Ethan
The wild winds have already begun testing the roof’s mettle, so after the hunt, I start gathering my tools to work on it. This storm’s going to be a bitch. The clouds look like bloated cows, and every body of water has white-capped waves. Mother Nature’s serving us up one whale of a weather front-for the millionth time this decade. We just can’t catch a break around these parts.
“What are you doing?” Luna asks, watching me as I buckle on my tool belt.
“Gonna go make sure your pretty little house doesn’t flood,” I say,
smiling down at her. “Secure the shingles and add shutters to the windows.” “Can I come?”
I open my mouth to say no, she’ll ask too many questions and slow me down. But she stares up at me with her big pretty eyes, and my resolve crumbles. I just can’t take it when she fixes me with those purple doe eyes. I can’t bring myself to deny her anything her sweet little heart desires.
“Sure, pup,” I say. “Come on up with me.”
None of us can seem to get her out of the house, so this will be a good chance for her to do something normal, though I figure I’ll spend as much time explaining how to use the hammer as actually swinging it. She’s been keeping to herself a lot since the night we forced Axel to watch my brothers fuck her. That asshole deserved every ounce of pain he experienced for hurting our Luna, but we agreed amongst ourselves to let Luna have her space to process the experience. You can’t force insight or wisdom.
We climb a ladder and pad onto the roof. Luna crouches to examine the shingle, nodding to herself. She finds a loose one and pulls it up, peeking under at the lone nail remaining. Then she gets a handful of nails and a hammer and gets busy. As she straddles the roof with me, she seems to have let go of some burden. She’s still quiet, but she doesn’t look sad. She’s just concentrating. And damned if she can’t wield a mean hammer, no explaining necessary on my part.
She pounds nails into the shingles that we bought to mend the ones that were clinging to the roof by a thread, and damn but she looks sexy. The wind billows around her, blowing out her long, lilac locks and plastering her sleeveless top against her body. The lack of sleeves shows off the muscles in her arms, and I’ll be damned if they aren’t the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen, in part because this is the last thing I expected when we came up here.
Luna seems so fragile because of the state we found her in, and so innocent because of her lack of social skills, but I have to remind myself she’s not weak by any means. She may be submissive and adorably clueless, but she’s strong and capable. After all, she was taking care of her mother for years, surviving on her own and being responsible for another’s survival on top of it. She’s a strong ass woman who deserves every ounce of respect I’ve got to give.
She looks up from the nail she just secured in the shingles and smiles at me. “What are you looking at?”
“What do you think?”
I’m pleased to see a genuine smile on her face-not the fake ones she’s been giving us lately. My brothers and I might be rough around the edges, but we all know when a woman is faking it.
“I think you’re looking at me,” she says, still smiling. “You’re right. You win the prize.”
“What’s the prize?” she asks, cocking her head to the side. I tap my lips with my fingertip.
“I won a kiss?”
“Come over here and see,” I tease.
She gets on her hands and knees and crawls along the ridge of the roof toward me. I sit back, ready for her kiss. When she reaches me, though, she
lowers her head and gently bites the fly of my zipper. “What’s that for?” I ask, loving the attention.
“It’s for offering me a prize,” she says, looking at me through her lashes.
“You don’t have to repay a prize. Now come and get it while it’s fresh.” She stretches her neck and puckers her pretty mouth.
I tip her chin up with one finger and gift her with the softest kiss I’ve ever given. With Luna, there are endless firsts.
When she pulls away, she gives a little sigh of pleasure. “That was a good prize.”
“There are more where that came from,” I say, patting my knee.
She slides up onto my lap, her little body curling into mine as her delicate arms circle my neck. “I’m sorry I’ve been so weird lately,” she says, watching me from under her lashes.
“Don’t worry about it, pup. You’ve been through a lot. Your wolf spirit is so strong, though-that’s what I was thinking about when I was watching you. Not many people could endure what you’ve been through and come out of it with half the grace and gentleness you have.” I attempt to smooth her hair away from her face, but I know I’m in competition with the damned wind.
“That’s nice,” she says, nuzzling her cheek into my palm.
“No one’s ever called me nice before you,” I say with a grin, shaking my head.
“I have a question about that,” she says, cocking her head. “Why not?” “And I have an answer,” I say, sliding my hands around her back.
“Because I’m not.”
“I think you are,” she says. “But I have another question.” “Shoot.”
This probably isn’t the safest place to hang out during a storm, but I know we’ve got a bit before the real fun starts. And I’m not going to waste the chance and risk putting her back into her gloomy funk.
She toys with the front of my T-shirt. “The night… You know… When Axel… That night.” Her lips pinch together.
“What about it?” Pushing my hands beneath her shirt, I stroke her back. “Why didn’t you….” She nibbles her lip. “Why didn’t you let Axel leave?”
“My job was to make the bastard watch and suffer,” I say. “See what he gave up, and how much better off you are with us. We see you for what you are, and he never did. You’re a fucking treasure, Luna. He deserved to be tormented by seeing other men give you pleasure when he threw away that chance.”
“What about you?” she asks.
“What about me?” I ask, leaning away a bit.
“You had to see that, too,” she says. “Were you tormented, too?” She peers up at me shyly, like she actually has doubts about that.
“Yeah, pup,” I say quietly, raising my gaze to the sky. “I was. And I reckon I deserved it, too.”
Her eyebrows raise and her eyes widen. “Why? Did you reject a True Mate, too?”
“No, pup. Nobody in his right mind would do that. I know you think different, but I’ve never been a nice man when it comes to women. I fuck ’em once, and then I’m done. I don’t care if they’ve got feelings or if I hurt ’em. They don’t matter to me. They’re not True Mates, but I toss them the way Axel did you, like they’re trash.”
“You’ve always been good to me,” she says, her face furrowed. “You bring out the best in people.”
“No, I don’t. Just look at Axel.”
“Fuck Axel. That dumb son of a bitch should be castrated so he can’t have brainless offspring to follow in his footsteps.”