I followed her gaze back to the window, where the wolf’s face had disappeared.
Elinor hustled me out of the room mighty fast. Ryan and Alex stood in the corner of the waiting room, their arms around each other. Ryan stroked Alex’s hair while she sobbed into her shoulder. A pang of envy hit me as I watched them. How nice it must be to have someone you could count on when things got tough. Irvine said he would protect me, but that would only last as long as our fling did, which I didn’t anticipate being a long time. A guy that hot and nice and that good with his hands and tongue must go through women like I went through Cadbury chocolate blocks.
“What happened?” Elinor asked, striding over to them.
She was mauled by an animal, is what happened. Hanging around shifters all the time is a bad bad idea.
“I haven’t got all the details yet, what with Robbie being upset and Bianca being in a coma and all.” Ryan ran a hand through his dark hair. “That reporter, Serenity, who was staying at The Prim, stabbed her multiple times. I think she was intending to—” He glanced at me, then gave a little cough. “Anyway, Robbie was supposed to have left town on Caleb's orders, but he showed up at Luke’s place a few hours ago. He’d figured out Bianca was in trouble. He got there in just time to stop Serenity from killing her, but she’s in pretty bad shape.”
My head swam. Nothing he’d said made any sense. Irvine had said that only males could be werewolves, which meant that this Serenity was just an ordinary human psychopath. But that was so insane. Why would she stab Bianca? What did this have to do with my stalker or … or anything that had been going on?
“What about the shop?” I asked Ryan. “Do you think this has anything to do with the break-in?”
Ryan nodded. “I’d say they’re related. It looks like this Serenity wanted to kill Bianca, so it makes sense that she would also want to hurt her business. I’m willing to bet she staged the attack and made us think Robbie did it to deliberately drive Bianca and Robbie apart.”
I sat down as a phantom pain shot up my leg. This was just too much to take in. If the attack on the shop was all about Bianca, and this Serenity girl was responsible, then that meant my mother wasn’t involved in it at all.
But then who was that guy? Had I just been worried about nothing?
18
Irvine
Why are you trying to keep it a secret? Caleb’s eyes burned into mine.
We were standing on opposite ends of the garden at Marshell House, on guard duty for Willow and Elinor, who were settled inside for the night. Even though we now ken who had trashed the shop and she was in police custody, I gathered Willow wasn’t keen on staying at her flat. Ryan and Alex had offered for her to stay up at the Hall, but Willow clearly felt more comfortable around Elinor, who was at least human and not quite as filthy rich.
Caleb was taking the opportunity to berate me about my relationship with Willow. Now that we’d slept together, the bond was pulsing from my body like a beacon. He couldn’t help but see it, and as I suspected, he was pissed that I hadn’t told him about it earlier. Where I saw my fated mate come to me at last, all he saw was a distraction that could stop me from dedicating myself to the mission.
I didn’t blame him, but that didn’t mean I didn’t also want to claw his eyes out. The only thing stopping me was our alliance, and the fact he was the alpha of the local pack and I was alone. For once, my instincts made the sensible decision.
Irvine, Caleb growled inside my head. He was waiting for an answer.
She asked me to, I said. Her father was a shifter. He attacked her, and because of that, the doctors had to remove her leg.
I hated spilling Willow’s secret like that, but I didn’t have a choice. Caleb was in charge. If he asked me a question, I couldn’t lie to him. My wolf wouldn’t allow it.
She look like she’s got all her limbs to me.
Watch carefully. She limps a little on her right leg. It’s because she wears a prosthesis. Don’t say anything to her, because she doesn’t want people to ken. After she lost her leg, her mother kept her practically a prisoner. She came here so she could have a normal life. She doesn’t want anything to do with shifters. She won’t even let me shift in front of her.
But she wanted you?
Only my body, I growled. I’d meant it as a joke, but I was surprised at the venom in my words.
So she knows who we are, then? Caleb pawed at the dirt. Dammit, Irvine, you shouldn’t have told her. We can’t have just anyone knowing about us, especially not people who are anti-shifters—
I didn’t. She has this weird ability to smell werewolves. She already ken we were shifters.
Caleb growled again. That’s something I really should have known.
I hung my head and lay down in the dirt, an appropriate gesture of submission.
It seems odd, though. She could have simply kept secret the fact she knew we were shifters. She didn’t have to keep your whole relationship secret.
My old man always told me that trying to understand a woman was like trying to count the grains of sand on a beach.
Caleb snorted. Ain’t that the truth. At least, this explains why you’ve been so absent of late. But you should have come to me as soon as you discovered your connection and her ability. We can’t have anything fucking up the reveal, especially when we still don’t have the ring.
I ken. I handled it all wrong. I was just trying to be sensitive to Willow—
Sensitive isn’t your strong suit, Irvine. Try sensible. You could put her in danger, especially with the world about to turn in our direction. Did I tell you that Robbie found the location of the ring?
I blanched. If Robbie found the ring, that meant my time was up. I’d have to tell Willow the truth about what we were planning to do. I hadnae heard that. Why don’t we have it yet? I tried to keep my thoughts even, so Caleb wouldn’t see my distress.
