Page 42 of Wolf's Claimed Mate
Either way, my eyes went to the counter, where, before, I’d cleaned up after us, blushing the whole time. If that was how that felt, I never wanted to go without. Glancing at Conall as I brought him my extra winter blanket and pillow, I thought he might be the kind of man I could get addicted to.
Which was the exact reason why I couldn’t get close.
Conall set up his makeshift bed.
“Won’t Fenrys miss you?”
He shrugged. “Nope. Never does.”
“You stay out a lot, huh?”
He smiled at me. “Sort of.”
With other women, I told myself.
“Sometimes, I just head into the woods, shift, and stay out there for the night. It’s peaceful. Reminds me who I am in my whole capacity, you know.” He gazed at me. “It helps me not feel as… Lonely.” He scrunched his face up at that, as if he despised the word but had no substitute.
I nodded. I didn’t do what he did, but I usually partied a lot, hung out in clubs, sat on the laps of men before heading home in the early hours just so my time spent alone wasn’t too long.
“Well,” I said. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Sasha.”
The air was thick with everything we weren’t talking about: us, what we were now, what had changed, my secrets, his thoughts. Everything. Instead of risking those topics, I slunk back into bed. I crawled towards my pillow, feeling Conall’s eyes on my ass. I covered myself with the duvet and turned off the light.
“Goodnight, Conall,” I whispered again, into the dark.
“Night, Sasha,” he echoed once more.
I fell into a fitful sleep full of dreams of kissing Conall, his arms around me as we fell through a lake. I was pulled apart from him, only to land back on the riverbank, him behind me once again. A cycle: coming apart, finding our way back. I hated it.
When I woke up, it was five in the morning. Conall lay on his back, the blanket around his waist, his t-shirt thrown somewhere across the room. He slept in his jeans, which couldn’t have been comfy but I remembered he’d forgone underwear that day.
I slipped across the room on silent feet before clambering on top of him, tucking myself beneath his warm arm, lying against his hot skin. I tugged the blanket up, wrapping myself around him before snuggling in.
It was just to feel less lonely. Just a body to distract my racing thoughts with. Nothing to do with it being Conall himself.
His arm came around me, his face tucking into mine. He turned, pushing me into the back of the couch, cocooning me in his embrace.
It was the first time I’d felt secure in a long time.
Chapter 18 - Conall
At Fenrys’s house the next day, I met my brother’s eyes, and saw my dad in them. I saw myself in them, and it made me feel uneasy every time he looked at me, reminding me of the life I no longer had.
Sasha lounged next to me, so different to the girl who had curled up on top of me like a cat in the early hours of this morning, humming happily as I stroked her hair, falling back asleep for another couple of hours.
We all sat in the living room where Fenrys held the meetings. The staircase was open plan behind Declan, all the walls white with art hanging on the walls, or decorated with pictures of the pack or Fenrys’s elders in the Randon generation. Thalia and Fenrys had gone out with Mayor Randon with Reina for some duties of watching how the role of mayor was fulfilled. The day was getting closer for Fenrys to take over.
I knew he wanted this enemy pack threat eliminated by then.
“You two smell like each other,” Declan commented, wrinkling his nose. “It’s disgusting.”
“We showered afterward,” I taunted, grinning at him. He rolled his eyes.
“What’s so disgusting about it?” Sasha huffed.
“Ask him,” Declan muttered.
