Page 49 of The Awakened Wolf

“With great power comes great responsibility,” I said in my best Uncle Ben voice.

“Point taken, but please never do that again,” he laughed with a shudder.

“What?” I twisted around so I was on my knees beside him, pinning his shoulders lightly to the back of the couch. “Is that not what does it for you?”

“No, but maybe try it on Evan,” he teased, grabbing my hips.

“Mmm, I hate that I know this, but he has called him Daddy Ben before.” I edged one knee over Sebastian’s thighs until I was straddling his lap.

“I hate that I know that now too.” Sebastian’s eyes raked down my body. “Can we put ourselves in pillow talk jail until further notice?”

“Crimes have been committed,” I purred. Or tried to purr. I was a wolf, after all, and I was a little bit worried her gravelly voice would come out of my mouth if I tried talking too dirty, and he would think I was one again imitating Uncle Ben.

“Then justice must be served.” Sebastian growled, stretching up his neck until our lips were only a breath apart. He stopped. “Was that dorky? That felt dorky. I mean, it sounded cool in my head, but it’s like, you watch a movie, and people say sexy things because a writer put those words in their mouths, but then you’re just you, in the moment, and no one’s writing, you’re just improving and—”

I smashed my mouth against his, needing to kiss him as aggressively as I’d kissed Evan to record over that sense memory. His lips softened, accepting my passion before returning it twice a fiercely. My breath hitched as a clenching need grew within me, and I pressed harder to Sebastian’s chest, digging my nails into the rock-hard muscle of his bac. He shuddered, stubble rasping my cheek as he pulled away.

“Elyse, I don’t have protection,” he gasped.

I groaned and sank back onto the edge of his knees. “Then we are shit out of luck.”

He nodded, and we sat panting, our wolves sharing thoughts that made me wish Kiana could bite them away for the moment, so I could turn off my libido and wake up my brain. Sebastian’s muscles rippled beneath my hands, and I worried they were plotting a hostile takeover to get the job done while we had no defenses.

The stairwell door creaked, saving the day, and I unpeeled myself, rapidly but reluctantly, from my mate. Evan and Atlas tumbled out onto the roof, holding hands, and for a moment I thought they were here to do what we were doing, but then Jayla exploded onto the scene, looking rumpled and furious.

“Jayla!” I jumped up and ran over to embrace her but got one of those stiff hugs that speak volumes about the co-hugger’s start of mind. Frowning, I held her at arm’s length. “What’s wrong?”

She smoothed her hands over her hair and glared at Evan. “This asshole told me if I risked my whole damn career to play Ocean’s 11 with him and his new boytoy that your sister might tell my future husband that yes, he does have to marry me, but then I get here, and Cody Chism is nowhere to be found.” She crossed her arms and cocked a hip. “He insists he didn’t lie to draw me into a life of crime, and I told him to prove it.”

“Tell her, Elyse,” Evan whined. “Tell her I didn’t lie, that he was here.”

“Um, I’m considerably more concerned that he’s not here now?” I looked between them, searching for signs of a prank. Like, we saved the world. Now it’s time to pull a hilarious practical joke like we just graduated from a John Hughes high school.

“Weeellll…” Evan pressed his lips together. “So… it looks like he might have let himself out last night. During the commotion.”

“He what?!” I whirled, staring out at the city as if I could spot him by will alone. “He could be anywhere!”

Sebastian’s arm draped over my shoulders. “Wait, are you serious? The Cody Chism was here?” He chuckled. “You turned the Lion Guy into a werewolf?”

I glowered my mate’s mirthful expression into one of appropriate concern before turning on Evan. “Does Kiana know?

“Um, so about that…” Evan’s voice going all singsong. “We were kinda sorta hoping you could break the news. Because you’re so close and all.”

“Oh, fluff you,” I snarled and stomped toward the stairwell

Chapter Nineteen

Five minutes later, I was hurrying through the brightly painted halls of the whelping center, a complex warren of dens that were actually mini apartments, each with a large central room containing a bed, tub, and soft chairs or beanbags for the mother, midwolf, and female attendants. Attached to those were private waiting rooms for the fathers, who weren’t allowed to witness such unseemly displays from their mates.

The image in my head shifted with every step. First: my father pacing the floor in one of those rooms, young and anxious, waiting to hear of his long-awaited Alpha Heir’s arrival while Damian waited in the chair, one ankle crossed over his knee, a serpent coiled for the strike.

And then: my mate wearing circles in the very same carpet, fingers buried in his tousled mane, socks mismatched and shirt misbuttoned like a bumbling Hollywood father-to-be. It would’ve been sexy if my psychotic sister weren’t trying to make it happen nine months from right this minute.

When I broke the news about Cody, she was probably just going to tell me not to worry my pretty little head about Alpha affairs and go get back in bed with a pillow under my hips. And if I obeyed, then she would probably be the person sitting in that chair, waiting for the door to open so she could push Sebastian aside and claim her Alpha Heir. She had stolen my whole life, and now she wanted my firstborn’s too.

Angry tears burned my eyes, forcing me to stop before I crashed into a cheerful wall. Yara’s recreation of my mother’s anguished cries echoed through my mind, demanding to hold her baby as the midwolf tried to take me to my father first, in accordance with tradition. But if Yara’s strange vision showed what actually happened, the midwolf had relented and placed me in my mother’s arms instead.

It was an incredible act of rebellion for both of them. Mothers were nothing more than the vessels pups traveled in to reach their father’s arms. Where had she ever gotten the idea that she could hold me first? It simply wasn’t done in any pack I knew of, but maybe things were really that different in Boston? After all, she never would have met my father if she hadn’t moved to New York City for college.

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