Page 13 of I Hate Myself For Loving You (Wolf Mates #7)

Chapter Ten

A very had two choices. She could wait until Lassiter told her what the letter said, or she could read it herself.

Seeing as he liked to play sock so much, Avery decided it was time to play fetch. Snatching the letter deftly from Lassiter’s hands, she ran, down the small hallway and into the even smaller bathroom. With a shove of her nose, she snapped the door shut and dropped the letter on the floor.

Lassiter crashed after her, calling to her to bring it back. His body pushed at the door she now leaned up against while Avery let out a warning snarl. She just needed a damn minute!

Looking down at the letter, her eyes skimming the words, Avery’s heart skidded to a halt.

How could this be?

Losing her focus, she felt the shift back to human form begin and there was no way to stop it. If she lost her train of thought—and the letter had certainly taken her focus off of her werewolf form—she was sunk.

But Avery didn’t care. This was too incredible to believe.

As the fur of her coat melted away and flesh replaced it, tears stung Avery’s eyes, forming at the corners of them and falling to the cheap linoleum.

Oh, my God.

Placing a hand on the worn notepaper, Avery trembled as she read.

A parakeet you’ve been these years,

To protect you from our greatest fears,

The loss of your brother too much to bear

We’ve left you in his gentle care.

To break the spell which we have cast

You must seek out our distant past.

Go back to where it all began,

A place we call Adams land.

Within its earth you will find

A drink to help you join vamp-kind.

The cock that crows at morning’s light

Will lead you from the dark of night.

A woman who is strong and true

Will know the secret that is you.

Find her on the Adams land

And carry out our simple plan.

You will awake at break of dawn,

All your feathers and little beak gone.

A family’s love will join you there.

They’re a strange lot so have a care .

Avery’s mind raced, thwarted only by Lassiter shoving against the door.

And she was naked.

Lovely.

“Avery?” he roared, sticking his face through the wedge he’d made in the bathroom door.

Avery forgot she was naked for a moment before she grabbed a towel hanging on the rack with her free hand.

Sliding across the floor, she rose on unsteady legs, clutching the letter in her hands.

“All this time, Lassiter. All this time you had this secret and you never told me. Why? We were best friends. I told you everything. Everything !”

Lassiter glared at her, eyeing her with angry, glowing eyes. “Well, apparently, you didn’t tell me everything , Avery.”

She winced. There was that.

She tugged the towel around her with a tight fist. “This is not the same thing and you know it!”

“You’re a dog, Avery. It is the same thing.”

“I’m not a dog, smart ass. I’m a werewolf, thank you,” she corrected, backing up against the bathtub until she felt the fiberglass touch her calves.

“Yeah, I know.”

“You know?” How could he know?

“Yeah. Now give me the letter, Avery.” His warning was followed by the tic of his jaw, clenched and tight.

She shook her head. “Explain it.”

His eyes narrowed.“Why? So you can call me a meat murderer? An animal killer?”

“That’s soooo not fair, Lassiter. I had no idea. None and it wasn’t as if you were telling me. So tell me now,” she pleaded.

“You’re right, but what is fair in this life, Avery?” he remarked with dry sarcasm.

Tilting her head, she gave him a narrowed look of her own. “Don’t woe is me , Lassiter. You didn’t have to keep this a secret. You didn’t. I would have helped you! I would have helped you figure out whatever the fuck that letter means. Fair? Don’t talk to me about fair, Lassiter Adams.”

His big hand swiped at hers, grabbing for the letter. “Give me the letter, Avery.”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

“Avery…” he hissed the warning.

“Nuh-uh.”

“Don’t make me come get it.”

“Don’t make me bite you,” she threatened.

Lassiter’s smile was sly. “Don’t make me bite you back.”

Oh, sure, threaten her with his big fangs. Nice. “You wanna have werewolf versus vampire? A little trailer park rumble?”

His eyes opened wide in surprise.

“Oh, did you forget? You told the dog and that dog is me, Dracula.”

“Give me the letter, Avery,” he growled at her. His face, handsome even in fury, loomed over hers.

But she wasn’t afraid of him. Not even a little.

Poking his chest with a finger, she shook her head stubbornly, sticking her chin out.

“Or you’ll what? Bite me? Drain me dry? Bring it, vampire.

Let’s do it because I’m not giving you the letter until you tell me what it means. Tell me about the parakeet.”

“No, Avery,” he replied coldly, his eyes hard like chips of ice.

