by Emilia Rose
Outside my window, Kylo was gently rubbing Isabella’s back as she ran a hand through her long brown hair. Brows drawn together, she stared at him with so much hurt, heartbreak, and even love in her eyes.
“Their relationship is none of your concern, Scarlett.”
“You don’t like it, do you?”
While Scarlett was trying hard to break me, I wouldn’t let it happen. I’d never let it happen again. I loved Isabella and didn’t want to see her hurt if she found Derek dead. I’d do anything to get him back for her and protect her from the wrath of Scarlett.
Scarlett answered herself with a laugh. “I didn’t think you would. That’s why I called actually. I wanted to give you a chance to prove yourself to her, a chance to find Derek and become Isabella’s hero again, so she gets her filthy hands off of my Kylo.”
I slammed my fist into the wall, creating a hole the size of my hand in the drywall beside my bookcase. “Kylo isn’t yours anymore, Scarlett,” I said through my teeth.
If Scarlett thought that she could come right back as if nothing had ever happened between us and tear Kylo from Isabella this time and make my Isabella hurt, she had another thing fucking coming.
And besides, nothing came that easily with Scarlett. I bet she wanted me to get angry over Kylo, so she could break me and control me too. But if that’s what it took to get Derek back for Isabella, then that was how I’d act.
After blowing out a loud breath, I growled, “But I fucking hate that son-of-a-bitch.”
Scarlett gave another throaty laugh. “I thought you might say that. Meet me in Galsop tonight, and I’ll give you any information that I have about Derek.”
Galsop was hours away.
“I won’t make it by sunrise,” I said. And I’d have to leave Isabella alone …
“Better run quick,” Scarlett said, and then she hung up the phone.
With rage running through my veins, I hurled my phone at the wall. She wanted to play this sick sort of game, like she had years ago, and I would play right back. This time, I wouldn’t be a fool.
Throwing the pack house door open, I grabbed Isabella’s hand and gestured for Kylo to follow us into the pack house, so nobody could hear us. For Derek to have been taken so easily, there had to be a mole in this pack. Someone must’ve been helping Scarlett.
“What’s wrong?” Isabella asked, staring up at me with big, fear-filled eyes. “Did you find Derek? Is he … is he dead?”
I grasped her hands and placed my lips on her knuckles. “I have to meet Scarlett.”
She pulled her hands away from mine and glanced at my phone lying in pieces on the ground. “You were talking to Scarlett?” she whispered, voice breaking.
“Scarlett?” Kylo asked, staring at me with that are you seriously considering this look.
“She called me with information about Derek. She’s playing games,” I said, hoping that she’d trust me to handle this myself. Isabella was strong and smart, but Scarlett was corruption at its finest. She always had been. “If I meet her, I can get any information that she has about Derek.”
Isabella tugged me close by the wrist. “I’m going with you. I’m not letting her … not letting her corrupt you.” She shook her head and looked at the scuffed wooden floor between us. “I can’t lose you.”
Cupping her face in my hands, I made her look up at me. “I love you, Isabella. And you know that I know you’re strong and you can fight and you can protect even me, but I have to go alone. If you go, she’ll try to kill you, and she really won’t give me any information about Derek. We’ll be back at square one.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m not letting you go.”
“Listen to me, Isabella. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. You have to stay here. You have the Lycans to take care of and a war to prepare for. If you come with me and Dolus makes an appearance here, you’ll regret it.” I brushed my knuckles against her cheek. “Trust me to handle this, like I’ve grown to trust you.”
She swallowed hard, tears filling her eyes. “I don’t want to lose you,” she said softly.
I kissed her lips and rested my forehead against hers. “You’re not going to lose me. I’ll be back home as soon as I can. But”—I glanced over at Kylo, who stood with his arms crossed by the door—“while I’m gone, you will stay with Kylo.”
Kylo stood up straighter, eyes widening.
