Wolfsong (Green Creek 1)

I wanted to tell him I hadn’t been with anyone else either.

That I had waited. And waited. And waited for him until I thought my skin would break apart and my bones would turn to so much dust. That I did what I had to do to keep us alive, that even though we had become something more than what the pieces of us should have made, there was an ache in my head and a hole in my heart and it was because of him. He’d done this to me.

He didn’t fuck anyone else?

Well good for him.

I didn’t even think about it.

There was a yip in the trees, louder than the others.

I looked over.

Robbie stood at the tree line watching me, head cocked in question.

“He cares about you,” Joe said from behind me.

“I’m his Alpha.”

“Sure, Ox,” Joe said, and I knew from the sound of it that he’d stepped out of his jeans. I told myself not to turn around. I’d already seen too much and I wasn’t going to break down that easily, even if he was all I’d ever really wanted.

Robbie yipped again and turned back toward the forest.

“We still need to talk,” Joe said, and he was right behind me.

I closed my eyes but I could still feel the heat of him. His breath on my neck. All I had to do was lean back and—

I took a step forward.

“We will,” I said. “Tomorrow.” Because I didn’t think I could go another day like this. It was choking me, and I was struggling to breathe through it.

“Tomorrow,” he said, and it came out like a promise I didn’t know I was making.

He shifted behind me.

The sound of it seemed to go on forever.

There was that heat behind me still, but it was different now.

Something pressed against the middle of my back.

His nose, from the feel of it.

He took in a long, slow breath.

Exhaled low and hot.

Something tugged near the back of my head, buried in the bonds of my pack.

I thought to reach out for it. To test it. To taste it.

But before I could, the Alpha wolf circled me.

And my breath was knocked from my chest.

He was big, bigger than Thomas had ever been. The top of his head reached almost to my neck. He was still completely white aside from his nose and paws. His lips and his claws. And his eyes, which were like fire. I wondered if this was how my mother had felt that first time. When Thomas had shown her that she would never be alone again.

And like he could hear every single thought in my head, Joe leaned up and pressed his nose to my neck and I said, “Oh.”