Chapter 176
DEREK
There were only so many cold showers a man could take.
+25 BONUS
I gritted my teeth, sweat dripping from my brow as I drove my elbow Into Kieran’s gut and pivoted just in time to avoid a sweeping leg kick from Brock The Silverclaw training grounds echoed with the sound of fists hitting flesh and bodies slamming against the dirt, but I barely heard it over the pounding in my head.
The grotto. Elena’s mouth. The moonlight on her skin. The way her body fit against mine like the missing half of something I hadn’t realized was missing until it clicked into place.
And then she’d run.
It didn’t matter how many times I replayed it–her whisper of “I can’t,” the way her eyes had gone wide with something like fear, or grief, or both. I couldn’t unsee it. Couldn’t stop feeling the ghost of her touch.
So I fought.
“Come on!” I barked, dodging Brock’s strike and sending Kieran sprawling with a shoulder slam. “You both still breathing?”
“Barely,” Brock grunted, shaking out his arm.
“Get up.”
“You’re a lunatic,” Kieran said from the ground.
“Alpha lunatic,” I corrected, rolling my neck. “Now move.
They scrambled up, circling me warily this time. It wasn’t a real fight–there were rules, of course–but I was dancing on the edge of something feral. The instinct to release, to destroy, to burn through every bit of emotion boiling under my skin.
Elena had left me standing alone in the grotto, bare and blinking like a fool. And I deserved that. Maybe. But I couldn’t get her out of my head.
She’d let me in–and then locked the door again.
Brock lunged. I sidestepped, grabbed his arm, and twisted, using his momentum to send him flying over my hip. He hit the dirt with a grunt.
Kieran hesitated a second too long, and I drove forward with a low tackle that knocked the wind out of both of us as we crashed down. My shoulder slammed into his chest, pinning him, and he groaned in protest.
“Yield,” I growled.
“Yield,” he coughed, and I rolled off.
I pushed myself to my feet, panting. My T–shirt was soaked through, blood dripping from a split knuckle. I barely noticed. I stood above the two warriors, chests heaving, and finally–finally–I felt something like stillness creep into my bones.
I grabbed a towel from the rack at the edge of the field, wiping the sweat from my face as I headed back toward the packhouse.
Chapter 70
+25 BONUS
“Alpha!” Joe’s volce called from the side porch. He had a clipboard in hand and a smirk on his face. “You trying to kill our best fighters before breakfast ?”
Just warming them up,” I said, tossing the towel around my neck.
Joe fell into step beside me as I climbed the porch stairs.
“Camping trip’s all set. Friday through Sunday. We’ll set everything up before you and Alden get there.”
“Good,” I said, already picturing it–me and my son under the stars, a real fire, no politics or pack dynamics. Just
a chance to show him who I was without the weight of everything I’d screwed up.
Joe flipped a page on his clipboard. “Fishing gear’s packed Sleeping bags. I made sure we had extra marshmallows this time.”
“Chocolate?”
“Three bars per person.”
I nodded. “Perfect. I want a full security sweep before we arrive. No surprises.”
“You got it.”
He gave me a look then–one I didn’t miss.
“What?”
“You’re excited.”
“Shouldn’t I be?”
Joe shrugged. “You’ve had a lot taken from you. It’s good to see you building something.”
I didn’t answer, just clapped him on the shoulder and headed inside. I still had a call to make, and I wanted to be clean when I made it.
After a long shower–hot this time, though it did nothing to calm the nerves tangled in my gut–I changed into a soft charcoal shirt and jeans and sat on the edge of the bed with my phone in hand. The number was already in my favorites.
Chapter 17
