Page 20 of The Mating Quest

Cassandra had been a witch, literally, looking to score with a powerful Lupine to gain power. He’d found this out only after losingeverything.

Pack was family. His long-lost sisters werefamily.

Ilana was a stranger and soon as they finished with this quest, she’d be on her merryway.

At 2 a.m. his eyes finally closed and he dozedoff.

A keening wail woke him up with a start. Ethan nearly bolted out of bed, thinking someone harmed a member of his pack. His gaze sharpened as he realized the sound came from hisbedroom.

Ilana thrashed about on the bed, crying out, her arms flailing. “No, please stop, I beg you, you’re hurting me! Please! I’ll do anything just stop, please, it hurts somuch!”

His heart raced. Flinging back the sheet, he raced over to her, sat on the bed and gripped her shoulders. “Ilana! Ilana wake up, you’redreaming.”

Tears rolled down her smooth cheeks. “No,please…”

“Ilana!” Instinct more than logic took her and he pulled her into his arms, as he would with any pack member suffering night terrors. “It’s okay. You’re safe. You’re here. It’s just anightmare.”

He kept murmuring to her, talking in a low, soothing voice. Finally she stopped quivering and her eyesopened.

Big blue eyes he could see perfectly in the dark thanks to his wolf’s night vision regarded him. Ilana wiped her eyes. He was loathe to release her. Her body was soft yet muscled, velvet skin coveringsteel.

Ilana sniffled. “You can let go of me,wolf.”

He did, resisting the urge to pat her back. Ethan went to a box of tissues he kept on his desk, and brought them over to her. As she wiped her eyes and blew her nose, he gave her a few minutes to regain her lost composure. Ilana didn’t seem like the type who liked others seeing hervulnerable.

He marched to the mini-fridge under his desk, fetched a bottle of cold water and uncappedit.

She murmured thanks and drank deeply, and then handed it back. “Now, tell me what your dream was about. It helps to talk about it. Makes the bad memories go away,” he coaxedher.

Ilana blinked. “How do you know they were badmemories?”

Because I’ve suffered the same.“Iknow.”

Sitting up straighter, she scrubbed at her face with her hands. “It’s nothing. Just a nightmare. I’ll deal with it. Alwayshave.”

Probably have because you had no one there to help you through it. Not for years. He wondered why he sensed that so quickly. Maybe because she seemed so prickly, and her attitude reminded him of a time when he had acted thesame.

Using his own experiences to analyze Ilana wasn’t wise. She was her own person, and not a wolf. He couldn’t judge her by what he’d endured, for she had her ownlife.

“Sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Try one more time, see if she opensup…

“No.”

Let’s try for levity instead. “NicePJ’s.”

Ilana sniffed. “Not my style. But at least the wizard didn’t put prancing wolves onthem.”

Ethan glanced down at her pajamas and grinned. “Tristan did put wolves on there.” He touched a half moon on her shoulder. “The cow didn’t jump over the moon. The wolfdid.”

Ilana pulled at the fabric and made a face. “That wizard. He has a bizarre sense of humor. First he gives me a potion that guarantees nightmares, now this. I might as well stay awake. I can’t sleep on that bed anyway. It’s toosoft.”

His grin dropped. Ethan walked over to his bed, patted it. “Sleephere.”

Her black, silky brows raised. “Withyou?”

“I can’t sleep on a soft bed, either. Too used to the ground, so I specially ordered this bed. Hard asrock.”

She bit her lip, her lush lower lip. Irritated because she looked adorable and innocent in those silly PJs and with that expression, he snapped. “It’s a king-sized bed damnit and I’m not the least interested in you, just both of us finally getting somesleep.”