Page 39 of Can't Help Growling in Love
I want to tell her she’s my mate, but that would put pressure on her that she doesn’t need right now, so I swallow down the words.
She brings her hands up to my back and clutches my t-shirt, her fingers digging in. “Yeah, I know. Sorry, my brain just went to the worst possible scenario.”
I snort, then pull back. “Oh, I know what that’s like, trust me. Now, do you need help packing? Grab whatever you need for work, too. I’ll drive you.”
June’s eyes are suspiciously shiny, but she hustles up the stairs. I linger downstairs for a moment to give her some privacy, then stomp after her when the distance between us stretches too far for my liking.
My wolf only settles once I stop at the doorway to June’s bedroom and watch as she opens a drawer of her dresser, takes out two pairs of balled-up socks, and tosses them in the duffle bag on her bed.
I draw in a deep inhale and catch the faint scent of her arousal, lingering from a few days ago, perhaps.
This is June’s bedroom.Where she might have…
The mental image of June pleasuring herself hits me so suddenly, I sprout fur and a tail before I can stop myself. I groan, my cock already half hard, and stare down at my furry hands, clenched into fists.
I glance up again and find June staring at me, eyebrows high.
“Uh, what just happened?” She takes a step closer, raises her hand, and digs her fingers into the ruff of fur on my neck.
I lean into her touch, growling softly. “Fuck, I’m sorry.” I close my eyes, trying to shiver back into my human form, but with her hands on me, there’s no way I’m giving up the heightened senses. “I, um, remembered this is your bedroom.”
A startled laugh has me looking down at her again.
“You sprouted fur because…” She follows her own line of reasoning, and her lips form an almost comical “O.”
“I can smell it,” I admit. “Not much, but it’s there.”
Color rises up her neck, and her cheeks burn a bright red. “Oh my God. Asher! You can’t— But of course you can.” She leans forward, and her forehead meets my breastbone with athunk. “This is embarrassing.”
I shake my head even though she can’t see me. “It’s fuckinghot. I want to know how you do it.”
That has her shifting back, eyes wide. “Right now?”
I shake my head. “No, we’re both too tired tonight. But sometime soon?”
June bites her lip, then sidles over to her bedside table and opens a drawer. She takes something cylindrical from it and shoves it quickly into her bag.
“I’ll, ah, need the right equipment for that.”
All my blood heads south at the realization that she just packed her toy. If she so much as brushes against me, I might come in my pants, and that’s not how I want this to go. Tonight is for helping her, making sure she’s warm and safe and fed.
I point a thumb toward the hallway. “I’ll go do something else that doesn’t involve staring at you like a creep.”
“Can you check the fridge? I don’t want anything to go off,” she calls after me.
I hustle into the kitchen and splash cold water on my face. It doesn’t help me shift back into my human form, but it washes the scent of June’s bedroom from my nose, so I can breathe without my instincts screaming at me to bite my mate.
I would never take back my offer for her to stay with me, but I didn’t realize how difficult it might be to have her in my house. In my bed, even, if she’ll agree to sleep there with me.
The full moon is coming, my first after meeting my mate. I thought I had things under control, but now I’m worried I was wrong.
Chapter
Sixteen
JUNE
Asher avoids my gaze as we hustle into his truck. He loads up my bike without asking, considerate as always. He’s still wolf-shaped, which I know is rare for him out in the open. He hunches over the steering wheel and drives in silence until I put my hand on his knee and squeeze lightly.
