Page 10 of Pregnant Wolf's Mate

By the time they made it to the dining room, Ray wished he hadn’t bothered going at all. Though he and his brother had been shooting the shit all the way to the room, the second he entered the large dining area, he sensed her.

It was excruciatingly painful to cross the room, forcing himself not to look at Macie as he made his way over to the buffet-style breakfast bar that the she-wolves put on for everyone every morning.

When he reached it, making an effort to pile his plate high with food just so that nobody would think there was anything wrong with his appetite—even though in truth he had none at all—he couldn’t stop from glancing over his shoulder at her.

Just as she had been the night before, Macie was utterly beautiful. Her raven-black locks cascaded down over one shoulder and she brushed them back behind her ear as she sat talking with Lottie.

Ray gritted his teeth against the sudden urge to wander over and make his presence known to her. What exactly was he supposed to say to her in front of her sister and about half of the pack who had already taken to the long dining table at the very center of the room? He couldn’t exactly ask her why she had left him alone in the forest after the amazing, ground-breaking, jaw-dropping sex they’d had the night before. He could imagine that Lottie would shred him for even suggesting that he had laid a hand upon her sister.

Not to mention the fact that Dash was sitting at the very head of the dining table and if he even sensed a hair out of place when it came to one of his cousins, he would likely flay Ray alive.

Was that why she was determined not to look at him? The way she seemed to turn awkwardly in her seat told him she was purposefully trying not to meet his eye. And as he picked up his tray and headed to the table, she seemed to twist further with every step that he took.

After all I fucking did for her last night! he thought, his fingers tightening so hard on the tray that for a second he thought he might snap it in half.

“Hey, Ray, seriously!” Ryan snapped at him when Ray slammed his tray down on the table beside his brother. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

The sound did seem to get Macie’s attention. In fact, it got the attention of every single wolf at the table, and half of the pack turned to look at him with a mixture of emotions blazing in their eyes. Several of them looked shocked. Others looked angry. But Macie, she just looked indifferent. And that was perhaps even worse than any look she could have offered him.

Did their night together mean nothing to her? Was that why she had run off before he had woken that morning?

The worst thought of all was the one that would not leave his mind. It was like a thorn sticking in his brain, refusing to remove itself from his thoughts. Does she regret it?

Just seeing the way she was acting, he most definitely regretted it. More than that, he regretted ever having gone out there to help her. He should have just left her alone on the night of the full moon. He should have turned right around and run right back the way he had come without even hinting at the fact he had seen her lying there, weeping beneath the roots of that damned cedar tree.

“Is everything alright, Ray?” Dash asked from the head of the table and when Ray looked at him, he couldn’t help but think just how much like Macie he looked with his jet-black hair and his pale skin and the sharply angled features of all the Silverdales.

And all over again, Ray thought, Fuck! I messed up!

There was no denying that he never should have allowed himself to get involved with a Silverdale. It had been a bad idea on all fronts. Just helping her have her first shift had been bad enough, but putting his dick inside her had been crossing an entirely different barrier.

“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth when he felt several pairs of eyes still watching him. “Just tired.”

It was all he could think to say, and it wasn’t entirely a lie. He was actually tired, more tired than he could ever remember being. Macie Silverdale had done that to him. But as he saw her turning her back to him at the dining table once more, he firmly decided, Never again!

And from the looks of her, she seemed to agree. Maybe it was a good thing she had gone back to acting as though he didn’t exist. Maybe she was just as willing to keep her mouth shut about what had happened as he was.

At least, he hoped.

Chapter 7 - Macie

It had been two weeks since Macie’s first shift and for the thirteenth night in a row, she stood out in the woods, trying to force her wolf out. With eyes closed, jaw clenched, and every single muscle in her body tensed, she tried. Even though Ray’s voice kept echoing in her ears, reminding her to be calm and relaxed, she just couldn’t do it.

I have to do with without him! she thought determinedly, pissed that all she had been able to do since that night was elongate her claws and get her fangs to protrude. Sure, it was more than she had managed before her first shift, but it was nothing compared to the blackout blinding pain she had felt when she had fully shifted, connecting entirely with her wolf for the first time in her life.

More than ever she wanted to feel it. She wanted to feel the familiarity of her beast within her, the part of her that she had never quite been able to touch. But now that she had felt her, she couldn’t think of anything else. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, but Macie refused to think of the other thing that kept popping into her mind: Ray.

Though she had seen him around, she had been doing her utmost to avoid him and it seemed that he was all too willing to do the same with her. He hadn’t even tried to come out and find her here, though she was certain he knew where she was.

Well, fuck him! Macie thought. However, whenever she decided that it was best to just let him get on with it, she couldn’t help but think of how she had gotten up the morning after their night together and she had run all the way back to the manor with her clothes wrapped in her arms, too desperate to get away from all she had done to even bother getting dressed.

Their sex had been mind-blowing. But that was the problem. She’d had sex with two guys in her short life, her high school crush and the bad boy in university who had caught her on a good day during one of her rebellious phases. Okay, so neither of those times had actually been sex. She’d had a little fun behind the bike sheds, kissing and touching and even giving a good handjob or two, but never in her life had she gone all of the way and never, never had she been able to cum like that. It had felt as though she was entirely leaving her body, her human and her wolf becoming one as they both howled at the moon.

And that had scared her enough to run. Maybe if she told him that, he would understand why she had instead of looking at her like he wanted to claw her whenever he saw her. He had every right to be pissed at her for running off, but what else was she supposed to do?

Urgh! She growled inwards before she snapped to herself aloud, “Stop getting distracted and focus!”

Again, she tried to call her wolf forward to no avail. And just when she was about ready to give up, she felt her stomach twist and suddenly threaten to upend.

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