Page 92 of In the Mouth of the Wolf

“I know I don’t have a leg to stand on here, but Marlowe doesn’t deserve you bursting into her nest and ruining her moment. Besides, we both know they’re knotted. Are you really going to beat him up when she’s attached to him?”

My chest heaved. “I gotta do something, I got too much anger in me right now.” Everything I’d been suppressing for the last few days because I knew how much Marlowe hated aggression was boiling over. Her stupid vamp ex, those gross old alphas who had tried to take her, Elias bonding her first, the way I had messed up with Rachel, the incident at the liquor store, that other shifter showing up in the middle of the night and trying to take her… And now, Nolan had just bonded her against my orders while I sat here alone, watching a shitty game of football.

Elias pushed me. “You need to fight? Let’s go, come at me.”

I rolled my shoulders and cracked my neck as I lowered myself into a crouch. “You asked for it.”

44

NOLAN

Heaven.

That was the only possible explanation I had for where Marlowe and I had gone tonight. I had to fight the urge to pinch myself and prove I was still alive.

I rolled us on our sides, my knot slowly deflating as we stared into each other’s eyes.

How was it possible to feel this much love for someone after only knowing them for a week? I was thirty-three years old, not some silly teen. It should have felt foolish to say the “L” word so fast, especially since I knew she felt that way with three other males.

But I was blissfully free of any jealousy or embarrassment. Instead, it was as though the emotions she felt for my pack mates only enhanced what we had. That we would build on it and make it even greater as our connections deepened.

We were made for this. We were made for each other.

A sudden crash from downstairs brought us back into reality, and Marlowe’s brows furrowed in concern. “Cam’s really mad.”

Yeah, he was. I couldn’t really blame him, I had fully intended to wait to bond with Marlowe until Cam made his move. He had never looked so betrayed as he had a few days ago when we had realized what Elias had done.

But when Marlowe had told me she loved me, I knew it had been the right time. I’d rather deal with a pissed off alpha than miss my chance to bond with my omega after something so special and perfect.

“The only thing that matters is how you feel about this,” I responded. “Do you have any regrets?”

She shook her head and smiled. “Not one.”

I pulled her into my chest and sighed, running my fingers through her hair and purring, my heart full.

We were woken up by Elias knocking on the door. “Are you two still knotted?”

Marlowe groaned and shifted away from me, my flaccid, well-emptied cock and deflated knot slipping out of her. “No. Does Cam need to see me?” I asked.

I figured he had decided to wait until we were separated before he let me know with his fists how mad he was. My face had finally healed after Archer’s attack, and I wasn’t exactly looking forward to another beat down.

But looking at the mark left by my bite on Marlowe’s neck, I knew it would be worth it.

“Get dressed,” he replied quickly. “Both of you. We need to go to the hospital. Archer was in a car accident.”

Marlowe whined nervously the whole ride there, picking at the skin around her fingernails and tugging at her hair. “I’m a fucking curse,” she said softly to herself. “Everyone I love dies…”

Cam never let anyone drive his truck, but tonight, he had insisted on sitting in the back of the cab and comforting Marlowe, so he had handed me the keys instead.

“Babe, he’s fine. His sister’s with him right now. She says he has a few broken ribs and a concussion, that’s it.”

I could feel her pain and stress more acutely now due to the bond. Her brother, her mother, her father… each death was a weight on her soul, and the news of Archer was pushing her past her tipping point.

Elias turned around in the passenger seat. “Did you know shifters heal two to three times faster than humans? He’s going to be back to normal in just a couple of weeks, maybe even sooner.”

She nodded, but her nervous tics and vacant expression remained. Fuck, I just wanted to hold her. But I needed to get us to the hospital safely, and concentrated on the roads instead.

When we arrived at the ER, the nurse let us straight through. Marlowe bit back a whimper as we entered Archer’s room, not wanting to wake him. Aside from a bandage across his forehead and some bruising on his face and arms, he thankfully didn’t seem too injured.

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