Page 99 of Wolf's Reckoning
“You’re still naked,” I whispered, my body unnaturally still as he seemed to press closer and I felt his thick cock press against me.
“I’m going for a run,” he said, still close, still there. “You want to come?”
“Yes.”
“I mean on a run with me,” he murmured, his voice laced with laughter.
“Oh my Goddess.” I was going to die of embarrassment. “I’m okay here, you go.”Please.
“I’ll see you later.” He stepped away, walked past me,and I heard furniture move aside as he changed form to his wolf.
He was outside before I had a proper look at him, realizing I hadn’t seen his wolf since he returned, but he was already gone.
As my heart slowed down from its racing, I knew I had a new problem. The fact that he was taking over wasn’t the immediate threat; it was the fact that I was insanely attracted to him.
I had no idea which one was more dangerous.
Chapter 24
Rowen
It hitlike a punch to the ribs.
One second, I was marching down the eastern trail, barking orders at Lewis about rotating border patrols—despite what Wolfe said—and the next, I was doubled over behind a supply shed, breath locked in my lungs, my wolf clawing to the surface with a howl that didn’t quite make it out of my throat.
No. Not now.
My heat hit me unawares. It couldn’t be this soon. It had never been this close to one that had just passed. A heat was not the same as a monthly cycle, it was aneedto mate.
I clutched my stomach; it was nerves. That was it—I’d been under a lot of stress. I lost my father, my alpha. I was married to the male I rejected when I was seventeen; there was alotgoing on in my life. Of course I was stressed. The only way I wouldn’t have been feeling the stress was if I were dead, and I was very much alive.
I straightened slowly. It was stress. That was all.
A flare of pain, sharp, sudden, and wrong, stabbedthrough me. My skin prickled,burned, and my mouth went dry.
Oh Goddess, it was my heat. I almost sobbed.
My thoughts were scrambled, but not about Lewis, or the patrol schedule, or the farce with the suitors.
No. It washim.
Wolfe.
I reached out and grabbed the corner of the shed, using it to pull myself upright as I shoved the thought away, but it was already too late. The moment I inhaled, the moment I caught the faintest trace of oakmoss and black pepper, and whatever damn scent he carried like a brand, I knew.
My body knew. And worse…so did his.
Because before I could move, before I could straighten up and force myself back into control, I felt him. Not just his presence—but that unmistakable ripple that shouldn’t exist, tugging at the very center of me.
“Please, Luna, please no,” I whispered fervently as I leaned against the shed just for a moment. This couldn’t be happening. Not after everything. “I can’t go into heat with him here,” I begged the Goddess softly.
But she wasn’t listening to a mere shifter like me.
I turned—and there he was. Still as a stone. Watching me like a man facing a fight he’d long ago resigned himself to losing.
“Rowen,” he said softly.
The way my name sounded in his mouth, like it belonged there, burned me.