It’s buried in the grave of a maid who used to live in Bianca’s house. It might take some time to locate her grave, as it’s pretty old, but as soon as we do the Benedict Ring will be ours, and we can put the whole plan into action.
Great. That’s great. I ken I should be ecstatic. This was what I’d worked for ever since my father’s death. But all I could think about was what it would do to Willow when she found out what we were going to do.
I ken I still had time. It could be weeks or months before they found that grave. In the meantime, I’d have to step up my efforts to show Willow that shifters being free would be a good thing.
The only question was, how?
19
Willow
I was organising stacks of tablecloth samples for Alex when the door to my apartment crashed open. I spun around in terror, expecting to see the black-clad man who’d rushed at me the night the shop was destroyed.
Instead, Irvine stalked across the room and pulled me into his arms. My heart thundered in my chest as his heady scent invaded my nostrils. All my longing from the last few days rushed at me at once, and my head spun. I had to steady myself against Irvine to keep my balance.
“You’re back—” I started to say, but my words were muffled by his mouth on mine.
The kiss took my breath away. Irvine cupped my face in his hands, and the heat of his lips drove me wild with want. The ache inside me flared to life.
“Ah, Willow Summers, I have missed you,” he murmured against my lips as he walked me backward toward the edge of the bed.
All the pent-up frustration of missing him hit my body with full force. The room swirled. His hands seemed to be everywhere at once – cupping the back of my head, wrapping around my neck, stroking my thighs, clasping the curve of my back. Irvine pushed me back, so I was lying across the samples. Bright-coloured tablecloths cascaded off the bed.
“Stop,” I giggled, as his lips traced lines across my neck. “We can’t do this on top of Alex’s samples.”
“Why not?” Irvine looked up, grinning wickedly. “Newlyweds spend half their time christening v
arious things. It seems only fair that the wedding planner gets to christen the tablecloths.”
My protests dissolved as Irvine popped the buttons on my shirt and slid it and my bra off my shoulders. He took my nipple into his mouth, his tongue swirling around the sensitive tip. A moan escaped my lips.
Irvine crawled up on top of the samples with me, and I pulled him against me, clinging to him as he assaulted my nipples with his tongue. He kissed down my stomach as his fingers popped the buttons on my fly.
“I want to be inside you so bad,” he moaned against my lips.
“Please,” I moaned back as I tugged at his pants.
This wasn’t like our first night together, when he was gentle. This was pure, animal lust. We tore at each other’s clothing, desperate to be skin against skin. Irvine leaned back on the bed, the corner of package of napkin holders jabbing into the side of his head.
He shuffled me on top of him. I reached over and in a few quick movements had popped off my prosthesis. Irvine’s hands grabbed my hips and guided me down on top of him. I sighed with joy as his length filled me completely.
Irvine bucked his hips up to meet me. I ground myself against him, grabbing his shoulders for support as I didn’t have the leverage of my other leg. More tablecloths slid over the edge.
“Oooh.” Irvine grinned. “Someone’s been studying up.”
The flush in my cheeks returned. I didn’t want to tell him I’d been reading up on sex positions on the internet. I’d also learned more about human depravity than I’d ever expected. That’s the last time I type “sex with an amputee” with the safe search off.
Irvine grabbed my neck, drawing me against him. He thrust deeper as we moved together, our bodies wrapped in the electrifying warmth of our connection. I lost myself in the sensation of him, in his skin slick against mine, in the way we fitted together like two puzzle pieces who’d finally found their mates.
Harder, I screamed inside my head as he thrust inside me. Go deeper. I want everything you’ve got.
The ache inside me grew and grew, spreading through my whole body. When it reached my head, it exploded in a wave of heat and lust and blinding light, and I lost myself in it, in him.
Inside me, Irvine stiffened. His teeth scraped the edge of my neck. I cried out and he cried out. His body shuddered. We collapsed together against the fabric samples, the lust driven out, at least for the moment.
My body buzzed with wild energy. I turned my head and met Irvine’s eyes. All the waiting, all the thinking I’d done while he was gone … this was even better than I’d anticipated.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“The pleasure is all mine, Willow Summers.” Irvine grinned, stroking my cheek with his finger.
I think I can die happy right now.
Irvine lifted himself up on his elbows, those grey eyes sparkling as he leaned over me and planted a kiss on my lips. “Sorry I didnae get here sooner. Caleb made me go to the hospital first. Bianca’s awake. She’s going to make a full recovery.”
“That’s so great. I’ll go see her today, too.”
“Willow, I wannae ask you something.”
“Mmmmm, I can’t answer questions now.”
“If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?”
“Urgh, I especially can’t answer deep, existential questions right now.”
A serious look passed over his face. “Go on, humour a Scotsman.”
“I’d give myself a leg, of course.”
“Would you really? All the things in the whole world, and the one thing you’d change is the thing you’ve already learned to live with?”
