Page 15 of The Strongest Wolf

“I can look after myself,” I say.

Just tell him what you’re afraid will happen in his pack. Tell him and then he’ll reassure you that he won’t have to choose between you and his pack because there won’t be a choice to make.

“But you don’t have to. You have me.”

His words make me want to melt, but I refuse to let them because this is yet more proof that I’m not and never will be the sort of mate Galen should have.

I should want nothing to do with Mom’s family. If they hadn’t refused to accept Dad as her mate, they’d have had a safe place to call home. We wouldn’t have been forced to go to Dexter in the first place, and Mom and Dad would still be alive.

Are you so terrified of what will happen with Galen’s pack that you’d willingly go visit the family responsible for their deaths?

“I think I should confront them for what they did,” I say, because, clearly, I am that terrified, and also stupid.

Mom was a beta so strong that she fought, and never stopped fighting for me, even after she lost the man she loved.

It didn’t matter the alpha of the Stone pack was ordering her to fall in line, or that she was alone with a dozen enforcers staring her down. All she cared about was protecting her child. Protecting me.

That’sthe sort of woman someone like Galen needs.That’sthe woman he deserves. Not someone who locks herself in the bathroom because she had a bad dream.

“That isn’t why you want to go,” he says, making no move to release me.

“Galen, let me up.”

“I notice you’re not asking me how I can be so sure,” he says.

I’m not asking because Galen isn’t stupid, and he’s had plenty of time to get to know me. Hours spent driving from Kansas to Colorado, and then two weeks sharing a cabin, means no one has spent more time around me in years.

“Let me up, Galen.”

“No. I don’t think I will.”

Trapped beneath a heavily muscled alpha in his prime with fierce determination stamped across his face, and a challenge in his emerald-green stare, means I’m at a distinct disadvantage.

But not defeated.

Sighing as if disappointed, I peer over his shoulder. “Fine, then. I guess if you don’t want me to wrap my lips around your—”

A hard kiss silences me. Against my belly, I feel him harden.

He kisses me just long enough that I know he’s only doing it to shut me up, so I swallow my smile when he lifts his head to peer down at me. “I know what you’re doing, little wolf.” His voice is husky and his eyes are just a little more heated than they were before.

“You do?” I ask him, my eyes wide.

He stares down at me. “I do.”

Closing my teeth around my bottom lip, I bite down.

“Sierra…” His voice is a rough growl.

“Oh, sorry. Would you rather I bit down on something else instead?”

When his cock jerks, I struggle to contain my smile.

“You’re trying to distract me, and you’re trying to control this situation. And me.”

“Galen,” I say, making my tone all businesslike efficiency while my need is building the longer we stay like this. “You have me pinned beneath you with your hands tight around my wrists. Helpless.” I make a token attempt to pull free, and instinctively his hold on me tightens. Just like I knew it would.

His breathing turns heavy.

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