Page 9 of Wolf's Vow

Chapter 3

Rowen

The next morning,I woke as the bed dipped, and Wolfe slipped into bed beside me.

I hadn’t expected to sleep nor sleep soundly at that. There had been no restless night for me, but sometime during the night, I had made my way over to his side of the bed, and I bit my lip as he valiantly tried to wedge his massive body into the tiny space I’d left him, without waking me.

“I’m awake,” I murmured, moving back, but he reached out and caught me, halting my movement. “Wolfe?”

“I just got comfy,” he said, barely above a whisper, and I heard the exhaustion in his voice. “Just gimme five minutes before you leave.”

I didn’t answer, but I also didn’t move, and I felt the tension in his arm loosen as his body relaxed. His touch didn’t linger; he never left any part of himself touching me, maintaining clear boundaries. It seemed that it was enough for him just to know that I was beside him.

My tummy fluttered at the thought. I wanted it not to mean anything, but like Wolfe, I wasn’t a liar either. It meant more than it should have, more than I wanted.

He didn’t need five minutes. He was asleep almost instantly, his breathing steady and quickly evened out. I tipped my head back, and as the warmth of dawn’s light crept across our bedroom floor, I watched him sleep.

His face was relaxed but still looked heavy with the weight of the last couple of months. I itched to reach out and feel the softness of his eyelashes; they shouldn’t be allowed to be that long on a man. They were so soft and tempting, a complete contradiction to the man. He wasn’t soft, but I needed to correct myself—he wasdefinitelya temptation.

Tentatively, I reached out, and my finger trailed across his sharp jawline, his stubble rough against the soft pads of my fingers. My fingertips skimmed over the softness of his mouth, my heartbeat quickening as I remembered the times when his lips had tasted mine.

If someone had told me ten years ago, when I told him I would never marry him, that I would be lying in his bed now, as his mate—so close yet still so far apart—I would have questioned their sanity.

I was still questioning mine.

My hand rested on the curve of his neck, my thumb tracing back and forth over the smooth column of his throat. I had no right to touch him, but at the same time, wasn’t I the only one with the right to touch him?

It wasn’t meant to be this tough. When we were younger, Goddess…we fit together so perfectly. Wolfe and I were like two peas in a pod, feeding off each other, pushing one another forward,happytogether. Where did that go?

I told him he would never be my husband, that I would marry for the good of the pack, but I never thought he would leave. I never expected himnotto be in my life. We’d been friends long before he leaned down one afternoon and kissed me. It hadfelt so right when he did it that I felt betrayed when he left—I resented the fact that he would leave.

Leaveme.

Looking back at everything, how could I doubt that we were mates? Hindsight really was a bitch, and the truth was a bitter pill to swallow.

I ruined us.

My actions then were the source of his anger now. Just like my actions now were one of the reasons my pack was fracturing.

“What is it?” His voice was little more than a wisp of breath in the quiet of the room.

My thumb stilled as my breath caught. Quickly, I licked my lips, my throat and mouth suddenly dry.

“I thought you were asleep,” I murmured.

His eyes opened a fraction, sharp despite his fatigue. “I am asleep,” he said, with a slow curve of his upper lip that had no right to look as devastating as it did, as my insides twisted and turned at the sight of how sexy he looked.

The bond between us gave a little tug, like it too was slow and sleepy in the morning light but letting us both know it was there…waiting.

I realized my hand was still on his neck, and I moved to take it away, but he caught it deftly, bringing the tips of my fingers to his mouth, brushing them over his lips like I had done when he was asleep.

“Mm-hmm,” he said, his breath warm over my skin. “I wondered what that was,” he said softly.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” I admitted.

His gaze held mine, and the silence between us stretched. It wasn’t uncomfortable, it was the opposite. It felt perfect. How was that possible when so much uneasiness lay between us?

“I should get up.” I pulled my hand back from his, but his grip tightened, just a fraction, but enough to stay my withdrawal.