Page 29 of Accidentally Wedded to a Werewolf (Claw Haven #1)

Another jolt of pain through the bond. Luna thought about jabbing him in random places until he howled. Then she remembered they were stuck on a mountain together and decided against it.

“Show me,” she demanded.

Oliver sighed. Then he lifted his arms to reveal his ankle, which was swollen to the size of a grapefruit.

Luna shrieked again.

“Calm down,” he told her. “Last time I broke an ankle, I could walk on it after a day.”

“A day?” Luna laughed, incredulous. “You said we’d be back before dinner!”

Oliver tipped his head back against the tree, wincing when it jostled his leg. “We have supplies.”

Luna wanted to whine like a little kid. She maturely held back.

“Oliver,” she said, only the faintest whine leaking into her voice. “I really don’t want to sleep out here.”

“There’s a cave down that way.” Oliver pointed down the path. Luna vaguely remembered him pointing it out and saying that Vida veered off the path to smoke in it during her first and only hike last year.

Luna snorted in disbelief. “You want me to stay in a cave?”

She gestured at herself: peppy ponytail, stylish jeans, cute yet durable boots that were killing her.

“We have blankets,” he reminded her. “And I’m a furnace, remember? I can spare some body heat.”

Luna scoffed. “You just want to cuddle.”

It was something Oliver would have laughed at a few days ago. Now he only glared, his jaw tightening.

“Your family will send someone to find us,” she tried weakly.

“My family knows I pack like this.” He slapped the backpack sitting beside him. “And it’s not long until dark. If they do send somebody up before I can make it back on foot, they’ll be able to smell us from the path.”

Luna glared at him.

Oliver sighed. Suddenly, he looked exhausted, all the fight going out of him.

“You can keep walking if you want. Another hour, maybe two, and you’ll find a flower somewhere less dangerous. Then you can come back for me. But I’ll still need somewhere to stay tonight. And unless you’ve seen a hotel behind a tree somewhere…”

He trailed off, staring up at her expectantly. He expected her to leave him, she realized. Leave him injured and helpless in the middle of some hiking track for a few hours while her distance put him in even more pain than he already was.

“It would hurt,” she said. “A few hours of me walking away, you’d pass out again.”

“And I’d be fine once you got back,” he argued. “This trip can’t be for nothing.”

She went cold, imagining it: walking back and finding him limp and unconscious, his ankle still swollen. Alone, just like he insisted he wanted.

“I can’t get Spotify up here,” she said.

He frowned. “What?”

“I’m not going on a hike, alone, with no music to keep me company,” she said, grabbing the backpack and hauling it on. “We can get the flower once you’re healed. Come on.”

She held out a hand.

He stared at it. “There is no way you can lift me.”

“Then help me out!” She slapped his shoulder.

He huffed a pained laugh. Then he reached back, pushing himself up on the tree behind him. At Luna’s urging, he slung a toned arm around her shoulders. Luna ignored the bond singing in satisfaction inside her chest and took a step.

He stepped with her, face tight with pain.

“You have to lean on me,” she told him.

He rolled his eyes and muttered something about flattening her. But he leaned harder, Luna grunting under his weight as they shuffled forward another step.

“There,” she said, panting. “Better.”

* * *

It took forty minutes of slow, painstaking shuffling to reach the cave. It was further off the path than Luna had expected—she couldn’t even see the path from its entrance—but Oliver assured her that his family would be able to smell them easily if they walked up the path.

He unzipped the backpack, ready to lay out the blankets before Luna swatted him aside and took the blankets out of his hands.

“Let the girl with two functioning legs do it,” she said, standing up and snapping the blankets out, letting them drift onto the thankfully dry ground.

Oliver shuffled onto them. He reached for the backpack again, this time pulling out a bag of snacks.

“Lot of time to kill waiting for that to go down,” Luna said, nodding at his swollen ankle.

“And I can’t answer all the work emails that are definitely piling up.

I have this pottery company in London that seems eager for a newsletter swap.

I think they’d be good for… Anyway. Want to play I Spy? I spy something…green.”

“Tree,” Oliver said, not looking up.

Luna gasped. “Oh my gosh, you did it.”

Oliver handed her a juice box and several strips of jerky.

Luna blinked at them, weirdly charmed. “Thanks.”

“Thanks for the blankets,” he replied, leaning up against the cave wall. He bit into his own strip of jerky, chewing loudly. “Well, thanks to me for bringing them. Thanks for taking two seconds to lay them out.”

Luna rolled her eyes. She bit into her jerky, picturing him here with his family.

Dealing out juice boxes, orange slices, jerky, trail mix, and everything else she’d glimpsed in that snack bag he was pushing back into the backpack for later.

Showing them how to identify bugs, which he’d started talking to Luna about before she threatened to push him off the mountain.

Maybe teaching them how to light a fire.

He took care of his pack. She had to give him that.

He was gruff and growly, and he didn’t let anyone in, even the people he was closest to. But he took care of them.

Luna sipped her juice box, trying to quell the fluttering in her stomach. It had nothing to do with the bond—she just couldn’t remember the last person who’d made her feel cared for.

“So,” she said, settling against the cave wall beside him, their elbows touching. “About that whole…not shifting thing. Is it because of what that woman tried to do?”

