Page 23 of Running on Empty

The door was slammed shut and Ronan and the wolf were left to their own devices. He slotted each knife back into its spot in the leather roll and then wrapped them all up, setting them and the whetstone on his bedside table. Then he lay down on his side to face me, patting the spot in front of him, and the wolf moved gladly to press in against his body. His hand stroked down my flank over and over as he spoke, his voice almost crooning.

“Just relax, little wolf. You’re safe now. Let the woman out. Let Stevie out and she can tell me what happened at that fucking pub. I’m your knife and I’ll cut into anyone and anything that fucks with you, beautiful. Just tell me who to kill.”

That should’ve sent chills up my spine, right? If Jack Spencer or his bros said anything like that, my hackles would’ve raised, my fangs bared. But not when it was Ronan. The wolf always knew he was safe, even when his words made it seem otherwise. The Spencers hadn’t said a word to me about what they’d intended and look how that had turned out. In response to his murderous little lullaby, the wolf pulled back, letting me come back to skin, and I felt Ronan’s hand slide down over the bare skin of my hip and then my thigh, where it came to rest.

“What did he do?”

Ronan didn’t clarify which ‘he’ he meant and as I looked into the alpha’s eyes, I didn’t think it mattered. I’d seen Ronan’s eyes change colour with his moods. But this Ronan? I felt like I hadn’t seen him before, ever. There’d been the odd hint of this intensity, here and there, but now it was as if a mask had dropped. I couldn’t stop staring into his eyes, letting my gaze roam across his face. Even the fact that I was stark naked didn’t sway me from taking my fill. And he stared right back into my eyes, smiling.

“They came—” I only got out two words before my voice broke and his eyes dropped down to my hands between us, where my fingers were forming claws, pricking at his quilt, then receding again. “They’ve been ringing—”

“I know.”

“And messaging me. They sent a video—”

“I know. We’ve got it all stored away in our database. Every scrap of evidence, we’re keeping.”

“They sent flowers to my work and…” He stiffened at that, the smile fading, something naked and hungry rising instead. “In it was a card with a printout…” His hand shot out, taking mine, and I felt the effort it took to stop himself from crushing my fingers in his grip. “Then Jonesy—”

“So he dies first,” Ronan declared, with the same impassive tone one might use when talking about the weather.

“He let them into the staff area when I was on break.”

His growl started low in his chest, a throbbing, deep sound.

“They shared some videos with him of what happened.”

“Revenge porn. We’ll have him up on charges for that. Lose his job, look at three years in jail and be put on the sex offender register.”

“Just like that?” I snorted at his blatant self-assurance.

“Just like that. If I want it badly enough,” he replied. “And I do. And those pampered little Spencer idiots think they can use their daddies’ money to pull strings for them.” His smile returned, twice as vicious. “But I know where all of the different daddies’ offshore bank accounts are, who their mistresses and dealers are. I have similar information on judges, the police commissioner as well.”

“So…” I frowned slightly, my eyes narrowing as I inspected him closely, feeling like I was seeing the boy next door for the first time. “What are you?”

“Yours.” He replied so simply, his eyes dancing as if daring me to believe him. I didn’t. I went to pull away from him, but he stopped me with just a touch on my bare shoulder. “Those other two chucklefucks didn’t want to say anything, wanting to wait until ‘you were ready’.” He snorted at that. “Because Ash could never see it. You were always ready. The moment you climbed down from that tree and into our arms, you were ours. We wouldn’t have tried anything, not until you were much, much older, but…”

He was deathly serious and his tone as much as his words had me stiffening, wanting to stop him in case what he went on to say wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear.

“It didn’t mean we couldn’t love you.” He moved closer so that his forehead was almost pressed to mine, his mouth was hovering close enough to kiss. “Couldn’t warn off every fucker that dared look at you. I half killed Ash the day you rode off on Sammy’s bike. You heard him say you were our little sister, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” I barely breathed that out.

His laughter was low and deep, and the feeling was like dark vines coiled around me.

“I never felt anything vaguely sibling-like towards you, Stevie. I had to make bargains with the wolf every night to stop him slipping over the fence like a shadow, and into your bedroom, to creep over to your bed, fangs bared, ready to sink them into you.”

“You should’ve.” I felt like he was trying to cast a dark spell over me because he thought that he’d scare me with what he said. But for all he seemed to know about me, it didn’t seem like he knew the most important thing. “Don’t you think I wanted that? Don’t you know I dreamed of it? When I revealed as an omega—”

“I remember that day. It was the sweetest. Your scent changed and I knew without a doubt then that you were perfect for us.”

“Ronan, I thought that too.” At the hoarse sound of my voice he jerked back to be able to see my expression better, and he watched me with a wolf’s eyes as I blinked frantically. “I thought I was going to be the right one for you. I was so fucking happy, that I’d be your fated mate and you’d—”

“We’d what?” His hand went to my hair, his face dipping closer again as he stared into my eyes. “We’d what, Stevie?”

I couldn’t say it. Every damn day it felt like my existence was one long cry for love, but I’d worked out a long time ago that it didn’t work to actually express that. It made people shrink away, because no one wanted to take on such a needy burden. Not eventhisRonan, the green-eyed one, the one who seemed like a whole other man to the one I’d grown up with. He couldn’t want that. I swallowed hard and let out a shaky breath.

“We’d what?” His mouth ghosted across the tiny space between my lips and his, his breath flaring across my skin. “We’d what?”

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