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Chapter 126
Chapter 126
Quirin
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I may have had a hidden reason for running Echo into the ground tonight. After trying to maintain control over myself with Kennedy walking out of our closet naked, then telling me she waned up for me last night, I’m not sure I have enough restraint to hold on if she did it again.
Thankfully, my plan worked and Raif was right. After an hour, she began to slow and after another thirty minutes, she was struggling to keep ahead of us.
‘We can practice that a few times a week. As an Alpha wolf, Echo will get stronger quickly,’ Raif says as we carry her into the back of the packhouse.
Kier comes striding up, looking at her. “Is our Luna okay?”
“Yeah, we wore her out working on her stamina,” I tell him.
“You know, there are better ways to work on her stamina,” he says, grinning at me.
I grunt and push past him.
I carry her upstairs and start a bath. I know she’s out, but she worked hard tonight and her muscles will be sore tomorrow. I turn the water on as hot as I think she can take it then put Epsom salts into the tub. Then I pull my shorts off and carefully pull my shirt over her head before turning off the water and sliding into the tub.
Her sweet citrus and mint scent blends into the menthol scent of the Epson salts. I lean back, laying her in front of me and letting her head fall back on my shoulder. I look down and see her beautiful body. That, combined with her sweet scent has me rock hard. Something I’m becoming very accustomed to. No amount of cold showers or jacking off seems to help. My body only wants my mate.
I bathe her, gritting my teeth as I rub the washcloth over her body. Then I close my eyes and lean back, letting the Epsom salt work on her muscles until the water gets cold. When it does, pull her back into my arms and stand. I dry her off, then pull one of my clean shirts over her head before putting her to bed. I take a moment to brush the hair out of her face.
‘She’s perfect,’ Raif says softly.
‘Yes, she is. I’m glad she’s starting to seem happier. And I’m glad he pack is taking their pups to see her, although, I’m still interested to know what today was all about,‘ I say.
I turn, seeing that she’s put a picture beside her bed. Hot jealousy flows through me when I see her on her fourteenth birthday sandwiched between her brother and Henry. Is she harboring a secret crush on him? He can’t have her. She’s mine. She’s wearing my mark.
I run my finger over the picture of her. Even then, her light shone brighter than everyone around her. She should have been mated to Henry. He’d have been a better mate to her than I can be I’m trying but I know I’m screwing some things up. With Henry, I have no doubt that it would have been effortless. The two of them are so easy–going, so filled with light, that it would have been easy.
But for whatever reason, the Moon Goddess decided that this bright light of a woman should be mine. I set the picture back on the nightstand. I hope the Moon Goddess knows what she’s doing, because if my mate is harboring some inner love for Henry, brother or no, I may have to kill him.
Those dark thoughts follow me to bed as I pull Kennedy to me, wrapping my body around her. Jealousy isn’t an emotion
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Chapter 126
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I’m familiar with. I’ve never cared if a woman that I slept with slept with someone else. It didn’t matter. Even when they tried to flaunt it in front of me, tried to make me jealous, it didnt work. Those women were a release; an hour, a night, but nothing more. None of them had the light shining around them that my mate does. None of them could ever make me feel the things that Kennedy does. None of them has ever pushed the darkness away so that I felt lighter than air.
I stare at the picture of Henry for hours before I’m finally able to fall asleep. But even in sleep, my dreams don’t let me rest. I watch Henry, holding Kenndy is his arms, telling her that he loves her. Kennedy, her stomach large with Henry’s pup smiling up at him. Kennedy laughing with a pup that looks like Henry, not me.
When I finally wake up, I’m full of anxious energy, frustrated and angry that she’s put that picture out in the open as if she’s flaunting her feelings for him in front of me.
I get ready for warrior training, knowing that today is going to be a rough one for my warriors. But before I leave, I have to know. I have to know if she’s really in love with him. I don’t know what I’ll do if she is, but I have to know.
“Kennedy. Kennedy, wake up.”
“Hmmm?” she mumbles sleepily.
“Kennedy, wake up. I need to ask you something.”
She opens her eyes and shifts her body so she’s on her back looking up at me.
“Oh, I smell good. What is that?” she asks, sniffing her arm.
salts. I was worried you’d be sore today after all that running last night. Kennedy…”
e shifts around. “It worked great, Quirin. I’m not sore at all,” she says, smiling up at me.
I close my eyes. I don’t know if I can go back to the darkness that was my life before she came into it. I take a deep breath and just ask her.
“Kennedy, why do you have a picture of Henry on your nightstand?”
She frowns. “What?”
“This picture,” I say, pointing at it. “It’s of Henry. Why is it on your nightstand?”
She sits up, and looks at it, still frowning. “It’s not of Henry. It’s of you. It’s the only picture I have of you. I had to beg you to be in that picture. I wanted it to just be you and me, but I knew you’d never agree to that. And I was right, you never did, no matter how many birthdays I asked you to. But that one, I finally got you to get in a picture,” she says, looking at me. The vice grip in my heart relaxes.
“Why would I have a picture of Henry on my nightstand? He’s not my mate.”
I look back at the picture, then at my mate, feeling like I can breathe again after not being able to all night. I sit down on the bed beside her.
“You’re right. We should have a picture of just the two of us, one that can replace this one. Maybe we can get one taken this weekend? What do you say?” I ask her.
“Do you mean it? After all these years, you’re finally willing to have a picture with just you and me in it?” she asks excitedly.
“Well, it would have been weird if I had taken a picture with you before you were an adult,” I say, trying to cover my complete and total over reaction to this picture. “But yes. I don’t want to see another man’s picture on your nightstand. I
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want it to be us, so we’ll take one this weekend at your brother’s Alpha ceremony. Would you like that?”
She leans forward, getting close enough that her nose rubs against mine and I can feel her breath on my lips. “I would love that she whispers.
I close the distance between us, taking her mouth in a possessive dominant kiss. I plunge my tongue into her mouth, reclaiming it and her as mine after spending a horrible night wondering if she truly is.
Goddess, I want to bury myself so deep inside her that she’ll never forgot that she’s mine, never forget whose mark is on her neck. But I know that I have no control right now. Even though she’s melted against me, and I can smell the scent of her arousal getting stronger in the air, I refuse to hurt her again.
I pull back, pressing my forehead against hers as I catch my breath. “This weekend. It’s a date.”
“It’s a date,” she says.
I stand and walk to the door.
“Oh, Quirin. I ordered some medical supplies yesterday, did you see it come through?” she asks.
“Kier handles all purchase orders, but I’m sure there wasn’t any problem. If there is, let me know.”
I stop at the door, turning to look at her, sitting in MY bed, wearing MY t–shirt, her lips puffy from MY kiss, her hair from MY hands running through it.
She’s never looked more gorgeous.
messy
I smile at her before walking out and jogging down the stairs, before the last bit of control I have over myself snaps and I return to my bed and bury myself deep inside her like my mind, body, and soul are craving.
