Page 71 of Wolf Claimed
Ever.
What the fuck had he gotten himself into?
* * *
TIERNAN
Tiernan couldn’t believeany of this was happening. As soon as they had blood-bonded, his wolf had settled. But Tiernan didn’t feel the bond with Alyssa.
As if that didn’t already have him all messed up inside, she kissed Rafe, right in front of him, and Tiernan hadn’t even tried to split the two apart. Not a snarl to warn Rafe to back away or a growl directed at her to show his displeasure. Had her blood tamed more than his wolf? The blood-bond wasn’t supposed to take his balls. As a male, as her mate, he should be keeping other males away from her.
But he was losing her, letting her drift away.
“Let’s go, Heir,” Maddox said as he pulled Rafe toward the door connecting the second room. “They can’t talk with your tongue down her throat.”
“My tongue wasn’t down her—”
“Yell if you need us, angel,” Maddox said as he shoved Rafe into the other room and slammed the door behind them.
At last, Tiernan had Alyssa to himself. She looked upset. He’d stepped over a line with her, claiming she was his mate. But she was, damn it!
“I never had a chance to thank you for saving me,” he said, hoping to start over with her. They needed to talk, to smooth out this tension between them.
“Don’t thank me. I don’t deserve it.” She held up a hand before he could protest. “I was scared, Tiernan. For you and me.”
“Because of the other shifters?”
“Because of my wolf.”
She still believed she was half-shifter. He couldn’t imagine how terrifying that must have been for her, growing up with an anti-shifter father while thinking she was part shifter.
“Maddox said the blood-bond would keep a wolf from going feral. I wanted to save you, but I also hoped this blood-bond would bury my wolf. So you see, I’m not so brave or selfless. Just a scared woman or half-shifter. Hell, I don’t even know what I am.”
“You’re Alyssa Monroe. Unless you’d like to take my name. Then you’ll be Alyssa Greyson.”
“You still want me? Even though the blood-bond didn’t work?”
“It worked. My wolf is calm.”
“But I don’t feel any type of connection. Do you?”
“No,” he admitted. He didn’t feel a bond to her either, not the way it had always been described to him, but his wolf was stable now, fully under his control, so the bond had formed.
“You’re mad. Because there’s no bond,” she said, her face filled with sorrow.
“Honestly? I have a lot of conflicting emotions right now. On top of not knowing why this bond is not working as expected, you’re telling me blood-bonding was nothing more than a means to an end for you. I never thought you’d use me. And what’s worse, I’m realizing this is how you felt when I asked you to blood-bond me. I never understood how trivialized I made you feel.”
“You’re twisting everything around, Tiernan. I was scared about the blood-bond, about being tied to someone permanently. But mostly, I’ve been terrified of what this thing inside of me will do in time. I wanted to help you but I also worried about what would happen to me. I was hoping blood-bonding might help, but it could have made my situation worse as well. Until yesterday, I had no one to talk to about it.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You had me. I would have listened. I guess you didn’t trust me.”
“I barely trusted myself,” she said, her voice a whisper. “God, I hate this.”
“It’s not the end of the world being shifter. We get along with our wolves for the most part. They’re a part of us, that’s what you humans don’t understand.”
She sucked in air. He’d used the word ‘humans’ as a slight, but he didn’t feel like he should apologize, not this time. She’d been handed a raw deal with who her father was and how the DSA had used her, but that didn’t mean she could use him to settle a wolf she believed existed in her and then walk away from him. They were bonded, even if neither of them could feel the bond. The bond meant something. To him, if not her.
“I’m sorry, Tiernan. It was wrong of me, but it’s done.” Her hands were on him again, stroking his arms, that soft look in her eyes. She had screwed up, and she knew it. Fuck, he wanted to stay mad at her, but he couldn’t.
