Page 93 of Mortal Shift
I snorted. “I don’t know, because I’m your human weakness?”
He caught my chin and tilted my head to meet his eye. My skin burned deliciously where he made contact, and that heat shot straight to my core.
“I told you yesterday, you’re not weak.”
“Hey, you two!” a voice called from beyond the trees. Jax. “Get a room already.”
“We already did,” Cole replied, casually flipping him off. I chuckled, and he crushed me to his chest.
“There,” he murmured into my hair. “Problem solved. Now everyone will know by lunch.”
“Gee, thanks,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “Just what I always wanted.”
He laughed, and caught my hand in his. “Come on, best not be late if you really don’t want Ryker putting any more marks on me.”
“That’s not funny,” I said stiffly, but led him from the trees and back onto the path. “Actually, I was thinking about Ryker. Well, the full moon hunt, anyway. I think I have a way to make him choose us.”
“Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like it?” he asked, eyeballing me.
“Do you trust me?”
He slanted his eyes. “Not in the slightest.”
I shrugged. “Close enough. Come on.”
His hand on mine slowed me. “You don’t have to do this, you know. I’ll take you to visit your mom and I’ll try to teach you to protect yourself regardless of what happens with Ryker.”
“I know.”
“Then why…?”
I turned to give him my full attention. “Because your pack needs it.Youneed it.”
“Well, if I’d known all it took to cure your lack of pack loyalty was a night in the sack, I’d have done it a long time ago.”
I scowled at him, then reached up and slapped the back of his head for good measure. He laughed and made to muss my hair.
“Try it. I might not be a wolf, but I bite.”
“I know,” he said. “And I’ve got the marks to prove it.”
My cheeks flushed red. Things had gotten a little more…physical in our second and third rounds last night. He hadn’t bitten me, though. Doing that would have sealed the mate bond, and neither of us was ready to admit it was here to stay. A night of fun and harmless, earth-shatteringly good sex was one thing. A lifetime commitment was another entirely.
We lapsed into silence as we made our way to the lesson, both skirting the uncomfortable topic. I didn’t know him well enough to even think about that. And hell, what I did know I didn’t much like half the time. And the other half…well, I wasn’t letting that half of me make any decisions that I’d be dealing with literally for the rest of my life. No matter how good the sex had been.
“Today you’re going to be working through precision exercises,” Ryker announced without preamble. “End-of-year assessments are less than three months away, and I’ll be damned if any of you pitiful excuse for beasts will be showing me up. Pair off.”
“Alpha Ryker?” I said, and his head snapped my way.
“You’ll be sitting this one out, Ms. Ellis,” he said, his tone acerbic.
“Er, thanks. But before we get started, I have something to say.”
He arched a brow and assumed a this-ought-to-be-good expression, and gestured one hand through the air.
“Go ahead, then. You have everyone’s attention, seeing as you’re disturbing their lesson.”
I squared my shoulders and lifted my chin, not quite meeting his eye, but getting close enough to let him know that I wasn’t going to be deterred so easily.
