Page 77 of True North

"This is stunning. Is this house yours?" Tess asks, turning to look at me with impressed doe eyes. The sexual tension from minutes before vanishes.

"Yeah, passed down the last two generations. My grandfather built it for my grandmother, and my mother raised me here. My father and I only moved into the pack house full-time after she died. The house is technically mine, but I've yet to move back into it. I figured someday I would live here with a family when…" I trail off, wincing.

"When you took a mate," Tess nods knowingly. "And then you had the disappointment of stumbling across me." She laughs bitterly.

I made one stupid decision, and I'm never going to live it down. I'm not sure why the fates bothered giving us a second chance, it's obvious I'm not actually getting one with Tess. I suddenly feel like someone let all the air out of my sails.

"Feel free to look around," I tell her. "I'm just going to go check something."

"What? Where are you going?"

I don't answer her because I'm too busy cursing myself under my breath. I'm the Alpha of one of the most well-respected packs in the world, and here I am being turned inside out by a woman.

I stomp up the staircase to the second floor, leaving Tess behind even though I'm the one who dragged her here. I listen for any sound of her following me, but I’m met with silence. I don't know whether that's a relief or if it pisses me off. It's fucked up, but there's a part of me that wants her to be interested enough to follow me.

I don't think it's a good sign that she doesn't.

When I reach my father's old study, I slam the door behind me like an asshole. Everything in here makes me feel like I’ve walked into a time capsule. The most noteworthy of the pack books get housed at the pack house, but my father has quite the collection of his own lining one wall in here. I skim the titles as I pass, part of me thinking at some point I'm bound to stumble over something that will help us with Tess's situation.

There's nothing, of course.

I walk over to the bay window where my father's desk is set up to overlook the backyard. He used to tell my mother he liked looking out and seeing us together during the day, but I always suspected it was more about his need for control.

The man was always determined to turn me into the kind of Alpha he wanted me to be. It's the reason our relationship is so tumultuous. After my mother died, and my father started to fall apart, I stepped up. I became the Alpha the pack needed. And when the elders asked my father to step aside for me to take over… I don't know that he's ever forgiven me for that.

It's only fair, seeing as I've never forgiven him for being responsible for a young wolf's death. He was running the training program our pack leads after being forced to step down as Alpha. And he was good at it for a while—until he pushed things too far.

As the sun goes down, finally ending this clusterfuck of a day, I can feel the weight of the burdens I carry creeping in to haunt me.

"You can't expect to start with a clean slate."

I startle at the sound of Tess's voice. I didn't hear her, which is probably a good sign it's time to stop while we're ahead. I'm not at my best. If anything, I feel like fucking garbage. This woman is putting me through the wringer.

"We should go back to the pack house," I tell her, not responding to her statement. I start for the door, but she reaches out and slams it shut.

"Yeah, I can slam doors too." She crosses her arms over her chest, and it takes everything in me not to drop my gaze. That's the problem, I'm too damn attracted to this woman for my own good. "Now sit the hell down, and let's have a conversation like adults."

I want to point out that she's the woman jerking me around like a confused teenager, but I manage to refrain.

Instead, I take a seat on the worn leather couch that my father kept to sleep on when my parents were fighting. My mother always told him he wasn't allowed in bed if he couldn't be reasonable. I'd forgotten about that until now, my mother's death no doubt leaving me desperate to keep on rose-colored glasses.

See? Your parents weren't perfect mates, either.My wolf is so damn smug pointing it out.

"I've rejected you," Tess announces.

"Yeah, great, let's rehash that," I deadpan, rubbing at a knot in my chest. My wolf sure as hell doesn't feel smug now. I try my best to ignore the whimpering her words bring out in him.

She continues, "You haven't accepted my rejection. And it doesn't seem as if you're planning to?"

"Absolutely fucking not."

"So we're at an impasse." She says it so matter-of-factly, as if it's some new revelation.

Obviously we're at an impasse, otherwise I'd be fucking her in my childhood bedroom, and I'd have marked her the first moment I mentioned it. When I told her that was the only way she would get free rein of my land.

Tess sits at the other end of the couch, pulling her legs up and turning to face me. I shift so I'm facing her too. She looks so vulnerable that I feel a little guilty for thinking about sex right now.

"I'm willing to compromise," she says, her voice all soft and deceptively warm. Suddenly I feel like she's inviting me into a trap. I try not to narrow my eyes suspiciously at her, knowing that'll only get her all riled up again.

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