Page 83 of Master Wolf

“I’m not. As you’ve said many times, you did not ask to be bitten.” Lindsay smiled sadly to take the sting out of his words.

Drew sighed. “I have felt the Urge for myself now. I did not know before how it comes over you. Thecertaintyof it.” He smiled ruefully. “And you did save my life when you bit me.”

“Without your consent,” Lindsay reminded him. “Francis told me straightaway I shouldn’t have done it. In fact, he’d warned me just the night before about the danger of my wolf trying to turn you. He guessed there was a risk that the Urge would rise in me.” Lindsay paused, then he said softly. “I knew too. The truth is—” He fell silent, rubbing a hand over his mouth.

“What?”

Lindsay met Drew’s gaze. “I suppose the truth is that, deep down, I wanted to turn you more than anything. I believed you were my mate before I bit you. And I was in love with you. So when events unfolded as they did, it felt… inevitable I suppose.”

“Perhaps it was inevitable,” Drew said. “Perhaps it was always destined to turn out this way.”

Lindsay smiled sadly. “That would be a convenient conclusion, would it not? I don’t think Francis would have let me get away with that. He never shied away from the hard truths.”

“What hard truths?” Drew asked, stroking Lindsay’s hair again, from crown to nape.

Lindsay took a deep breath. “For years I have justified what I did to you by the fact that I only had an instant to choose. There was no time to explain, to seek your consent. I made a decision I had no right to make and I’ve always known that. But if I am honest, it has taken me until now—until this moment perhaps—to see that the fact that I loved you, quite desperately, did not give me the right to make that decision.”

Drew’s heart felt as though it had been stopped, like a clock. “Lindsay—” he whispered.

“I asked you to forgive me,” Lindsay said. “And many times I told you that I’d turned you because I loved you. But—I never told you I wassorry. And if I am honest… that was because Iwasn’tsorry. Not until now.”

Drew couldn’t find words, but something inside him unfurled at this admission. Something that had been held very tight and very closed.

Lindsay sat upright and leaned towards Drew. He lifted his arm—his sore left arm—and laid his hand against Drew’s cheek. The loose cuff of his shirt slipped down, exposing his flawed skin.

“I am sorry, Drew. Not that you are here, of course—I am very, very glad about that. But I am sorry I turned you against your will. That I made a decision it was not mine to make.”

Distantly, Drew realised his eyes were wet. That tears were trickling down his cheeks. He couldn’t seem to form words, but there was something important he needed to say and his throat ached with the unsaid words.

“I—” he began shakily. “I—” He gave a shuddering breath and Lindsay lifted his other arm, laying his right hand on Drew’s other cheek, cupping his face and staring gravely into his eyes.

“Tell me,” Lindsay encouraged. “You can say it—whatever it is. I deserve it.”

Drew whispered, “I forgive you.”

Lindsay swallowed. “What?”

“I forgive you,” Drew repeated. “And I love you, Lindsay Somerville.”

Lindsay gazed at him for a heartbeat and then he lurched forward, pressing his mouth against Drew’s in a desperate kiss.

Drew groaned and folded his arms around Lindsay, pulling him closer, kissing him deeper. He wanted to say more. He wanted to tell Lindsay he loved him again. That he was sorry too. That he regretted every bitter word he’d spoken to Lindsay over the years. That he was glad they were both alive and here together now. But continuing the kiss felt more important.

Lindsay’s body still felt thin in his arms, but Drew could sense a new energy in him, a tensile strength in the wiry arms that clung to him.

Lindsay tore his mouth from Drew’s. “I need you to fuck me,” he gasped.

“Lindsay—”

“I need you,” Lindsay said again, his fingers already working on the buttons of Drew’s breeches. “Please.”

Drew covered those busy fingers with his own, stilling them, and when Lindsay looked up, he met his eyes. “All right,yes, but… let me do this, will you?”

“Do what?” Lindsay asked.

Drew gave a crooked smile. “Take care of you. Make love to you.”

“Yes,” Lindsay said with a shaky laugh. “Yes, I want that.”