“Life’s rarely fair.” Even though I couldn’t see into his mind, I sensed he was thinking of his own mother taken from him when he was only eight, by his abusive father no less.
“Speaking of unfair, I know you hate Everest, and I know you want to uphold the pack’s”-I wet my lips-“traditions, but my cousin did you a favor. He killed your mother’s murderer.” I hoped phrasing it that way would sway him a little. “Won’t you reconsider his sentence?”
Liam’s fingers wrung my T-shirt as though it were Everest’s neck. “My mother wasn’t pack.”
“So what?” Anger struck me in violent strokes. “Her life wasn’t worth as much?”
“Don’t mistake forgiveness for integrity.” His eyes were so black his pupils seemed to have devoured his irises. “My father was a mean bastard, but he was still my father. If I let your cousin walk away from this, what sort of Alpha would that make me?”
“A merciful one.”
“Mercy doesn’t inspire respect.”
“That’s not true. Compassion is a laudable trait in a leader. I’d respect you for showing compassion to someone who didn’t deserve it.”
His gaze set on the shiny chocolate marble. “Don’t, Ness.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t tell me how to rule the pack. I’m the Alpha, not you.”
His words grated against me, made my spine snap straight. “You might win the pack’s respect with those words, but not mine.” I backed away from him and walked into the living room. “Not mine.”
“Where are you going?” He strode behind me.
“Outside.”
He captured my wrist and wheeled me toward him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m just tired and on edge, and with all that’s going on with you”-he gestured to my abdomen-“it came out wrong.”
I stared at his fingers still clasping my wrist.
“I want your respect”-he tucked a piece of hair behind my ear-“but I can’t change pack laws for as much. Not yet. In time-”
“You accepted me-a girl-into the pack and you didn’t taint the new pledges’ drinks with the stupid fossil, so you can change things! When you want to, you can. Which just proves you want my cousin dead or you’d have forgiven him.” I flipped my hand up to loosen his grip, then yanked my arm toward me to break his hold. His fingers hadn’t hurt me, yet I nursed my wrist against my chest.
His eyes widened as they fastened to the spot of skin they’d manhandled. He palmed the back of his head. And then he fell to his knees in front of me and pressed his face against my stomach, arms hooking around me.
“I’m sorry, Ness. Please don’t leave.”
I watched him for a long moment, watched how his apology made his big body quiver. It brought me back to the night on the inn’s terrace when he’d cried in my arms. He wasn’t crying now, but he was shaking.
Liam might’ve acted strong and brave, but so much inside him was broken, and although I was good with messes, I didn’t know where to start on the one his parents had left behind. Could I even fix it? I was such a mess myself. Orphaned. Almost homeless. Penniless. Mated.
I rested a hand on top of his head. “I won’t leave you, Liam.”
He tipped his head up and inspected my face as though to make sure I was speaking the truth, and then he climbed up the length of my body. For a long minute, he just stood there, looking down at me instead of up, and I saw the solid man inside him rise again, push back the wrecked child.
Then he cupped my cheeks and tilted my head up, and he slammed his mouth against mine. Even though my stomach began to churn, I pried my lips open and tangled my tongue with his.
I didn’t delude myself into thinking that this was the end of our argument, but it was a ceasefire. I wished it would last, but how could it when tomorrow he’d leave to perform a vile act? I pushed my cousin’s face out of my mind while Liam demolished my mouth. I tasted blood even though none had yet been spilled.
Liam groaned and kissed me harder. The taste of blood thickened in my mouth to the point where I gagged. I dug my palms into his chest and pushed him away.
Liam’s mouth and chin were smeared red.
“Oh my God, you’re bleeding!” I yelped.
“You did bite me.” There was a lilt in his tone. Amusement?
How could this amuse him?
I swiped my tongue against my teeth, and sure enough, my canines had lengthened. I touched my mouth. My fingertips came away red. Absolute revulsion seized me.
Liam’s smile widened as he grabbed a tissue from the leather box atop the console next to the front door. He dabbed his lips, dabbed mine. Blood still trickled from the puncture wound.
“Damn if that wasn’t the hottest kiss I’ve ever had.”
I blinked at him. How could that have been pleasurable?
He pressed the tissue to his mouth a while longer before balling it up and tossing it on the console.
“I hurt you,” I said, my voice as raw as his broken lip.
He frowned. “Babe, getting bitten only increases the pleasure. Or so I’ve been told… since I’ve never been with a she-wolf.”
I momentarily forgot about having bit him. However silly, I liked the fact that I was different from his past girlfriends.
His eyes flashed yellow-wolf eyes. “Do you trust me?”
I nodded.
He nudged my jaw up with his nose, dragged his teeth that had sharpened to points down my neck, then sank them into a patch of skin right above my collarbone.
I gasped, but not in pain.
The skin he’d pierced tingled, and then shockwaves of pleasure radiated from that one spot into the rest of my body. He released my skin and laved the spot he’d bitten with his tongue.
“Fuck, you taste sweet.” Once he was done lapping up all the blood, he peered into my stunned face with a satisfied smirk. “I’m happy I’ve found one way to pleasure you. Even though I’m not giving up on finding more.”
Heat engulfed my cheeks, my entire body for that matter. “I thought only vampires did that.”
“Vampires don’t exist.”
Yet we do…
He licked his lust-swollen lips, eyes gleaming but no longer yellow. “Have you ever heard the legend of the bite that saved a life?”
I shook my head.”It’s a good story. One of my favorites. My grandfather used to tell it to me.”