Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 23591 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23591 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
“What book?” I asked, looking down at her.
“Where a hapless girl gets banged by a supernatural creature in the woods.”
“Been fantasizing about this for a while, huh?”
“You’re better than the vampires,” she told me.
“I fucking better be.”
“Oh, my God. Are… do those exist too? And fairies? And demons?”
“If I tell you, are you going to start fantasizing about some horned demon?” I asked.
“Please. Like a horned demon can turn into a giant puppy and keep me warm all night.”
“Puppy?” I grumbled, getting a giggle out of her.
“Big, scary, not puppy-like at all, wolf,” she clarified.
“That’s better. Come on, let’s get you dressed and home, so I can wrap up that ankle of yours.”
“I think I should give up on physical activity. I just seem to keep getting myself into trouble. Being mauled by wild animals, hurting my ankle…”
“Don’t worry. I plan to keep you active enough to keep your cardiovascular health in check,” I told her as I helped shimmy her pants back up her legs.
“Well, that is one kind of exercise I think I can get behind,” she decided, taking her shoes from me, then letting me lift her up into my arms.
“I’m sure I could hobble. This is far,” she objected after a minute or two.
“No.”
“Come on. I know you’re strong, but…”
“But nothing,” I cut her off, having a feeling the conversation was going to turn to her getting down on herself. Which I wasn’t about to allow. “I’m enjoying the fuck out of this. Don’t ruin it by trying to say some untrue shit about yourself.”
“Are you… bullying me into being nice to myself?” she asked, lips twitching.
“Hey, if it works,” I said, smiling when she rested her head against my shoulder. “For the record, you’re fucking perfect. And any second you spend thinking otherwise is a waste of precious fucking time.”
“You just… did more for my self-esteem than an entire adolescence in therapy,” she admitted as we closed in on the house. “So, if we are, you know…”
“True Mates,” I supplied.
“Yeah, if we’re that. Does that mean you are going to do all the manly tasks around here? Because I tried chopping wood again. And I’m reasonably sure there is a real threat that I might slice my own head open.”
“Well, we can’t be having that. And, yeah, I’m happy to keep you warm, baby. In all the ways I can do that. And we can be at the cabin, but we will also have to spend time with my pack.”
“Your pack,” she repeated, her gaze slipping away.
“Before you let your mind run away with you, they are going to love you.”
“You can’t possibly know that.”
“I can. I do. You, Maribelle, mean a future for this pack. No one of my generation has met their True Mate yet. You will give all of them hope that they will find theirs eventually as well.”
“What happens if they don’t?”
“Then it seems like it will be up to the two of us to repopulate this area with wolf cubs.”
“We should probably practice how to do that. You know… in case we are forced to do so.”
“How many times a day do you think it would take to make sure we’ve mastered it?” I asked, already wanting to go another round. But I had a feeling that, with her, I was never going to not want her.
“Oh, three or four times at least,” she declared.
Once I got her home and her ankle all wrapped up, we went for round two.
By the end of the day, we’d met her quota. And then some.
It was the fucking happiest I’d been in my entire damn life.
And it looked like I had a long future of similarly perfect days.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Maribelle
It was the full moon.
And Way had told me that I wasn’t allowed to tag along while he went into the woods.
I’d been a little disappointed at first before I realized that, yeah, watching him hunt down sweet little woodland creatures might not exactly be good for us.
I understood that his wolf had impulses.
And that all meat meant harm to some animal somewhere.
But I just… I didn’t want to be privy to that.
I guess it was true what they said about how in happy relationships, partners were allowed to have a little mystery to them.
So I didn’t watch him hunt.
And he didn’t watch me slather on a mud mask and a deep hair conditioner.
It was almost three in the morning when I heard a howl that had a smile immediately stretching across my face as I made sure I got all the mud off my face, then rushed across the cabin and out onto the front path.
Before I remembered what Way had said about enemy packs, brother turning against brother.
Because right there in my front lawn stood half a dozen massive wolves of all different colors, but each one of them sniffing, growling, and scratching at the ground.