Page 41 of The Wolf's Bullied Pregnant Mate
She scowled at me. “Say that again, and I’ll make sure you never have a warm shower while you’re on this island.”
I grinned. “I’ll just bring you in with me. You can be hot enough that the cold water won’t matter.”
She threw one of the cushions at me. “God, is everything just sex with you, Zephyr?”
“Yeah,” I answered.
Or at least it used to be, I thought, still unable to work out what had happened with that softer kiss earlier. I had gone from fucking her roughly to kissing her like a lifeline. Even worse was that I was afraid she had felt that desperation.
She shook her head and pushed off the bed. But I reached out and grasped her hand. She turned around, surprised.
“Yes?” she asked.
Any words left my mouth. I could only gaze up at her, speechless, unexpectedly. “Nothing.”
She paused before pulling away. “I’m heating up more pasta. Is there any word from Alex? We’ll need more supplies soon.”
“I’m waiting on an update,” I said. “Last I heard, things were still too bad to go back up.”
She was antsy as she cooked more food. “Would you like any of this?”
It would be the first meal we had shared properly. I had refused any sort of domesticity and eaten alone every time, leaving her to fix coffee and meals for herself.
“Yes,” I answered. “I could eat again.”
I made sure she saw a double meaning in my words.
“I don’t know why I’m so hungry,” she muttered. “But we need to go easy on the food if we don’t know when we can restock.”
I nodded. “I found some noodle cups in the cupboards. If we can do some fancy magic bullshit with the water, then we can cook those as a last resort.” Adalyn nodded and prepared the rest of our pasta for the evening.
When she came back to the bed, I shifted to make room for her, so we sat side by side rather than an awkward diagonal avoidance.
She’d donned a robe to cover herself with, but it shifted with her movements, exposing a thin strip of skin down her center. I found myself wanting to touch her again, unable to resist the urge to be close to her even if I didn’t understand it.
Once, I couldn’t even stand to be in a room with her.
Ask about the shifter and the witch, I told myself.Ask her what she knows about the start of their story.
But I couldn’t. It felt too close. Too similar. I couldn’t spook her now.
Instead, we ate in silence until she spoke again.
“What do you work as?” she asked.
I hesitated. “You know I’m in Alex’s special ops team, right?”
“Yeah,” she said, “But what is it you do on a daily basis?”
I frowned. “Well, when we’re not surveying dangerous movements, camping out in the mountains or deserts, or taking down shifter hunters, I train people in weaponry. Rifles, grenades, axes, knives. Anything. That’s my job. Frazer used to be our muscle guy; too much brawn and not enough close aim. It took me weeks, but I broke him in, taught him how to throw an axe into a bullseye. I was the one who even got Hec to pick up a gun for the first time. He wasn’t happy about it but knew it was necessary.”
“So, you’re a good shot?” she asked, smiling up at me.
“I never miss,” I answered, and the meaning felt deeper than just the target of a gunshot.
Chapter 15 - Adalyn
Zephyr and I fell asleep that night in a blissful, peaceful silence. There was very little tension and no arguments before we slept. But as soon as the candles extinguished and all that remained was to stare into the darkness before sleep came for me, I couldn’t stop my thoughts.
