Page 49 of The Wolf's Bullied Pregnant Mate
He’s starting to respect this space,I thought.
I returned the smile.
“It’s more than okay,” I answered. In truth, I didn’t know if it was, but nobody could contradict me. I wandered over to thepile of sheets and landed in it comfortably. Zephyr joined me a second later.
“Is this a date?” I taunted.
A second after I asked, I wondered if it was the wrong thing to ask. Zephyr tensed beside me.
“I’ve…” He cleared his throat. “I’ve never really… Taken a girl out.”
“No,” I laughed, pressing a hand to his chest as I turned to look at him. “That’s a lie! Frazer said you’ve had a lot of girls in the past.”
“Yeah,” he said. “But notdated.”
“Player,” I muttered under my breath. It made me want to shift away from him, but he growled and tugged me flush against his chest. His body warmth seeped through my robe. I unknotted the tie on the robe and let it slip open. Not to tease him but just for the casual comfort. Zephyr’s hand brushed gently up and down my chest, between my breasts. Not to tease or arouse but just totouch.
And I let him.
Part of me was still strained, wanting to move his hand, remain loyal to my coven, and never let a shifter lay his hands on me. Another part longed for it and saidthis is not just any shifter. This is Zephyr. And there was something about him that made my world start turning upside down.
“What do people do on a date, then?” Zephyr asked.
“Well, I grew up in Azure Cove after I turned eighteen, and before that, boys weren’t exactly date material back in Brooklyn, or they just wanted to know what losing their virginity to a witch would feel like.”
“Did they ever find out?”
“No,” I muttered. “Which only made them more relentless.”
I felt him tense beneath me. I hoped he was remembering his taunts from the pool, realizing how those words would have made me feel.
His fingertips danced over my skin lightly. My nipples pebbled, and still, he didn’t move to make the moment more intimate. Above us, the stars twinkled, and I was captivated. I felt his eyes flicker between me and the sky.
“God, we’re dumb, aren’t we?” I laughed. “Wondering what people do on dates.”
“Yeah, but we haven’t exactly had normal upbringings.” Zephyr shrugged. “This is as good as it gets for now.”
“Well, I imagine that people get to know each other,” I suggested. “There’s probably good food involved.”
“Shame I can’t go to the store,” he muttered. “I’d have brought back the best pizza around.”
“You mean theonlypizza around?” I sniggered.
Zephyr laughed, the movement jostling me. Finally, his fingertips grazed my nipples, and I let out a soft sigh. His hand traveled up to my neck, gliding over my jawline, tracing my face, even as we gazed at the sky.
“And as for getting to know each other,” he said, considering, “Ask me something. Anything. I’ll answer it.” There was an edge to his voice that made me wonder if he thought he would regret offering that.
“What made you enter the military?” I asked.
“My dad was in it,” he answered. “He died in battle, but that didn’t make me enter. I always looked up to him. He passed away when I was eleven. A grenade took out his convoy. He left behind his wife, a loyal, kind woman, who always taught me to be proud of myself. He left behind twins, and an older son.”
“Twins?” I echoed.
Zephyr nodded and pointed to his head. “They readZephyrandZane.” He ran his free hand over the tattoos on his scalp. “Zane was my twin. He—he was killed when we were seventeen, right before we graduated in Pittsburgh. I grew up in this tiny town where everybody knew one another, much like here, so processing his death was hard. It got suffocating. I had so much anger. When I tried to outrun it, fight, and kill my way through it, I couldn’t. It wasn’t helping, so I tried to discipline it instead in the military. I was good—better than I thought I would be, climbed the ranks, met the other guys, made my mom proud. My older brother still lives with her in Pittsburgh, but I don’t go home as much anymore. Too many ghosts.”
I hadn’t expected him to spill as much as he had. I found I didn’t know what to do with these words that held such value. His face was stoic when I looked at him, his jaw clenched.
“What made you finally leave Brooklyn? I don’t think Azure Cove has a college program for witches and brews,” he laughed, but his mood wasn’t entirely in it. His voice fell flat, dryly joking, almost a mocking comment again. But I knew it wasn’t, and my annoyance simmered down.
