Page 52 of Bullied Wolf Mate

“And I’m sorry for running away,” she said when we finally broke apart. She chewed her lip. “It’s just, I’ve never felt attached to a community like this. I’ve never wanted to actually be a part of something. I’ve always wanted to be alone. But when the women were taken, I realized I couldn’t sit by and do nothing when I could try to fix things.”

I stroked the top of her head. “Well, I’m glad you’ve found a place you want to stay instead of feeling like you have to be by yourself.”

She sighed and gave me a guilty grimace. “I probably could have tried to come up with something better than be a martyr,” she admitted.

“I didn’t exactly give you many other options,” I pointed out. I brushed a strand of hair from her face, stroking her cheek with my thumb. “Let’s just say we both acted impulsively for what we thought was best.”

“I just didn’t know what else I could do,” she said. “I knew Inara would kill the others if I didn’t show up. I couldn’t just—”

I shushed her. “She would have, and you did what you thought was best with the information you had. All that matters right now is that you’re safe, though I was going out of my mind with worry.” I snorted. “I was worried I wasn’t going to get the chance to tell you how I really felt.”

She tilted her head, raising an eyebrow. “And how do you really feel?”

I hesitated, wanting to say the words but not fully understanding how to articulate all my feelings. The three words didn’t seem enough to capture how I truly felt about her. Only, I didn’t think any words could capture how I truly felt about her. I had to go with what I had.

“I love you,” I said. “More than you could possibly know.”

She gave a slow, happy smile as she looked up at me, unadulterated affection and joy blossoming across her face.

“I love you, too,” she said.

The words made me happier than I could have imagined. I broke into a wide, idiotic grin as the words rang over and over again in my head.

I pulled her into a kiss, trying to convey everything that those few simple words couldn’t. She kissed me back, holding me tight as the kiss deepened. It was several minutes until we finally broke apart, and I asked the question I had been too nervous to ask for the past several days.

“Does that mean you’re going to stay?” I asked.

She snorted. “Of course. I can’t see myself anywhere else.” She jabbed me in the chest, a playful smirk spreading across her face. “You’re stuck with me.”

I broke into my own ecstatic grin, pulling her toward me until she was pressed against my chest.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I said, and bent down to kiss her again.

Chapter 22 - Lorelei

Izzie burbled, her eyes shining bright, her adorable chubby cheeks pushed upward in a smile. She crawled along the floor, giggling as Holly chased after her on her forearms and knees.

“She’s so darling!” Holly sat up, beaming.

“I like to think so,” I replied, smiling as Izzie kept crawling over to Mark. She couldn’t seem to get enough of her dad. She adored him.

“Do you know if she has magic? Or can shift?” Holly asked.

“We won’t know about the shifting until she’s nine or so,” I said. “As for the magic, there are a few tests we can perform, but they aren’t a guarantee.”

“And we’ll love her either way,” Mark added, scooping Izzie up and giving her a kiss on the cheek. Izzie giggled. “So we don’t really see the need to find out right now. We’re happy to wait and see what happens.”

“Though if she gets the best of both worlds, I don’t think we’ll be able to keep up with her,” I said with a grin. “She’d be a force to be reckoned with.”

“If that happens, Jameson will start training her for spec ops the instant he finds out,” Mark joked. “Malcolm, too. She won’t be able to get away from it. She’ll be a badass by the time she’s fifteen.” He said it with affection, smiling down at his daughter. “Whether I want that or not. At least Declan won’t be able to encourage it.”

“I’m sad they aren’t staying,” I said. Declan had told us a few days ago that he and the rest of the Gold Wolves had decidedto move to a nearby town, where a pack was searching for a new alpha and had offered Declan the position. Apparently, seeing the Silver Wolves in semi-retirement had convinced them to do the same. “They were nice.”

“They won’t be too far away,” he said. “Close enough that we can make them do some of the semi-retirement work so we aren’t always stuck with it.”

I snorted. “You guys won’t ever be happy with full retirement,” I said. “You would be too bored.”

“Maybe,” he admitted, a small glint of amusement in his eyes. “But I will continue to claim otherwise.”

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