“I just want to clean up.”
He folds his arms, tracking every movement as I press the damp rag to my arm. At my hiss, he bats my hand away. He takes the cloth and holds my chin, gently lifting it until his piercing gaze captures mine.
“Let me,” he says gruffly.
“It’s fi—”
“I need to. I—it’s hard for me to see you like this. I have to know you’re safe.”
My heart thumps at the troubled concern and devotion evident in his eyes. My attention drops to his shoulder. The scar is covered by his shirt, but the memory of how my gut wrenched being unable to stop him when he put himself in harm’s way by jumping into the fight between our fathers remains permanently etched in my mind. I hated seeing him in danger, and recalling that moment now amplifies it so intensely I struggle to breathe.
He caresses my cheek with his knuckles and takes great care in cleaning the gash. Once he has it bandaged, he checks me over for himself, cataloging the sprained wrist that’s already twinging less to the smallest bruise I sustained with grumbles and sharp exhales.
Each injury, no matter how minor, receives a tender, devoted kiss, his burning eyes locking with mine.
Being cared for by him unravels something within me that’s been knotted in a tight mess for years.
“My wolf got agitated and I didn’t listen because I was still dealing with—fuck. I should’ve been with you.”
He scrubs his face, then rests his forehead against mine. I swallow as my heart clenches. It’s comforting to know he could feel that something was wrong, even if I was able to manage the problem myself before he reached me. I’m not fighting alone anymore.
“You can’t be with me all the time. I’ll be okay.” I crack a tired half-smile. “You should see the other guys.”
A rumbling protest sounds in his chest and he cradles my cheek. “No. You’re not okay. What happened?”
“I was on my way back after doing some work. Some males stopped me and got aggressive with me when I wasn’t giving them what they wanted. They saw me talking to Sylvie and Nina at the healer’s cabin and wanted to know what I said to them. I offered to help Nina get out of her situation and they might’ve overheard.”
“Some?” he presses. “Be more specific. I want names.”
I sigh. “Lorne and his friends.”
A thundering noise explodes from him, rattling the windows.
I grab Caden’s arm, stopping him from storming off. “Where are you going?”
He whirls on me, eyes golden and fangs lengthening, his wolf barely contained. “Where do you think? I’m going to kill whoever touched you.”
“You can’t.”
He snarls, dragging me with him towards the door. I curl my fingers around his bulging muscles and find the threads of the bond to yank him to a stop. He grunts, rubbing his chest.
“You’re the alpha. You can’t come at them in the same manner they attacked me.”
He’s still fuming, though he makes no more moves to leave. “This isn’t a simple disagreement. I won’t stand by and allow anyone to attack you. I got so pissed off about Dane just for making a comment that I made an example of him in the dining hall. They put their hands on you. Do you understand what my wolf is demanding right now for this? I don’t want to fight them until they submit, I want to rend them limb from limb.”
My wolf is into this and on his side. She’d like to join him, finish chewing those males up and spit them out for thinking they could push us around. They need to bare their throats for us, and if they’re lucky she won’t tear them out. Our pack will regard us as mates who won’t back down when we’re challenged. The two of them are making me dizzy.
“I don’t want you to. It doesn’t do the pack any good if you kill anyone you please. Then you’d be no better than the tyrant alphas of the Original Pack.”
His neck stretches in agitation. “I’ll destroy them all.”
Yes, mate, my wolf gushes, enthralled with him. He is perfect. He feasts on the blood of our enemies.
“Caden.” I step back so he can see my slowly mending injuries. “I’m fine. This will heal.”
The reflective gold glow of his eyes fades back to stormy blue. “I can’t let this go without doing something. At least let me call Lorne out in front of the pack for ambushing you. No one will ever dare touch you again.”
I grimace, not wanting that much attention on myself. It doesn’t matter if things are beginning to revert back to how they were before. I spent so many years at the edges of the pack as an outcast drawing as little notice to myself as possible that it’s not an easy transition to make.
“I doubt they’ll try anything against me again. They know I won’t be as easily pushed around as other females they intimidate. My wolf kicked ass. If it had been a fair fight one on one, I would’ve beat Lorne.”
“You think I won’t protect you?” Caden’s stormy blue irises flash golden again, then narrow.
“Everyone knows you’re the one who re—” I break off at the reminder, then grit my teeth to push the word out. “Rejected me. The pack mostly ignored—”
His fierce growl interrupts the rest of my response. The muscles in his jaw twitch as he works it.
Then he’s on me, pushing me back with purposeful strides until my hips hit the edge of the workbench. My pulse spikes as he cages me in and I swallow thickly as he grazes his nose from my temple down to my throat.
“Avery,” he rumbles in a fervent tone.
Mate. He didn’t use that word, but the reverence matches.
It sends heat racing through me, igniting an irresistible inferno in my core. My breath hitches and my skull thunks against the wall. He lifts a hand to cradle the back of my head, massaging away the fleeting throb.
“I’ve failed you. I’m still failing you when all I want is to make everything right.” He continues scenting me, the heady mix of us making it difficult to focus on anything but his proximity. “I won’t do that again. I’ll protect you. I revoke my rejection and I swear to you I won’t rest until I’m worthy of your claim. If you’ll have me. I’ll be the safe space you can rely on. The guardian of your heart as I always should’ve been.”
My chest squeezes with a stutter that echoes throughout my nerve endings. I waver on the edge of allowing the last of the wall I built around it to crumble for him. Everything in me demands to close the gap between us.
“I’m not helpless. I don’t need to be protected,” I breathe.
“Whether you want it or not, you have it.” His lips brush my skin and I arch into him. “You have me, remember? I’m yours, you stubborn little wolf. I won’t let you forget it.”
A strangled noise catches when he places a soft kiss beneath my ear. He grasps my waist, fisting the thin material of my shift until the ties strain. My nipples pebble, my entire body aching for more.
Need wells in me. It’s similar to the feeling that overcame me when we were in the forest surrounded by fireflies, but I’m more in control of what I want. I grab his hair and pull him into a kiss.
He makes a rough noise and I swallow it with a thrill. He devours my mouth, pulling me against him with a rumble. His hands grip my thighs, being mindful of my bruises and mending cuts, hooking my knee to lift my leg around his waist. The skirt of the shift hikes up and he fits between my thighs.
I arch with a whimper at the firm ridge of his cock pressing to my center, rocking my hips for more. My body aches to feel him. His mouth parts from mine with a tortured groan.