Isabella tensed and stared up at me. “Kylo?” she asked. Without even breaking eye contact with me, she said, “Kylo, I need to talk to Roman alone.”
Without another word, Kylo walked out of the pack house and closed the door behind him. Before she could even argue with me, I held a finger to her lips and smiled when she pressed them together. She loved to defy me, and I loved when she did it … but something about her submitting when I needed her got me every time.
“Yes, I want you to stay with Kylo,” I said. “Just this once.”
“But—”
“I trust you, Isabella. I know that your wolf wants to be with him. I’ll never be completely comfortable with our situation,” I admitted. “But I know that for you and your wolf to be strong, you need to be with him as much as you need to be with me.”
From the way her brows furrowed to the way she gulped, she had hesitation written all over her face. “Roman, my wolf can’t control herself around him,” she whispered, breaking eye contact with me to stare out the window at him. “I’ve been trying to control her for so long, but she just keeps retaliating against me more and more. What if …”
“I have one rule and one rule only when you stay with him,” I said, taking a deep breath and not even wanting to think about this happening—especially not when I was gone. “No sex.” I seized her jaw and forced her to look up at me. “No sex, Isabella,” I repeated more for myself than for her. “He doesn’t put his cock inside of you.” I grasped her ass in my hand. “Not here.” I brushed my fingers against her pussy through her pants. “Not here.” I trailed them up the center of her body to her lips and stuck one of my fingers in her mouth. “And certainly not here.”
She stared up at me with those big blue eyes and closed her lips around my finger. Goddess, if it were a better time, I’d take her right here.
Instead, I pulled my finger out of her mouth and asked, “Do I make myself clear?”
After a few silent moments, she nodded her head. “I promise, Roman.”
Chapter 30
Isabella
Neither Kylo nor I said a word to each other on our run to his pack house. My mind buzzed with thoughts about how to lead the Lycans to victory; if Roman would come home, corrupted because of Scarlett; and when I could leap onto Kylo and—
No, I said to my wolf, scolding her for making me think such sinful things about Kylo. It was the first night when I’d be with him with Roman’s permission, but that didn’t mean she was going to control me the entire night. We’re not doing that with Kylo.
Pleeeease?
No. We’re going to stay at his house until Roman gets back, and that’s it.
After she hummed at me and said, That’s what you think, she disappeared into the back of my mind. I followed Kylo through the woods, his pine scent keeping me relatively calm despite my worst fears coming true.
I had wanted to put up more of a fight with Roman, but he was right. Roman trusted me with Kylo and finally had put his faith in my abilities. The least I could do was trust him back. Nothing would happen between him and Scarlett. He would do what he had to do and kill her after he found Derek.
Before I had left Roman’s property, I had given orders to some Lycans to guard every pack in the area, to interrogate any suspicious wolves, and to oversee tests given to wolves suspected of being corrupted.
When we approached the gorge, Kylo stopped and nudged his snout against mine. We didn’t have a mind link connection yet, but I knew he wanted me to jump across it. I walked to the edge of the cliff, gazed over at the other side, and swallowed hard.
Kylo nudged me again, walked back a few feet, and sprang across it, landing on the other side with a thud. I gnawed on the inside of my lip and followed his movements, just barely making it to the other side too. Stumbling to keep my balance, I knocked some rocks off the cliff and listened to them fall hundreds of feet, striking against the shallow lake below us.
After smacking his paw against my hind leg to get me away from the edge, Kylo led me through parts of the forest I hadn’t ever been to before tonight. We ran for five minutes and approached warriors who stood stoically at his borders in the foggy forest.
Yellow light blazed through the many front windows of Kylo’s large red-oak cabin. We walked up the stone and shifted into our humans. Kylo grabbed a spare change of clothes near the front entrance and ushered me inside.
Though the pack house was much grander and more spacious than ours, it had such a lonely feel to it.
I looked around the living room and drew my fingers against the brown leather couch. “Do you live here alone?”
