Page 194 of Scent to the Feral Cowboys

Nelly smiled, her hand rising to cover mine against her cheek.

The five unique bites on her body, and the five much smaller teeth impressions she’d left on us, were tattoos that meant just as much as the Sagebrush one my brothers and I wore before she’d entered the equation. Hell, maybe these new marks meant more. Maybe they’re intrinsic worth was greater.

But still…

Both markings meant belonging. Both marks meant we’d never be apart.

Nelly pulled away from me, moving to the center of our pack again. I glanced down at the teeth marks on my wrist. When it faded, she’d mark me again. I knew with absolute certainty thatno bank accounts, no ledgers, and no financial wizardry I'd ever done to stabilize the ranch compared to the value of what we'd just gained.

Nelly came into our lives, an unknown variable I couldn’t solve, and changed everything.

47

COOPER

I don’t know how the fuck my pack brothers weren’t throwing Nelly onto the old blankets and devouring her body like starving men.

Because that’s what I wanted to do.

The insatiable hunger had been building since the second her heat hit in that damn truck. It was taking every ounce of control not to grab her now, away from where she stood near Levi, and explore every inch of her amazing body. I’d not been thrown into a rut in eons. Not since that one Omega at the dating event that smelled passably good. I’d forgotten how powerful it was, how impossible to fight.

I couldn't look away from her.

She’d tumbled into our lives and set everything spinning.

No, not tumbled.

She’d been yanked here by one of my wild hare ideas, my trigger finger purchases, my prankster impulses making me sign a damn contract without telling the rest of the pack. But wasn’t it worth it? Wasn’t this way fucking better than an espresso machine we still hadn’t used, gathering dust in a closet.

Now, faced with Nelly's nakedness, I couldn't bring myself to feel any regret about Eros. Yeah, it sucked the way it wentdown. Yeah, it gave us a rocky start. But it led us to here, to this moment.

"Nelly," I breathed out her name as a prayer.

Because she was worth worshiping.

She was worth any sacrifice our pack had to make.

She turned to me, pupils blown wide, hazel all but a whisper around the edges. Her freckles dotted her pinked cheeks, trailing over to greet each other at the bridge of her nose. Our marks were darkening, bruising, gaining permanence. My inner Alpha squirmed with satisfaction at the way she took a step towards me, tilting her head down a little to peer through golden lashes at my face.

"Cooper," she whispered back, and the sound of my name on her lips nearly undid me. If her name on my lips had been a prayer, then hers was a siren call.

Summoning me closer.

Directing me to place my offerings at her feet.

I crossed the distance between us in two strides, lifting her easily into my arms. She weighed nothing, this dancer with her lean muscles and delicate frame. Her arms wrapped around my neck as I carried her to the pile of blankets. I lowered us together, laying her down with more gentleness than I thought myself capable. When she was stretched across the old blankets, I rocked back on my heels, admiring her. I could look at this woman forever. There was something about her that made me take things seriously. It made me think about tomorrow. It made me understand Levi stressing about my spending, and Wyatt’s determination to preserve Grampa Joe’s legacy.

I was the silly one of the pack. The one who forgot things. The one who hated socks and fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt. I was reckless. Often annoying. I didn’t do careful, because it went against my deep-seated habit of doing whatever the hell I wanted to, then asking for forgiveness after.

But in this moment, with Nelly beneath me, I found an undiscovered wellspring of tenderness. I wanted to savor every second, memorize every freckle, taste every inch of her heated skin. I wanted to be with her forever, cook her amazing food, use that fifteen-hundred-dollar black truffle oil I bought online, then immediately hid at the back of one of the kitchen cabinets so Levi wouldn’t give me shit over wasting money.

I wanted so many things with her.

But, mostly, I just wanted not to screw this thing up.

That was my biggest fear, because messing up was also a hard-to-break habit.

"You look too serious.” Nelly said, reaching up to me, pushing two fingers against the wrinkles between my eyebrows. I tried to soften my face.