LOGINWendy’s POVOver the next hour, Cornelia patiently guides me through all the main rooms. There’s a combat training area, a library, and even a small preschool. Cornelia and I pause before it, watching children play happily inside as they’re supervised by a couple of older women. Cornelia waves to them and they wave back. “We call it the creche. It’s a new addition. Desmond had it constructed when he became alpha.”“He put this in?” I can’t keep the surprise from my voice.She nods. “One of the many advantages of having a young alpha who’s willing to listen and modernize. Ah, here we are. The clinic. One moment, I just need to check on something.” Tentatively, I step into the clinic. It’s a compact but well-equipped infirmary, more like a private urgent-care clinic than anything else.The shelves are lined with supplies and monitors hum quietly. The air smells faintly of antiseptic mixed with cedar. Cornelia is rifling through paperwork with a frown. “Is everything okay?” I ask.“
Wendy’s POVWhen I wake in the morning, I’m not surprised to find myself alone. I should be happy Desmond left me alone. That’s what I wanted, after all. I turn over and stare at my pillow barricade. In the cold light of day, it seems so petulant. Just plain silly. It wasn’t that I was afraid he’d ravish me—as if a pillow barricade would stop him anyway—it was that I was afraid we would wake up tangled together, like we did that first morning together. Last night, before falling asleep, I had to think long and hard about what Desmond said. I hate to give him credit, but he’s right. Me hiding in his quarters is going to come off the wrong way to hispack mates, and they don’t deserve that. It’s bad enough I’m lying to them about who I really am to Desmond. I don’t want them thinking I’m prejudiced against them. After showering and getting dressed, I try calling my father. No answer. But at least my check-in text gets an “all good honey” reply ten minutes later. No “how are you” or
Desmond’s POVShe turns off the light beside her bed and flops down on the pillow, facing away from me. I hear her grumpy huff, and it almost makes me grin.If someone asked me a week ago what I would do with a defiant little spitfire for a mate, I would have bristled at the notion of allowing such a thing. That was before I knew how fun it would be to provoke her. “Goodnight,” I tell her. “Sweetheart.”It comes out like a taunt, maybe because I’m so damn frustrated with this ridiculous situation. My fated mate is in my bed. Her naked body should be beneath me, writhing with pleasure as I fuck her. Instead, we’re both clothed and there’s a fucking pillow barricade between us.I don’t know whether to laugh or howl. “Desmond?”It’s the first time she’s said my name all day. Pleasure flows through me at the sound of it. “Mm?”“What’s the book you’re reading?”I don’t try to hide my smile this time. It’s dark in here. She can’t see it facing away from me anyway.“The Silmarillion.”S
Desmond’s POVJealousy is real. So is honesty.“Here’s another piece of wolf shifter intel for you,” I tell her.“Unbonded pack alphas are strongly encouraged to stay celibate until they find their mate."“You clearly missed that memo.”I meet her eyes, let her see how serious I am. “Since I took the mantle, I haven’t touched anyone but you.”A pause. “When did you become alpha?”“Four years ago.”She blinks. “You're messing with me.”“Four years. Nothing. No one. Until you walked into my life.”“You expect me to believe you broke four years of celibacy... for me?”She says it like it's absurd. As if she truly has no idea the power she holds over me.“It’s the truth.”I should still be furious at her. But with every moment in her presence, I'm finding it more and more difficult to hold on to that anger.There’s something calming about her proximity, a softness, a rightness, to sharing a bed with her. She must feel it too. We’re having an actual, civil conversation for the first time
Desmond’s POVThe sound of water running begins. With my heightened senses, I hear the rustle of fabric as she slips off her clothes. My brain supplies the imagery of her naked body to go along with what I’m hearing. As water sloshes against the side of the tub, I imagine it lapping at her tits. I hear the slide of soap along her skin and picture her hands running along her own body. Across her nipples. Down her belly. Between her legs, slipping to her cunt. I grab my now-erect dick and stroke it, picturing her bathing herself. I promised I wouldn’t touch her without her permission, but maybe she’ll let me tonight. I wonder what she’d do if she walked in on me like this. Maybe lust would override caution and sense. She'd saunter over here. Put her pussy on my face. I’d make her come that way first. Then she'd straddle me, take my cock deep inside her... It's a ridiculous fantasy. One that only makes my dick get harder. Precum spills from me as I picture it. I bite back a groan as
Desmond’s POVThe second I shut the door, I suck in a lungful of her scent like it’s oxygen. There’s sweetness, complicated by stress. More than a flicker of desire in there too. It lights up every primitive instinct in my body.I want Wendy more than anything I've ever wanted in my life. And she won't even fucking look at me. A tense silence stretches between us. This meek shell of herself is making my chest hurt. “I’m going to take a shower,” I tell her. “Make yourself at home.”If she won’t let me near her, I need to get myself off to the thought of her. But when I try to jerk off in the shower, I think of how sad she looks and just… can’t. Guilt tangles with need, dragging claws down my spine. What kind of man gets off while his woman looks that sad? Fuck. I'm starting to feel guilty after all. The feeling is so strange and unwelcome that I rebel against it automatically. This has to be another tactic of hers. Wear me down so I’ll give her anything she wants. Give her any