I shrugged. “My life would have been very different if I had a leg. Kids wouldn’t have been so mean to me. My life wouldn’t have been so sheltered. I might’ve had some friends, even a few boyfriends—”
Curtis would never have rejected me, and I would never have come to Crookshollow, and I would never have met Irvine—
Irvine gave me a look that implied he knew what I was thinking. “Is that really what you want?”
“I always thought so, but actually …” My heart raced against my chest. “I think you’re right. Maybe, I would like to go back to university and finish my degree. I like being a wedding planner, but I really did enjoy studying, too.”
“What about your dad?”
“What about him?”
“What if he wasn’t hiding anymore?”
“You mean, what if the guy who maimed me just stuck around and I had to face him every day? I would’ve run away much sooner. He hurt me, and got away with it because he’s a werewolf. I don’t want anything to do with him.”
“But what if he could be tried for his crime? Thrown in jail and—”
“The only way he’d be tried was if shapeshifters had some kind of secret court, which isn’t likely, or if werewolves were public knowledge, and if that happened I wouldn’t be around to see it.”
“Why not?”
I looked away. Because if shifters were public knowledge, the first thing the government and the press would do is seek out my mother, the only known “authority” on werewolves. And that would mean they’d come after me. I’d never be free again. Willow Summers would have to die, and I’d go back to being ‘peg-leg’ to the whole world. But I couldn’t tell Irvine that, as much as I wanted to. “I don’t want you to bring my father up again.”
Irvine’s face fell. I snapped my hand over my mouth. I hated myself for lying. “I’m so sorry, that was so rude, and you were just trying to be nice.”
“Dinnae ever apologise to me for telling me what you want.” Irvine stroked my hair. The sad expression on his face changed to a mischievous grin. “In fact, I think you should practice on me.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m already your experiment bloke, aye? From now on, you need to tell me what you want, every step of the way. I’m your servant, but if you dinnae tell me, I willnae do it.” He looked smug.
“That doesn’t seem fair.” The idea of it sent a shudder through me. I could tell by the twinkle in his eyes that he wanted me to say things like please eat me out, or put your cock inside me. My cheeks burned just thinking the words.
“Trust me, Willow Summers, you’re gonnae love it.”
20
Irvine
I carried Willow on my back as I stumbled up the path to the cabin. I cursed myself for my idiocy. I’d been so distracted watching Willow and trying to stop her from overhearing a conversation about the Benedict Ring and the plan, that I hadn’t watched what Caleb put in front of me at the pub. I’d drank far too much.
It will be fine, just get her to the cabin.
We’d been at Tir Na Nog with the rest of the pack, celebrating Bianca’s release from hospital and Robbie’s exoneration and his discovery of the hiding place of the ring. Despite her apprehension about the pack knowing about us, Willow sat beside me and held my hand and let me buy her Lemon, Lime and Bitters.
It warmed me to see her having such a great time, laughing with the girls and talking about their wedding plans. Hope surged within me. She doesn’t want to talk about her father yet, but she’ll come around. If I can just convince her that she could have justice, then she’ll see how much she will benefit from shifters being public, and then we can be together for real.
I set a giggling Willow down on the porch and tugged my keys from my pocket. Fitting them into the lock proved a more difficult task. Willow tsked as she grabbed the keys from me and opened the door.
“In you go, you intoxicated beast.” Willow grinned as I collapsed on top of the bed. She bent down and started to undo my boot laces. Her eyes darted over my body, sparkling with desire. She bit her lip, and my cock pressed hard against my jeans.
Willow and I, alone again in my cabin, the buzz of alcohol heightening the strength of our connection. My hands ached to tug off her shirt and explore her body, and I could tell by the way she leaned closer and her hands lingered on the
skin of my ankles that she wanted the same, but we’d made an agreement. If she wanted me, she’d have to tell me.
I decided to tease her a little. I sat up and pulled my shirt over my head. Her eyes widened as she drank me in. I did a big fake yawn. “I’m really beat. I think I’ll turn in now.”
She looked away, but not before I caught the disappointment on her face. “Oh, okay. Goodnight, I guess.”
“That is, unless you have anything you’d like to tell me.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m …” Her cheeks flared with heat.
“We had an accord,” I said, sliding across the bed away from her. “If you want to do anything, you are going to have to spell it out.”
“Please, don’t make me do that.” Willow’s whole face flushed with heat. She bit her bottom lip and my cock pressed even harder against my jeans.
“You cannae get out of it. You want to nae be scared anymore? Then you have to take matters into your own hands.” I gestured down at my jeans, where my cock was starting to throb painfully against my fly. “Look at me. I want you, Willow Summers. I want you so bad I can taste it. Now, what do you want me to do to you?”
Willow bit her lip again, screwing up her eyes. A heated silence descended, and the tension crackled between us. After an age, she whispered. “I want you to fuck me.”
“Excuse me?” I cupped a hand around my ear. “I cannae quite hear you, lass.”
Willow screwed her face up tighter. Her skin turned red all the way down her neck. “I said, I want you to fuck me. I want you to lick me all over and then shove your cock inside me! I want you to be a beast!”
“Why Willow Summers, I thought you’d never ask.” I grabbed her arm and dragged her on top of me. We fell against each other, my lips crashing into hers.
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