Page 90 of Wolf Claimed
“Sometimes.” She shrugged. “Other times, not so much.” She’d never confessed that before, to anyone.
“Is this about thinking you’re a shifter?” Tiernan asked.
She averted her eyes. “You never believed me, did you?”
He cupped her face in both hands. “Look at me, Alyssa.”
She kept her eyes averted.
“You can’t avoid me forever.”
She forced the hurt away, ignoring it. “I’m not avoiding you. But what am I, if I’m not part shifter?”
“If you say you’re part shifter, then I believe you. I can’t explain it, but you’re not one to exaggerate. I only meant I can’t teach you to shift. A shifter’s wolf dictates when that first shift happens, not the shifter. And for the record, I don’t care if you’re shifter, human, or something in between. I love you for who you are.”
Hearing him say those words, acknowledging that she might have a wolf in her. . . That was what she needed to hear, more than anything. “Thank you, Tiernan.”
“You don’t have a wolf in you,” Rafe said, as his hand smoothed down her back and rested on her hip a moment before he dipped two fingers into the waistband of her pants. “But I can fix that.”
A laugh escaped her as she shoved his hand away. “Sex doesn’t fix anything.”
“How do you know until you try?” Rafe nuzzled her neck.
“Where did you go?” she asked Tiernan, trying to ignore the kisses Rafe was planting on her neck and shoulder.
“I contacted my pack.”
“You went all the way home?”
“No, I met another scout. I had to update him. Nothing more. I told him about Maddox as well. My alpha might try to intercede.”
“Might?”
“Our packs are allies by necessity, not choice. It’s complicated. And honestly? White Wolves are trouble. No one gets involved with them without a damn good reason.”
Rafe’s hands gripped the hem of her shirt and lifted it over her head.
“I don’t think this is the time,” she objected.
“I think better when I’m relaxed, Artemis.”
“Now there’s a line I haven’t thought of,” Tiernan said.
She rolled her eyes. “Just as well. It wouldn’t work on anyone.”
“It’s working on you,” Rafe said as she leaned into him.
Damn, the shifter was just too hard to resist. Even as he peeled her bra from her, she found herself helping him instead of pushing him away.
“I’m scared, Rafe,” she said, hating to break the mood, but she couldn’t relax.
“Not of me, I hope,” he said with a lightheartedness that she needed right now. As always, Rafe seemed so sure of himself, tempting her to follow his lead without question. He’d make a wonderful alpha.
“Not of you,” she said, trying to push aside all her negative thoughts about what lay ahead.
“Let me take care of you, Artemis. Give your body what it craves,” Rafe said.
“Maddox—” she began until Rafe captured her lips in a kiss.
