Page 51 of Can't Help Growling in Love
“That’s great,” I manage. “I’m glad that worked out.”
“Well, it hasn’t yet. But thank you for helping me. I couldn’t do this without you.”She reaches out as if to touch my thigh but pulls back at the last second. “Oh, sorry. I won’t touch you, promise.”
How can I explain to her thatallI want is her touch? How do I tell her I crave her closeness so much, I’ve been a wreck since we saw each other just twelve hours ago?
Fuck.
This can’t be normal, can it? I’ve heard how it is for mated wolves, but maybe I’m an anomaly yet again. Maybe my abstinence has pushed me so far past the edge that I’m even crazier than a wolf would normally be coming up to a full moon.
Maybe I should visit the Harmony Glen pack and ask for advice. They’ve invited me to run with them, but no one ever mentioned anything like this. But if I’m different from everyone in their pack, I don’t want them to know. The last thing I need is an intervention from strangers.
“Asher?” June’s voice is tentative, but her scent takes on a low note of worry. “You missed my street.”
“Shit, sorry.” I check the rearview and make the next turn, then another, and swing onto her street. “I got distracted.”
“By what?” she asks, her gaze concerned. “We need to talk if anything’s wrong.”
I shake my head, then realize she’s right, of course. “We will. I just need to burn out some energy, okay?”
I park in front of her house and sniff the air to check if anyone’s been here since we left. I need to protect my mate, even if I have to leave her to get my head straight.
“What? Why?” She unclips her seat belt and faces me. “Asher, please.”
My hands tremble with the need to crush her to me, and that’s what terrifies me. She’s human. Breakable, soft, unaware of the vicious images racing through my head.
June, on her knees in front of me. On all fours, her ass sticking up. I pound inside her. Running away from me. I chase her down, hunter and prey. Screaming in pleasure and pain as I bite her neck, my knot buried in her hot pussy.
“Later,” I promise June and scramble out of the truck. “You said Duval’s coming at nine? I’ll be here, I promise.”
She reaches out her hand, but I’m already tearing my hoodie off. I shift before I’m fully undressed and struggle to shake off the sweatpants and socks off my back paws.
Good thing I went commando.
Every impulse in my body is screaming at me to claim my mate, to protect her by staying near her at all times.
But what if I’m the danger she needs to be protected from?
With the last shred of willpower, I tear myself away.
And I run.
Chapter
Twenty
JUNE
A howl breaks the morning quiet, echoing through the streets. A flock of crows rises from the nearby treetops, cawing loudly, and a window opens somewhere nearby, a woman’s voice asking if anyone else heard that.
I stare after Asher, hoping he’ll return, but it seems I’ve scared him off properly.
Only I have no idea what I did. Or if it even was me. Maybe something happened at work?
Or is it the moon that’s affecting him so badly already?
I lock his truck and put the keys in my purse, then take out my phone. Seven-fifty. So I have just about an hour before I need to be here to meet Mr. Duval. That’s an hour I could spend cleaning the basement. Decluttering the spare room. Painting the porch, even, to make the house look pretty despite its disastrous insides.
Instead, I rush into the house and collect the overdue library books still sitting on my bedside table. I strap on my helmet, put the books in a tote bag, and set them in my bicycle basket. ThenI pedal up the road toward the library as fast as I can, hoping Asher won’t return and find me gone.
