Page 52 of Wolf Trapped
I run a hand through my hair, tearing my gaze away from her. I want to go back out there and fucking kill him again, knowing what he did to her. “Am I really so horrible?” I crowd her caging her on the bed.
Everything I do is to keep her safe. I honor and protect her, but the first chance she gets, she tells that traitor that I’m an emotionless monster. Have I been that terrible?
“He was going to kill me in this bed. I needed to buy time.” She whispers, glancing away. That’s not the response I want, though. She didn’t say she didn’t mean it. Fuck.
“What do you want from me, Jara?” I roar, taking a step back from the bed. “I don’t know what more I can do.”
I’m shaking with rage and hurt. Jara’s eyes fill with tears.
“All I want is a little bit of freedom. You separated me from everyone, and it’s fucking lonely out here. I want you to trust that I can take care of myself.” She cries.
“Like you did tonight? Jara, you are covered in cuts and bruises. You have a cracked rib and a slice across your neck. You call that taking care of yourself?” I throw my hands up, pacing back and forth in front of her.
“It could be worse. He was going to kill me.” She shouts, standing from the bed and getting right in my face. “If I didn’t buy some time, you wouldn’t have gotten here in time.”
She’s right. I was too far away, and I’m to blame for the cuts on her creamy skin. The thought of losing her has my gut plummeting to my feet. She doesn’t get to leave me. My wolf howls in my mind, the sound mournful as we realize just how close we came to losing our mate.
“Tell me you didn’t mean it,” I growl, stepping forward again. I need her to say it, or I need her to admit that she’s unhappy so I can try to fix it as best as possible.
“I told you I said what I had to so I could get out of that alive.” She says softly.
“But, did you mean it?” I press. She can say she did what was necessary without saying that her words were true. “Am I the emotionless beast that you claimed?
“Honestly, Archer? You are absolutely like that sometimes. I’m tired of being locked away like a prisoner. I want to be able to tell my parents that I am okay and to be able to get to know this new pack without being isolated from everyone all the time. They will never respect me as an alpha female if I am constantly kept away from them.” She says and sighs as if she’s tired.
Doesn’t she know why I do those things? I’m protecting her from a threat. Have I not told her all I want and need is for her to be protected and safe? “I brought you out here because there was a threat to your life.”
I’ll do anything and everything in my power to keep her safe. I would burn the world if she required it. How can she think I wouldn’t?
“What?” she asks softly, peering into my eyes with such vulnerability it is difficult to look at. “I thought you brought me here to protect them. Rochelle’s words at the pack meeting. I’m bad luck.” She glances to the side, and I groan.
That stupid female. She’s been quiet since that meeting, but she’s causing problems with my mate.
“Carter burned the words Jara will die in the clearing where we hold our meetings, Jara. I had to get you away from everyone. I wasn’t sure who had done it. For all we knew, it could have been someone from the pack. I needed you safe until we isolated the threat.”
“Oh,” her eyes shine with tears. “I had it all wrong.” She whispers.
“I do what I can to ensure you are content and protected. I can’t express myself to you or anyone else. This is me, Jara. This is what you get, and if I’m an unemotional beast, it's because that’s all I know how to be.” I shrug.
Jara takes a step forward, wiping at her cheeks, but the tears keep falling. “I thought I was going to die, Archer. And though sometimes, I feel those things about you, it’s not always. I told Carter what I thought he wanted to hear to give you time to get to me or for me to figure a way out of that mess.”
I stroke her cheek with my fingertips, unsure what to say or how to deal with her tears. Relief fills me at her words. She doesn’t see me as just a beast. Maybe one day, I can learn to express my emotions, but it’s difficult to change the stigma that comes with that for me.
“You know I care about you, right? I will always come for you, Jara. I will move mountains to get to you.”
19
JARA
What? Did he just say what I think he did? His expression is so full of love that it hits me like a brick. This is the closest I’m going to get to an admission of love from him right now. Does that mean he loves me?
I stand up on my toes, kissing his lips lightly and tenderly. I pour all my feelings into the kiss, and Archer’s arms wrap tight around me. I groan into his kiss, my ribs still sore.
My back hits the wall as Archer deepens the kiss and wraps his hands around my thighs, pulling me up, and I snake them around him, lining his cock up with my center.
Archer grips the bottom of my shirt, ripping the bloody material over my head. The fact that we are covered in our enemy's blood only enhances my need for him. I may be a bloodthirsty bitch, after all.
“Archer,” I whine as he kneads my breast rolling my nipple between his fingers.
