Page 52 of Wolf Claimed
“You don’t get it, Alyssa! I killed her! I killed Isabella. I brought that fucking virus back to my pack. I’d been in a hot zone and fell ill on the way back to my pack. I was so sick that all I could think about was returning to the safety of the pack, returning to my Isabella.
“I knew returning with the virus was a risk, but I was scared of dying alone. My whole life I trained and fought as a guard, ready to give my life to protect the pack. I’d been injured and close to death several times, but nothing like this. There I was, confronted by an enemy I couldn’t fight, and I was scared of dying alone away from home. I was arrogant and selfish, thinking if I returned to my small cabin in the middle of the woods and stayed away from the main part of the pack, I was justified in returning home to Isabella. I was thinking about myself, not her, as I should have been. When I finally realized how stupid I’d been to return, I told her to stay away, but she insisted on caring for me. Then the worst happened. She got sick and died. But I survived. I never should have returned.”
Tears streamed down Alyssa’s cheeks, which only proved how kind-hearted she was. He couldn’t cry anymore. Crying hadn’t brought Isabella back when she died, and it wouldn’t help him now either.
Alyssa laced her hands behind his neck and leaned her forehead against his. “Thank you for telling me, for sharing your past, especially considering how painful that was.”
“I’ve never told anyone the truth of those few weeks. Drake, my alpha, had thought the local deer population, which was the main food source for our pack, had been infected with the virus. I should have spoken up. Denying my part in all the suffering and death was easier than admitting my responsibility for killing Isabella. My blood-bonded mate and all the others died because of me.”
She stared into his face until he finally met her eyes. What he saw there astounded him. Not hate or pity, only strength and compassion.
“They died because of my father and the rest of the WSSO. You just got caught in a terrible situation that may or may not have gone down differently if you hadn’t returned. And if your pack was eating meat infected with the virus—which sounds like a tactic my father would use—then they could have gotten the virus that way just as easily.”
Alyssa brushed her lips along his lips, calming him and his wolf so quickly, so easily. He didn’t deserve her, just like he hadn’t deserved Isabella.
“You need to stop blaming yourself, Maddox. It doesn’t sound like Isabella blamed you. She could just have easily avoided taking care of you to keep from getting infected, but she didn’t because that’s what people do for the ones they love.”
Another brush across his lips left his body longing for her as she released her hold on him and removed her tank top and jeans until she stood in nothing but a matching black bra and panties. Silky, shiny, that thin fabric covered all the right spots on a gorgeous body. Utterly beautiful. Bewitching.
He was getting hard just running his eyes over her, and he couldn’t do it quickly. No, he had to take his fucking time memorizing the fullness of her breasts and how her shapely hips dipped in, drawing his eyes to that triangle piece of silk that hid her sex. And those legs, toned with seductive curves, made him wonder how tight she’d lock her ankles behind him when he’d fuck her standing up.
“What are you doing?” he finally asked as she slid the right bra strap off, and then the left.
The corner of her mouth kicked up. “You’re exhausted, as am I, so I figured I might as well get ready for bed,” she said innocently, except her body language was anything but innocent. “Can you help me?” She lifted that luscious mass of rich, thick, blonde hair off her neck and turned around, presenting the bra clasp to him.
His hand slid down the back of her neck and across her bare shoulders, the need to feel her skin against his, to gain that intimacy if only for a few short seconds, too great to resist.
“That feels wonderful,” she said in a seductive voice.
His Alyssa, his angel, was a siren, not an angel. He unclasped the bra, and it fell to the floor. As Maddox strained to keep his hands to himself, she looped her fingers in the sides of her panties and slowly rolled them down, bending at the hips and presenting him with quite a view of her backside and pussy as she practically folded her body in half.
Not a siren, but definitely not an angel. A vixen. A coy little, unabashed, sexy-as-hell, wickedly tempting vixen who stepped out of her panties and slowly straightened her body, making sure to stretch and flex those toned yet supple muscles of her back and arms. All without once turning around. She glided to the bed and slipped under the covers, keeping her back to him the entire time. Which was a good thing, considering the massive hard-on he had.
“Good night, Maddox.”
Like he could fall asleep now after that show. But if he stayed, he’d regret it.
He marched into the living room and stared at the cramped chair. There was a ton of room in the queen-size bed. He could slide in and face away from her, never touch her. Ignore her scent and finally get a good night’s rest.
Who the fuck was he kidding? Even now, her scent had him crazy with the need to fuck, to dominate, to take what was his, whatshouldbe his.
Maddox returned to the bedroom, stripped out of his shirt and boots, but left his pants on. “I’m here to sleep. Nothing more,” he said as he slid into the other side of the bed, keeping his back to her. The cushy mattress felt so good, but he wasn’t going to fall asleep easily, not with his dick rock hard and her scent curling around him like a hand around his cock, stroking him, tormenting him.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Maddox. For what happened to your pack and your mate,” she said, the temptress gone, his angel—the sweet, caring female—returned. “I never meant to trivialize any of that, but you need to know you’re not the cause of it. My father is. And I will stop him. Someday. I don’t know how or when, but I will. I promise you that.”
Maddox swallowed. It wasn’t for her to go after the human who killed thousands of shifters. She shouldn’t have the nightmares that came with killing someone, especially her own father. “You need to stay out of it, Alyssa. You’re not responsible for what he did.”
“Neither are you.”
She wouldn’t let him wallow in guilt or blame himself. She was goodness and light and all that was right with the world. “You are not going to let me blame myself, are you?”
“Nope.”
“That’s not fair, female.”
“I’m not looking for fair. Just a little bit of happiness.”
“And you think that includes me?”
