Page 27

Chapter 27

Emmy

A s Eoghan held me close, I calmed down. He was always so good to me. But I broke his heart a little bit when I said I was afraid of his wolf.

Deep down, I trusted him in his wolf form. It was hard to override years of being afraid of wolves and even werewolves.

But I knew how afraid he was of going back to his pack unless we were mated, and by all appearances, we weren't there yet. I had to tell him my side. "Babe, I'm sorry. I really wished it worked."

He fingered my cheek. His voice was soft and unsure. "For all we know, it still did. I just don't know a better way to test out the theory. But if you're scared of my wolf, we'll keep him away. We'll find out soon enough."

I leaned my cheek into his hand. I wish there was a better way for me to comfort him, especially when he was placating me.

"Thank you. You're my guy and I love you. That doesn't change, and I think we're in the safe zone since I'm not leaving you. I still want to go with you to Minneapolis together. That is, if you will have me?"

We should be fine going there. He said that we had to be mated or seriously partnered. We definitely were the latter. Even if the mating itself failed, he was my boyfriend.

The right side of his lips lifted as if he thought I wouldn't come with him. "Of course, I'll have you. Are you sure you want to go to wolf central? I won't be able to keep the wolves away from my house. I can promise they won’t shift close to the homes, since we don’t want kids knowing our secret too soon. Many wolves roam around just to keep an eye on things. Although if they smell you, they will probably be good, but I can't make any promises since people forget.”

It was so sweet that he was looking out for me and my fears. He didn't hide anything, and I respected that. Even with the high stress of coming home, I didn't think he was going to take a drink so soon after getting clean or even hurt me.

"Yeah. It would be good to go back there. Let's book the flights." He didn’t move right away to grab a phone or laptop. Was he having second thoughts? Which only made me worried. “Everything okay?”

He licked his lips and then shook his head. “It’s nothing. Just worried about the pack and if they find out that I shifted in front of you before we were trying to seal our mating bond. Plus I’m worried about you. I know how the guys are.”

I put my hand over his and squeezed his. “I won’t tell them about that night. That’s our secret. If I get really spooked, I could just stay with my parents. I’ll be okay.”

He nodded and reached for his phone and started to tap away.