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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

STONE

Once we finished at the Dead Candle Tavern with everyone and anyone who was someone from Durnbone, I ran a warm bath for Zuri and me. I had to meet with Thayer, Carve, and Xorgor a bit later to finalize some plans for the next few weeks, but I wanted to spend time with my mate.

I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it into the hamper. Zuri peered into the bathroom, her gaze falling to the tub, filled with water and bubbles.

She stepped into the room beside me and smiled. “What’s this for?”

“Relaxing,” I said.

She giggled. “You relax in a bubble bath?”

“You don’t?”

After laughing behind her hand, she shook her head. “Not usually. I just can’t picture you”—her gaze drifted to the tub, then back to me—“relaxing in a bathtub, filled to the brim with bubbles. You seem more like a bloodbath kind of guy.”

“And you seem like the kind of girl who had better get her ass into that tub with me before I strip off all her clothes myself and toss her in there,” I hummed, a smirk playing at the corners of my lips, my wolf aching to get out and have her already.

Since I had marked her earlier this morning, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. She had been gone nearly all day with Sina and Maxine, which made me happy, but that mark had been taunting my wolf.

Zuri fiddled with the buttons on her shirt, then pulled it off her shoulders. So agonizingly slowly. I slipped off my pants and stepped into the bathtub, slouching down into it and letting the warm water soothe my muscles.

Once she pushed off her pants, she followed my lead. Halfway to sitting down, she paused and glanced over at me, eyes wide. “Wait … this doesn’t have my family’s ashes, does it?”

A chuckle escaped my lips. “No.”

“Why do I not believe you?” she asked.

“I swear on the Moon Goddess.”

After narrowing her eyes at me even more, she finally sank down into the bubbles with me and leaned her head back against the edge, sighing softly and smiling to herself. “Guess what.”

“What?”

She bit back a smile. “I think I have real friends.”

Warmth spread through my chest, and I shifted in the water to wrap my arms around her waist and pull her into my lap. Water sloshed over the edge of the tub, but I couldn’t find it in me to care about it.

“I’m so proud of you,” I murmured.

While she had been trying to hide her smile, a wide grin stretched across her face. She set her hands on my round shoulders and curled them around the muscle. “We spent all morning together training and then?—”

“You were training?” I asked, shocked.

Cheeks reddening and rounding, she nodded. “I wanted to surprise you. I think I’m getting stronger by just a little bit. Maxine and Sina are very good at fighting, so I wanted to practice with them to be a good luna for this pack.”

My chest tightened, and now, I couldn’t hide my smile. “You were training for us?”

She nodded and drew her hands across my chest muscles. “Only because of you. If you hadn’t pushed me endlessly to become a better version of myself, to push away my insecurities, then I never would’ve even thought about it.”

“That’s not true.”

“Yes, it is,” she whispered and rested her head against mine. “I love you, Stone.”