The huge wolf in the suit tried to pull Julio off the one in the flannel, earning an elbow in the face for his trouble. Then Julio climbed to his feet, nudged the man on the ground with his foot and faced the others.
They backed away.
Sera made a choked noise. “Oh, he’s amazing. He’s…” Her opposite. Her match. Violence and strength and all the hard, dangerous things in life. She groaned and closed her eyes. “I wish you were close enough to shake me. I’m about to go on a submissive bender.”
Anna sighed. “If he’s winning, I’m hanging up. I’d rather not share this moment with you, no offense.”
“Anna?”
“Yeah, honey?”
Outside, one of the blond wolves bolted. The other fell to his knees, the silent gesture an acknowledgment of power and a willingness to submit that defied human words.
She understood the feeling. “I think I’m a little bit in love with him.”
“A little bit,” Anna repeated slowly, her voice devoid of surprise. “Call me later.”
“I will,” Sera promised, and barely noticed the soft click on the other end of the phone. Julio was watching with disgust as the remaining men gathered their flannel-clad—and now bleeding —friend and began helping him across the lot.
He bent by her window and waited for her to lower it. “Are you all right?” he rasped.
“Yes,” she whispered, unable to look away from him. The human bits of her were slipping away, lost to the rising satisfaction of her coyote. Her phone slipped from her fingers, and she fumbled blindly for the door lock.
Instead of opening her door, he circled around to his and climbed in. “They won’t be bothering us anymore, but I think we gathered some attention. We’ll have to find another hotel.”
His shirt was torn, and blood splattered his lip. She waited for him to settle into the seat before sliding over to brush her thumb across his chin. “Are you hurt?”
He shook his head and watched as the attacking wolves packed into an SUV and peeled out of the lot. Then he released a breath and leaned his forehead against the wheel. “I mean it, are you all right?”
In a heartbeat she went from weak to strong. From useless to needed. Shifting closer to him, she slipped a careful arm around his body and dropped her cheek to the back of his shoulder.
“I’m all right,” she promised, letting the words float from her. She found the skin of his upper arm and stroked it softly. “I don’t care what they say about me. That was bullshit. I’ve heard worse.”
“Fuck.” His fingers tightened around the steering wheel until it creaked. “Fuck. ”
For all she knew, the last time he’d been jumped by shapeshifters was when he and Kat had been kidnapped by the mercenaries the psychic cult had hired. She kept touching him, kept holding him—but didn’t push. If she tried to make him talk, he’d shut down.
So she slid her hand down his arm to cover his fingers with her own. “Will you let me drive?”
His breaths were coming in pants now, and he nodded. “Anywhere, I don’t care. Just get us out of here.”
He slid over, easing her across his lap as he did, and she helped him when his hands started to shake, twisting herself around the steering wheel until she could settle into the driver’s seat.
Driving stick was harder than she remembered. Then again, she’d never practiced with a dominant wolf on the verge of a panic attack shaking in the passenger seat. She whispered a silent apology to Jackson for riding the clutch on his beautiful car and tried not to spare Julio too many worried glances as she picked a street at random and drove away from the hotel.
Fifteen miles away, she helped Julio into a tiny room at an establishment nowhere near as nice as the last one.
He’d been avoiding her gaze, and he ran his hands through his hair as he sank to the bed.
“I’m a jerk.”
Sera went to the door to hang the Do Not Disturb sign and engaged the chain lock for good measure. When she returned to the bed, she knelt between his legs. “Look at me, Julio.
Please?”
“I’m fine now.” He groaned. “It’s all just so stupid.”
She curled her hand around his and squeezed. “You’ve got two choices. Do you want kisses and pets, or do you want the bullshit-free tough love?”
His shoulders began to shake with laughter. “The latter. I bet it’s cute.”
“Oh, it’s damn cute.” She squeezed his hands. “Listen to me, mister alpha wolf. You went through some seriously crazy shit. You don’t want to talk about it? I get it. You don’t want to let other people see it get to you? Fine. But don’t you dare call it stupid. Because if you think you’re stupid because you can’t shrug off being tortured after a couple months, think about how pathetic you make the rest of us feel.”
Julio met her gaze with a shaky sigh, all traces of humor gone. “He wasn’t even coming for you,” he told her quietly. “I would have killed him if he had been.”
“I know,” she replied just as softly. “We are the way we are. It’s how we’re built, the way we’re supposed to be. You need to protect me. I understand.” She pressed one hand to his chest, fingers spread wide over his heart. “I need to protect you too. That’s what you have to understand about me.”
He covered her hand with his, then pulled her into his lap. “Sera.”
She pressed a finger to his lips. “One more thing. I don’t break, okay? I bend. The rest of you stand strong until you shatter, but I ride the rough spots so I can get back up when they’re over. But sometimes that means I don’t learn, because I never get hurt badly enough to teach me a lesson.”
His brows drew together in a frown. “I don’t know what that means.”
Of course he didn’t. She sighed and closed her eyes. “I get it all tangled up. Dominance and submission. Life and sex. I threw myself into you all the way, and it wasn’t fair. I forget that the people worth submitting to… It’s not play, not for you. It’s another responsibility, and I shouldn’t have acted like you wouldn’t take it seriously.”
The world tipped, and she landed on the bed with him looming over her. “I take it seriously,” he whispered. “And you’re worth it.”
Sera’s breath caught. “We don’t have to. I don’t need games to want you. You’d make it hot even if it was just missionary under the covers with the lights off.”
“You’re not listening to yourself.” He leaned closer, until his breath heated her lips. “This isn’t play for me.”
The urge to submit trembled through her. She relaxed into the bed, slid her hands up to his shoulders and then over her head. “What is this?”
He followed the lines of her arms to grasp her wrists. “Pleasure, if you want it.”
Oh God, she did. So much she was shaking with it, so much she wanted to beg him not to stop. But it was always about what she wanted. What she needed. “What do you want?”
“To take you,” he rasped. “To watch the look on your face when I do it.”
She wiggled her wrists, teased him with the hint of a challenge. Forced him to tighten his grip until the strength in his fingers melted something low in her belly. “You want to hear my dirty, shameful secret?”
“No.” He scraped his teeth over her jaw. “But I’ll listen to a little bit of your truth.”
“I’m a simple creature.” She had just enough leverage to turn her head and brush her lips over his ear. “I know you hated the fighting. But you were fighting to protect me, and that made me feel…”
He licked her earlobe. “Cherished?”
That was as close a word as any. Human words didn’t capture the feeling, but she tried.