He stiffened. “Who told you that?”

“Sabine,” she admitted, putting every inch of casualness she could into the word.

Everything was easier to talk about if it wasn’t important.

“It’s not a big deal. I mean, obviously, it’s a big deal someone tried to kill your family, and now you can’t shift.

But like, it’s not a big deal if you tell me about it. ”

She took another bite of jerky, chewing through the tough texture.

“What am I gonna do about it, right? So, if you want to tell me…”

“Nothing to tell.” He shoved the rest of his food into his jeans pocket, scowling. He looked shaken.

Luna bit her pinkie nail. It was bright blue, thanks to Darren’s efforts several nights ago. The polish was patchy, but she hadn’t redone it yet. She kind of liked looking down and remembering his gap-toothed grin as she let him slide the brush over her nails.

It was going to be a long day. Luna thought about giving up, starting another game of I Spy, or better yet, seeing if they could get physical without jostling his broken ankle.

But something about Oliver made her want to continue.

She could see this great guy under all his gruff and bluster.

She wanted to coax him out. If he snapped at her, who cared? She’d be out of his life soon.

“Okay,” she said. “But it wasn’t your fault. You’re acting like you did something. You didn’t do anything, that crazy lady did.”

He looked over at her. “Where did this come from?”

“I just…” Luna paused, trying to remember how Grandmother Musgrove had phrased it during one of their breakfast talks a few days ago while Grandmother sliced a tinned peach into pieces. “I want you to get out of your own way.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She groaned. “I mean you have these moments where you’re this cool guy who loves his family and can actually make jokes! Then you smother it in your stupid grumpy shit. You don’t need to blame yourself for something that wasn’t your fault. Let yourself be happy. It’s easy! I’m happy all the time.”

She finished with a dazzling grin, propping up her chin with her hands and fluttering her eyelashes.

He barked a laugh. His eyes were still guarded, but some of the tension leaked out of his shoulders.

“You are not,” he said.

She stabbed a finger at him. “You’ve only seen me outside my normal life. I’m so happy when I’m not here.”

He snorted. It was less dismissive than she’d expected. If it was anyone else, she might call it fond.

“You like Claw Haven,” he said, tugging at the frayed cuff of his battered shorts. “You’ve spent the last few weeks singing its praises to anyone who will listen.”

Luna scoffed weakly. “That’s just…marketing. I love its market potential.”

It sounded hollow, even to her. She hadn’t lied when she’d gotten up on that stage during the town meeting and insisted that Claw Haven was special.

She didn’t like it only because it could make a pretty penny for tourists, but because she liked being here.

The beautiful scenery, the quaint streets, the eccentric townsfolk who wouldn’t keep their noses out of your business: Minotaurs in the grocery aisles, dragons baking bread, succubi flicking through greeting cards.

Merpeople pushing themselves around in wheelchairs and fairies flitting around crosswalks.

Vampires in coffee shops and adorable hedgehog women running chocolate stores.

And, of course, the Musgroves. She still couldn’t believe they threw her that little party last night. And she really couldn’t believe she had almost cried over it.

“Maybe I do like it,” she admitted with a sigh. “Okay? It’s sweet. And the people here are sweet. It’s, like…a novelty. Fun for a holiday away.”

“But not to live in,” Oliver said.

“Right.” She looked over to find him closer than before.

He still had that fond look on his face.

Like he could see straight through her lies and into the truth: Claw Haven seemed like a nice place to live.

Just not for someone like her. She saw how everybody looked at her—they thought she was adorable, sure.

But she also saw how baffled they were by her big-city demeanor: her accent and her clothes and all her comments about room service and spas.

As nice as the townsfolk were, she wouldn’t be surprised if they made fun of her behind her back.

She had made fun of them behind their backs—why wouldn’t they do the same?

She didn’t belong in Claw Haven. No matter how much she was starting to like the idea. Luna shivered. The bond tugged inside her chest, wanting her to lean in and be filled with warmth. Luna was finding it hard to figure out where it ended and she began.

His fond look collapsed into a frown. “Are you cold? We can get some of the blankets.”

He reached down to tug at the blankets under them.

Luna put a hand over his. “It’s fine. It’s just the, um…” She dragged up a flimsy smile, trying to make herself sound just as peppy as before. “I know a way to keep warm,” she said, sliding a finger under his shorts. “I’ll have to ride you, though. Keep that ankle out of the action.”

He made a low rumble in his chest. He started to lean in, but Luna caught his chin.

“Do you have condoms?”

He scoffed. “Of course I have condoms.”

The incredulousness in his voice made her pull back even farther. “You brought condoms on our day hike?”

“Always be prepared,” he said, eyes dark and full of intent. He caught her around the waist and pulled until she was straddling him.

Luna’s breath hitched in her chest. She forced the strange vulnerability away and grinned down at him. “How’s that ankle?”

“Fine,” he said, only a little strained. He’d obviously jostled it while he was hauling her over him. He slid a hand up her shirt, then paused. “Are you sure you won’t be too cold?”

She shot him a wry look and yanked her shirt over her head, gratified when his eyes went half-lidded. She pressed her chest against his. His skin was hot, but the bond was hotter, lighting her up inside.

She ran her hands through his hair, reveling in the heat. “What were you saying about keeping me warm?”