And yet letting a man like Aidan Michaels live was the least pleasing of all.
In the cover of the forest, Liam stripped. My gaze caught on the perfect shape of his anatomy. It wasn’t the first time he’d been naked in front of me, but it was the first time I let my gaze slip lower than the sharp dents at his waist.
“Your turn.”
I jerked my gaze up to his face. He was smiling, his incandescent eyes more yellow than brown, burning a path straight for me.
“R-Right.” I needed to get naked to change or I would have no more clothes left in my wardrobe. Checking that no other sets of eyes glowed my way, I awkwardly removed my tank top, getting my hair stuck in the process.
Not that he’d been far away, but Liam stepped in closer and reached over my bare shoulders to help me untangle the mess of cotton and blonde strands. His chest brushed against my bare breasts. I could tell it was calculated because after he tossed my tank top on the ground, he moved again…
And again…
“Need help with your leggings?” His voice was as soft and husky as a caress.
“No,” I breathed, hooking my fingers into the elastic waistband. “Turn around.”
His pupils pulsed. “Really?”
“Really.”
“I’ve seen you naked, Ness.”
I was about to ask when but remembered. The first trial. He’d been the one to carry me back to the inn. If he’d seen me, it probably meant the rest of the pack had had an eyeful too. Damn
“I was unconscious, so it doesn’t count.”
He shot me a crooked smile, and ever so slowly, he turned, smearing a hot trail across my navel that glistened in the moonlight falling around the pine branches.
When seconds passed, and I hadn’t looked away from the mark he’d left on me, he asked, “Are you sure you don’t need my help?”
I hurried to remove my leggings, kicking them aside. However turned on I was, my first time wouldn’t be in the middle of the woods against a tree. I shut my eyes and flipped that small switch that transformed me from human to animal. When I blinked, I was on all fours beside a looming dark beast. He nuzzled my neck, and it sent a delicious shiver down my spine. Although chaste, the gesture felt almost as intimate as a kiss.
Liam tipped his face toward the sky and let out a long howl. A moment later, a deep keening answered us. The pack was on the Flatirons.
We took off toward them, Liam gentling his speed to match my own. Every so often, I would stop watching the dark forest floor and glance over at him. The irony of how much I enjoyed running beside him and being with him didn’t escape me. I’d spent my formative years despising both Kolane men, believing they were equal in deserving my contempt.
Son and father were nothing alike.
As Liam ran, he looked at me, his eyes glowing so bright they resembled fragments of stars. Did anything ever happen between August and you?
His question made me trip and stumble on a sliver of rock that nicked my hock. Liam stopped so suddenly his claws dug into the earth and raised dark dust. Startled, it took me a second to regain my footing.
He bent his long neck toward the warm trickle seeping from the slice on my hind leg and licked the blood away. Again, my whole body quivered.
No. Nothing ever happened, I finally said. But it’s not the first time you ask. Why don’t you believe me? Did August say something?
He shook his head. I smelled you on him the night he left.
Weird. But then I remembered my last meeting with August in the laundry room. I did hug him.
The fur on Liam’s forehead rippled with a frown. He smelled like you’d mated.
I blinked at him. You mean, like we’d had sex?
He looked off into the distance, as though embarrassed to be asking this question.
Liam, I’ve never had sex with August, or with anyone else for that matter.
He swung his head back toward me. Gone was his embarrassment. In its place was pure astonishment.
Oh, God, he really thought I’d whored myself off.
Never? He took a step closer, and his nose bumped into mine.
I only became an escort to meet your father.
And Aidan.
Ugh. My shoulders tightened at the sound of his name. Dinner with him was an accident. Well, not an accident. I told the escort agency I was no longer interested, but apparently Aidan insisted on meeting me. I said no, but he offered three thousand dollars. I regret every second of that dinner.
You were so mad when I dragged you out.
Because you think I would’ve admitted to you how relieved I was? I was still convinced you were the devil’s spawn.
His eyes turned somber. I was…I am.
I’m sorry. That came out wrong. I-
It’s the truth, Ness. My father was a horrible man. He didn’t speak for a long while after that. Just drew in breaths, one after another.
I licked his muzzle, and that jolted him out of his dark deliberations. You’re nothinglike him.
Well isn’t this sweet?
Liam whirled around, stepping in front of me to block me from the sight of the whiny-voiced wolf. It didn’t take me long to figure out who it was. A skein of wolves spilled out on either side of the creature who’d spoken.
Julian, Liam said tightly.
I thought one of you would be dead by now. Personally, I was hoping it would be you, Kolane. No offense.
Plenty taken, Liam gritted out.
Julian walked around Liam to see me. Not that I was cowering behind Liam. I was just too busy gauging the intentions of the Pines to move a muscle.
Ness, darling, I believe we need to have a little chat
I searched for Sarah in the lupine faces and thought I saw her, but it could’ve been one of the other females of Julian’s pack.