And suddenly, she’d had enough. Avery was tired of denying that she cared about Lassiter. To herself and especially to him. She was tired of pretending he had once been a man capable of great compassion.

She was tired of fighting this battle that didn’t just wage in her head, but in her heart.

She was tired of telling herself he was inconsequential because she had a cause she so vehemently believed in.

And she was sick and tired of spending endless nights, like those of the past ten years, pretending that Lassiter had never existed.

He did exist.

She wanted to be a part of that existence, but not without his willingness to let all of his secrets go.

“You know what, Lassiter, this gives you the best excuse ever. You can scurry off to your coffin—do you sleep in one of those?—and hide. Pretending like no one cares about you because it’s easy, you big, damn pale-assed pansy!

I’m standing right here, right now, telling you I care about you.

I’ve always cared about you, even when you went off and forgot about me for ten years.

I’d help you if you’d just let me. But you have to be all secretive and angst ridden.

Everything has to be this big drama. It’s such bullshit, Lassiter.

Just grow up, would you? Grow up and stop making everything so fucking hard.

” Her voice had risen now, peaking and swelling in the small bathroom.

A glimpse of herself in the dirty mirror, her eyes flashing with anger, betrayal and most of all, sadness. Sadness they could no longer communicate on the level they once had.

His silence, on the other hand, spoke volumes.

Frustration got the better of her and she shoved his chest hard, knocking him back a step.

“Fine. Keep your secrets, Lassiter, and your sad, lonely life, but I’m going to tell the Adams about this.

I have to. I don’t know if that letter means you really are an Adams from this Adams family, but it means something and I’m going to tell them. ”

Shouldering her way past him, she grabbed the doorknob, but Lassiter’s hand, large and strong, drew her back to his chest.

He held her there, pressing her to him. “Wait, Avery,” he said, his voice raw, determined, revealing, making her stay.

Avery didn’t know if he wanted her to wait because he was afraid of what she’d tell the Adamses or because he wanted her help. Yet his tone held something so raw, she relaxed a bit against him and took deep breaths of air.

He gripped her bare shoulders, running his hands over them before turning her in his arms and dragging her to him.

Her pulse raced and her anger began to subside.

Lassiter kissed the top of her head, raining kisses along her scalp, moving down to her cheek and, finally, taking her lips in his, sliding his tongue into her mouth with silken skill.

“No, Lassiter. This can’t be how we resolve this…” was her murmured objection, weak and stilted.

Cupping her jaw, he caressed it with his thumb. “We’ll talk, Avery. We’ll talk, but now—now, I have to have you.” Forceful and dynamic, his words slammed into her ears.

“I’m holding you to that,” she insisted, putting her hand over his and pressing it to her skin. “Promise me, Lassiter. Say it,” Avery whispered against his hand.

His chest inflated against hers as he looked into her eyes with solemn assurance. “ Promise,” he repeated, low and deep.

Avery wrapped her arms around his neck and firmly planted her lips on his, showing him with her passion that she was ready to take him at his word.

Her hand wove into his hair, clenching the strands with tight fists, and she leaned into him, allowing his body to mold to hers.

Lassiter’s hands found her ass, reaching up under the towel and cupping the firm globes of flesh. Massaging them, grasping them and pulling Avery against him with forceful purpose.

She sighed into his mouth, forgetting their argument. Forgetting that Lassiter hadn’t let her into the most confidential part of his life. Forgetting everything but his kiss.

A kiss that left her lungs without air.

A kiss that stopped her heart and plunged deep into her senses.

The length of steel between Lassiter’s legs was rigid, pressing between the apex of her thighs with urgency. He lifted her and wrapped her legs around his waist, moving them to the far wall.

Lassiter cushioned her back, keeping her from the cold tile, pulling away the towel with a sharp yank and exposing her heated skin to the cool air.

His breathing was harsh, ragged when he ran his hand along the swell of her hip, gripping it.

Avery’s body trembled with need and her pussy, swollen and hot rubbed with delicious friction against his jeans. Pulling her hands upward, he collared them, imprisoning her wrists to allow him better access to her nipples, now swollen and rigid.

The first swipe of his tongue was hot, like the strike of an iron swiping her flesh, and Avery’s moan resounded in the bathroom, acoustically moving around the small space.

Lifting herself, she pushed into Lassiter’s warm lips, bowing against the hands that held her until the top of her head pushed against the wall.

Lassiter moved from breast to breast, weaving between them with strokes of his tongue, scintillating and deft.