Page 60 of The Wolf's Bullied Pregnant Mate
“Yes, but… It’s not polite toliterallytake anything.”
He shrugged. “I’m a literal guy.”
“Ugh,” I said. “What is with you today? Why did you make me stay outside? At the very least, I could have protected you.”
“I didn’t need it,” he told me, trying to shrug it off again as he wandered down more aisles, tipping food packets into our basket. He loaded up on anything he could find, from snacks to meals. “I went in, shifted, killed, and then left. I didn’t even tear my clothes. Why are you so upset?”
He sounded far too dismissive of the situation. I scoffed and shook my head.
“Youalwayshave to be the one, don’t you? The one to fight, the one to take charge, the one to control every situation.”
His eyes turned dark on me. “You have a problem with that, Adalyn? Because I seem to remember you didn’t when I had my co—”
“Enough!” I cried. “Stop it, Zephyr. Just… I can do things myself. Trust that.”
He glanced at me, his gaze flickering downward for a moment before he met my eyes once again.
“What would you have done in here?” he challenged. “How would you have fought three demons?”
“So you’re back to taunting me?” I spat. “Making me feel inferior?”
“No,” he said. “I’m only trying to prove that I made the right call when we didn’t have the luxury to consider all options. We had to go with the quickest solution.”
“It’s not about whatIwould have done,” I stressed. “It’s about working together. Wasn’t that the whole point of learning to coexist this past week? Knowing how to be around one another and see what sort of… I don’t know, what team we make?”
“Team,” he echoed, his face falling.
“I don’t know, Zephyr!” I cried. “I don’t know what we are or what’s going on here, I—”
He dropped the basket and surged forward to kiss me, cupping my face in his hands. I heard the automatic doors slide open in the store but didn’t care. I kissed Zephyr back, letting him nudge me into one of the shelves even when it dug into my shoulder. I moaned softly into his mouth, sucking on his lower lip.
He kissed me deeply, and I fell into the kiss, feeling the tension drain away. My annoyance still circled in my gut, but the intensity of the argument had gone.
But when Zephyr pulled back, his face was tight with anger. “Thatis what’s going on.”
He gave me one last long look before picking up the basket and stocking up. I followed him, dumbfounded, down the store aisle. When would I have the nerve to speak up about the feelings growing in me for the past week?
The attraction I felt? The panic whenever he was too far from me, and I didn’t know where he was, like when he wentexploring in the tunnels for more rooms? Or the tenderness I’d felt when we went to the stargazing room, and he had confessed to not knowing what people did on a date?
I was still angry that he had belittled my abilities again after we had formed a truce but I followed him anyway.
***
That night, I couldn’t stop thinking of how Zephyr’s words had again gotten under my skin despite our truce this past week.
How could he think of me as so helpless when I had proven myself to him? I hadscaredhim several days ago. He had worked with me to start aiming my attacks tobeon the offense more. Alex had said the demons had been avoiding the island's northern part, which meant that my shields had been doingsomething.
“I need to work on my shields,” I told Zephyr quietly.
“What?”
“My shields,” I repeated. “I’ll be safe when I leave here, but I want to go and work on them.”
Zephyr was on me in an instant, pressing me into the bed. “Like hell, you’re leaving here. We’re here for our safety. We haven’t been cleared to go out again yet.”
“I know,” I said. “I do, but… Zephyr, you still think I’m weak when I’m not. You heard Alex, my shields have been doing good. If more demons are attacking, I can add more and spread my protection. I can’t fight the demons in your eyes, but I can protect. That’s all you think, isn’t it?”
“No, no, Adalyn, that’s not—”
