Page 186 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

“Anyway, you have to get back to the infirmary, don’t you, Damon?” She nudged him with her elbow.

He paused, then rushed to agree. “O-oh! Yes, love, you’re right.” He kissed her cheek and then stood with his paperwork. “I guess we’re heading out together, Lance. If you’re looking for head of security, I think I know where he’d be about now…”

He and Lance headed out. When the door shut behind them, I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms. “You’ve come up with better excuses before, Mom. Hang a picture, really?”

She rolled her eyes. “Such sass for a fully grown man.”

I smirked. “I get it from you, Mom.”

“I suppose that’s true, isn’t it?” She smiled, then grew serious. “I get the sense that you’ve got something on your mind, Night. Am I right?”

“Oh.” I shifted in my seat. “Yeah.”

“Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”

I thought about telling her everything, but I’d need to start at the beginning, with the promises Bryn and I had made to each other, and I’d need to explain how I’d fallen short of the man I wanted to be.

I didn’t have the will to go through all of that.

Fortunately, having a very perceptive mother came in handy, and all I needed to do to communicate my state of mind was sigh.

“I won’t force you to talk,” she said, “but I can sense that whatever it is, it’s heavy. Promise me you’ll get it off your chest? If not with me, then with Bryn? Or someone?”

I nodded but didn’t want to make promises I wasn’t sure I could keep. Not again. So, I helped her wash the dishes and tried to keep our conversation light and lively, then I went home to check on Bryn.

The sky had started to darken by the time I got home, and the air was much chillier.

It was the middle of December, and there was less daytime now.

I’d never cared about the changing seasons beyond making sure my pack was ready for the shift in weather, but lately, I’d felt the loss of the day bearing down on me.

Technically, I was taking a break from pressing responsibilities, but I couldn’t shake the thought that somehow I’d wasted the day.

Inside my cabin, I heard Bryn rummaging around upstairs, and I jogged up there to see that she’d cleaned and mopped the floors.

I wasn’t sure if this was evidence that she’d started “nesting” or if she was just tired of my drab cabin.

Either way, thanks to her, my place sparkled.

It had never looked better. She even got the builders to repair the cracks in the walls and the chipped paint.

“Bryn, don’t you want to…” I was about to ask her if she wanted to be resting instead, but one look from her froze the question on my tongue. I was learning how to be there for her, how to let her be her own person. “Do you want help?” I asked instead.

She smiled, and some of the pressure in my chest lessened. “I would, yeah.” She pointed to the dustpan. “Mind helping me get this in there?”

I held it steady while she swept the dust and debris into it and threw it away. She led me to our bedroom.

“I want to talk to you,” she said as she sat on the bed. Her hand found her stomach, and she rubbed it as I sat next to her. “We should go back to the Kings.”

“You sure?”

She nodded. “As much as I love it here, that’s where we’ll find the information we need to take Troy down.”

I nodded. “You’re right. I don’t want what happened to the Camas to happen to anyone, especially not our pack.”

“Exactly. And when we leave, maybe we could have Lance stay behind to keep an eye on things? The Kings are the most secure because they don’t have any major construction going on, and Lance is the best guy for the job.”

Again, I nodded. “He’s already made a lot of suggestions for how to make things safer here for our people, and you’re right. You’ll be better guarded there.”

She scooted closer to me until our hips were touching.

“I’m glad you think so.” She kissed my cheek and then my neck.

The touch of her lips sent shivers down my body.

“You know,” she whispered against my skin, “we haven’t been ‘together’ since we left the Camas Pack. Don’t you think it’s been long enough?”

Her voice was sultry with lust, stirring an answering desire in me.

I turned my head when she made to kiss my cheek, catching her lips with mine.

She tasted divine, and she felt even better when she moved onto my lap and ground herself against me.

It should have been easy to lose myself in the feeling of her, in the kisses she left across my skin, but my brain wouldn’t shut off.

The mood was right, and the time and place were ideal. We were as far from anything that reminded us of Troy as we could get. My body wanted it, my wolf was ravenous for it, but I just wasn’t feeling it.

When she started to pull off my shirt, I took her hands in mine. I pulled back and gently eased her off my lap and onto the bed. My wolf howled in protest, but I ignored him.

Bryn looked up at me, her lips a bit swollen, her cheeks red, her eyes dark with lust. Her blouse had slipped down her shoulder, revealing more of her smooth, creamy skin. She was breathtaking, and she was perfect, but I didn’t deserve her. Not as I was.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Her pout smoothed into a frown, but before I could see the hurt in her eyes, I turned to the door.

“Maybe later, love,” I said over my shoulder, leaving her alone in our bed.