta, smiling in the dark despite myself.