“Kylo!” a woman shouted from one of the other rooms. “Is that you? Is everything okay?”
I stared down the hallway, my heart pounding inside my chest. Kylo had a woman living with him? Maybe she was just his sister or a cousin or …
My wolf growled lowly, and I pressed my lips together to shut myself up.
“Yes?” he responded, staring at me with those devilishly dark eyes.
An older woman with graying blonde hair, wrinkles near her eyes, and a grin that matched Kylo’s stepped out of the room, staring down at a photo album. She walked all the way down the hall toward us, without even noticing me. And when she looked up from her book, she widened her eyes.
“Oh, I didn’t know you had a guest,” she said, smiling sweetly at me.
Warmth spread through my chest. She reminded me a bit of Luna Raya.
“This is Isabella,” Kylo said, resting his fingers on my upper back.
“Isabella,” she repeated, turning toward me. She glanced back at him and raised her brows. “I thought Alpha Roman was her mate?” Suddenly, she furrowed her brows at him in anger. “What’d you do to him? What did—”
“He didn’t do anything,” I assured. When Kylo’s mom turned to me, I gulped. “I … we …”
“It’s complicated, Mom.”
Complicated. That was exactly how I would describe our relationship too. How else could I explain my attraction and connection to Kylo? It was anything but normal to be one of the two original divine wolves.
After pausing and nodding, she glanced back down at the photo album and smiled at us. “Oh, well … this can wait another night, Kylo. We can finish making it tomorrow. I’ll leave you two alone.”
I smiled at the mere thought of Kylo—the big, bad alpha—making a cute photo album with his mother. Grasping her forearm, I shook my head. “I don’t want to intrude. Don’t change your plans because of me. I’m just staying the night in one of Kylo’s spare rooms; that’s all.”
“Nonsense. This boy has been talking about you nonstop.” She held the book to her chest as Kylo’s cheeks turned the faintest color of red at the mention of talking about me. “I’m not going to barge in on the only night that you two can spend together.”
Before Kylo could usher his mother out the front door, she turned around and pointed a finger at his chest. “Don’t you go hurting her,” she said to him. “And don’t for a second act like your father did with Luna Raya.”
Kylo lowered his voice. “You know that I wouldn’t do that, Mom.”
She kissed his cheek and patted him on the back. “Good.” She looked back at me. “It was nice meeting you, dear.”
After she shut the door behind her, Kylo turned back to me.
I lingered by the couch, nervously running my finger in circles against the leather. “Your mother didn’t have to leave.”
“Afraid of spending time with me alone, princess?” Kylo leaned against the wall with one foot propped up on it, his huge arms crossed over his chest, and those breathtaking gold eyes. He and I both knew the answer to the question was a big, fat yes.
I tore my gaze away from the way his muscles flexed with ease under his shirt. “No,” I lied.
Roman had told me no sex, and I had to get my damn wolf under control because she just wanted to rip his clothes off right here, right now.
My breath caught in the back of my throat when he stepped closer to me.
He brushed his fingers up my forearm and trapped me between him and the couch, his knee between my legs. “You should be.”
I gulped and stared into his eyes, trying not to let him get to me, yet my stomach tingled with butterflies.
My wolf whispered, Kiss him, to me.
I glanced down at his plump lips, wondering how soft they’d feel against mine.
Would they even be soft? Or would they be rough?
Pressing passionately against mine. Devouring all my little moans. Giving me exactly what I had craved since the Moon Goddess told us our wolves were mates who had lived seven thousand years together.
“Where am I sleeping?” I asked, my mouth parched.
After staring down at me for a few long moments, he grabbed my hand and pulled me to the room at the end of the hallway. With gray brick walls, black decor, and a California king–size bed in the center, this didn’t look like a spare at all.
“Get changed into any of my clothes, if you don’t want to wear this.” He gestured down to the oversize shirt I’d put on after we shifted. “We’re going out.”
