Ethan
As I edge away from the table, I crack my knuckles with my thumbs, keeping my gaze pinned on Warrick. I goofed around with Luna too much, and now Warrick is pissed. I hope to put off the ass-chewing that’s sure to come my way for as long as I can.
“You must be tired, Luna,” I say, my gaze flicking back and forth between Luna and my Alpha.
Warrick busies himself with rolling a cigarette, but I know he’s tracking my every move.
“You want me to sleep here?” she says, wiping her mouth with her sleeve and setting down her empty bowl.
“Got somewhere better to go?” I ask.
“No. Now that Mama’s gone…” Her voice trails off, and she sniffles.
“Head on into the bedroom, and I’ll be there in a second,” I say, trying to be helpful by clearing the dinner dishes.
Warrick strikes a match against the table and lights his smoke.
Luna stands, coughs at the tobacco, and shuffles out of the room, looking like a lost kitten. And if there’s one thing I’m good at it, it’s taking care of the kitty.
As I push aside the Java Jolt cups lining the counter, making space for the bowls and spoons, Callan comes up behind me.
“Don’t you fucking touch her,” he growls.
I elbow him away. “What, you think I’m that much of an asshole?” “I don’t just think it,” Callan says. “I know it.”
“Fuck you, dickhole.”
“No, fuck you if you lay a hand on her,” Callan says, bowing up like he’s going to fight me.
I fucking hate it when he does that, but when I glance at Warrick out of the corner of my eye, he’s taking a drag on his cig, skewering me with his piercing gaze.
“I won’t touch her,” I say, grinding out the words. “Good,” Callan says.
“Good,” I say. But the truth is, I’d do Luna in a hot second if she was up for it. But it’s more than that. She’s so naive it’s just about painful. The lost puppy vibe she’s got going on makes me want to do more than fuck her. It makes me want to keep her safe from the hurts that put that guarded look in her eyes so young.
After I clear the table, I consider taking a stab at washing the dishes, then think better of it. If I don’t get in there to look after Luna, one of my brothers will do it. I’m not the only dick around here.
I stride from the room, flipping Callan the bird, and head for the bedroom I’ve given up for Luna. I don’t care one bit. I’ll sleep on the floor next to Callan and be just fine.
“So,” I say, wandering into my room. “Want me to show you where to get cleaned up?”
“What for?” Luna perches on the edge of the bed like she might take flight at any second.
“It’s part of the ‘going to bed’ ritual,” I say, standing before her. I rake my eyes up and down her slender body. She sure is a petite little thing.
“Why do we need a going to bed ritual?” she says, her eyebrows stitched together adorably.
Fucking hell. It’s going to be hard not to touch her. “I dunno. So we can be all cleaned up and ready for getting up the next day.”
Her lips part, and she scrunches up her nose. I stare at her pretty pink lips, trying not to imagine them wrapped around my thick cock.
“If you’re a wolf, too, can’t you just shift and curl up on a rug?”
“We could, but we don’t got rugs,” I say, gesturing to the rough wood floor of the house the three of us built after the Jacksonville pack
banished us. “So you’ll have to try a bed. What do you say?” I flash her my warmest smile-the one that’s melted the panties off one too many women.
“Okay,” she says, offering me a shy smile that makes my cock twitch again. She follows me into the bathroom, where I turn on the tap, so my brothers won’t eavesdrop.
“First, we brush our teeth,” I say, seizing my blue and white toothbrush out of the chipped mug on the sink.
“Brush our teeth?” Her expression is one of complete puzzlement. “Yeah.”
She bobs her head in a nod. “Can you show me how?”
Fuck yeah, baby. I can show you how to do lots of things…
I remind myself of something Callan said after I got my tooth punched out by a jealous goblin. Hey, it’s not my fault I fucked his wife better than he could. If she’d kept her trap shut, I’d have one more tooth in my head. I swear, women would be more trouble than they’re worth if it weren’t for the pussy.
“Not all women are meant for fucking,” Callan said to me that day. “You gotta learn to be more discerning, brother.”
Not all women are meant for fucking, I repeat in my head as my gaze slides down Luna’s bare legs peeking out from below the oversized
sweatshirt Callan put on her after dragging her home. It just makes me want to grab her up and wrap her in a blanket and keep her warm.
Instead, I grab a toothpaste tube from the medicine cabinet, squeeze some onto the bristles, and then scrub my teeth before offering Luna a big, foamy grin.
She giggles, which softens her features from wary to something so sweet it hurts the roots of my teeth. It almost feels wrong to want to fuck her now.
But the cock wants what it wants. And right now, it’s starting to strain against my shorts uncomfortably. I might have to break my promise to Callan and touch her.
“Your turn,” I say, thrusting the toothbrush in her direction. “We don’t have extra, but you can use mine.” I used to keep a stash of toothbrushes around for the women who stayed over, but that shit got expensive. The women who want to ride my dick usually don’t stick around long in the morning, anyway. A quick fuck for the road, and they’re out of here before their boyfriends or parents can worry about where they’ve been all night.