When I raised my brow, he locked his fingers around mine. Sparks shot through me like electricity; this feeling was only usual with Roman. I went to pull my hand away, but he held it tighter.
“You’ve worked all day, and we don’t ever get time alone. Let me take you out, princess.”
After staring up into his captivating eyes, I tore my gaze away and nodded. Maybe if I went out with him, my wolf would be satisfied. And plus, a nice dinner or even a drink at the bar was needed. I didn’t know when I’d get another stressless night like this with this war.
I closed his bedroom door and found a pair of jeans that I had to roll up about three times so they’d fit me, a belt so the pants wouldn’t fall down, and a tight white V-neck in his closet. Before stepping out of the room, I glanced around it and realized just how boring and plain his life must be without a mate.
Roman’s and my room was decorated with pictures and moonflowers, items from our little adventures. But Kylo only had a picture of him and his mother in a frame on the nightstand and bare brick walls. There wasn’t even a pair of slutty pink panties that some chick might’ve left here or condoms in one of the nightstands or anything that told me he had people over on the regular.
I wonder when was the last time he had sex, my wolf said to me, mid-search.
I huffed at her and walked to the door. This was what I got for snooping.
Kylo stood in the living room in a fresh pair of ripped jeans and a shirt that clung to every one of his muscles. He held out his hand for me, and I wrapped my arm around it, hoping that he’d keep his hands to himself tonight because I didn’t know if I’d be able to.
Yet after two drinks and a night of innocent flirting, I found myself lying in his bed with him and counting the stars through his wide bedroom window to keep myself from begging him to touch me. My whole body felt warm, scorching almost, next to his.
All night at the bar, my wolf had been giddy, incessantly telling me to kiss him, preparing me for this moment. Part of me wished that he’d grab my face already and kiss me, so this feeling inside of me would just go away.
Kylo brushed a strand of hair from my face, fingers caressing against my skin so softly that it gave me butterflies.
I glanced over at him and found myself turning toward him. “If the Moon Goddess could grant you one wish, what would it be?
”
Pausing for a long moment, he glanced at the space between us. “There are a lot of things I’d wish for,” he said.
“Well, you only have one.” I poked him in the hard abdomen. “Make it good.”
He rested his hand around my waist and pulled me closer to him. “If I had one wish at this very moment, I’d …” He looked down at my lips and then back into my eyes. “I’d wish that I had killed my father before he hurt Roman’s mother.”
My eyes widened, and I curled into his chest. I didn’t know what about his answer got me, but it did. “Really?” I whispered.
“Really,” he said with so much pure honesty. “What he did hurt everyone so much. My mother. Your pack. My and Roman’s friendship. If I could take it back, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I think about it every night.”
I stared at the man that I realized I knew so little about and smiled. Something about him made me want to stay up until all hours of the night, learning about him. This connection between us just grew stronger and stronger.
He curled his arm tighter around me and pulled me a few inches closer until our lips were centimeters from each other’s. “What would you wish for? And be selfish with your wish,” he said, minty breath fanning my lips. “Tell me what you want right now. What’s the one thought running through your mind?”
I gulped nervously, unable to open my mouth to say anything because I didn’t trust myself not to press my lips to his right then and there. My wolf purred at our closeness. The only word that I wanted to scream out was, You.
But I couldn’t get myself to say it.
Not yet. Not when Roman wasn’t here.
So, I tucked my head into Kylo’s chest and pulled myself closer to him. By the way that he wrapped his arms around me, I could tell that he didn’t need my answer to know exactly what it was.
Chapter 31
Roman
It took all night to run to the desolate lands that Scarlett had called Galsop Village. The stores were boarded up with thick silver, so rabid wolves couldn’t break in and destroy everything. Car doors had been left wide open with their keys still in the ignitions. Graffiti littered almost every wall in sight. And while Scarlett’s pack resided only a few miles from here, I couldn’t find anyone anywhere.