Page 35 of Tamed Wolf

We weigh her words, but it’s Blake that finally addresses it. “I’m getting the feeling that those two fucks the goddess thrust upon you to wouldn’t know a quality woman if she bit them in the fuckin’ face. You were stunning at the club yesterday, but you’re no less stunning like this. In fact, I almost love this natural face better, because I know I’m only seeing your real skin, and I know that if I were to do this,” and he leans forward and brushes a kiss on one cheek, and then slowly does it to the other, “you’re feeling every part of me touching you. We just want you to get to a point where whether you do or you don’t wear makeup on any given occasion, you’re doing it for yourself, because you enjoy it, not because you think it improves your value.”

Before he can say another damn word, she leans forward and smashes her lips against his, but then just as abruptly pulls back and covers her face in horror. “Oh my gods, I’m so sorry, that was…totally uncalled for.” She tries to scoot back and cower, but Brooks is sitting there, so he swings a leg over the picnic bench and pulls her into him, holding his arms crossed over her front firmly to help her calm down and prevent her from running.

When her fight or flight seems squashed and she deflates a little bit, Blake scoots forward as he straddles the bench until his knees are encasing hers, and he grabs her face gently, broadcasting what he’s about to do.

Brooks loosens his hold so she has the option to dodge out if she’s not feeling it, but instead, she sinks into Brooks’ chest and takes every bit that Blake gives her.

It’s a chaste kiss under most descriptions, but it feels important because she’s choosing it.

When Blake pulls back, I can see even from across the table how dilated his eyes are, and then Rowan breaks all the tension by throwing his sippy cup across the table and splattering gravy over all of us.

Blake returns to his original seat, but Brooks keeps Lark where she is, even going so far as to offer her a bite of food.

I can’t fucking believe he’s being that damn bold…offering someone food when you’re considering a relationship is almost as big as a proposal. It conveys that they want to provide for you and care for you, and I can see that Lark knows exactly what it means as she looks at him over her shoulder.

It’s really just a fry, but in our world, taking it would be a sign that she wants to pursue something real with us.

They hold a silent conversation while I try to distract Rowan with a toy from his bag, and I hold my breath as she keeps eye contact and opens her mouth to accept the bite.

She chews carefully, swallows, and then closes her eyes and lets her hand rest on his knee as she gives herself an internal pep talk.

The entire ride back to the shelter with her in the front, I’m dying to just lean across the console and kiss her stupid, and it’s never been this nerve inducing for me to make a move before.

With Arabella, we were naïve and just assumed everything was going to work out exactly how we had been raised to believe mates operate, and so we were excited to feel grown up and claim our mate and everything that goes with it.

I don’t want to fuck this up, if this truly is the second chance we didn’t know we desperately wanted, and I know Lark has a lot she’s still got to work through, but I know if I don’t make any sort of move on her before I let her go inside that I’ll be up all night kicking myself.

“Oh, we need your phone number,” Brooks says from the backseat as the sign for the shelter tells us to turn.

Even the drive in feels desolate and depressed.

“I’m not allowed to have a phone,” she mumbles. “They always know where to find me and make sure I know that there’s no one else that would want to contact me anyway.”

“But you have a job…surely you could just go get one, even a basic one, if you wanted one?” Blake asks, not really getting that it pisses her off.

She’s quick to retort. “A job isn’t the same as having money. Did you know that there are caps in place to prevent rejected wolves from accumulating too much money? Because we get shelter for free, which includes the food and the thrift shop that people donate clothing to, there are measures in place to prevent us from dreaming too big.

“For starters, we get half of what any other person would get as a minimum wage, and any tips I get are garnished heavily by my mates, and even Camden on occasion. They all say there’s nothing I need to spend it on, and that it would just go to waste if they let me keep it.

“Tips would be the one thing I could keep since it’s under the table, but trying to hide it from them has never ended well. So no, I can’t just go and buy a phone. Even if I somehow did have the funds for it, I’d have to take a bus to get to the store, and it would take an entire day to travel to the city where the shops are on the city bus. I don’t often have an entire day of leisure to give up for something so pointless. Thank you for the ride.”

She jumps out before the truck is even fully in park and since we brought her right to the entrance, she’s able to slip inside before I can put it in park and jump out.

I try knocking on the door, but it goes completely unanswered until a grumpy looking woman finally opens the door just a sliver.

“Sorry to bother you, ma’am, we were just trying to say goodnight to our friend, Lark.”

“If she wanted to hear such a thing, she wouldn’t have torn down the halls as quick as she just did. Remove yourself from the premises before we get security involved.”

I back up, resigned, feeling like shit that our day ended so badly.

I get back in the car and throw it in drive, feeling my chest tighten with each mile I put between us and her.

“Sorry I fucked that up,” Blake mumbles.

Rowan sounds like he’s on the edge of sleep, and since we just changed him, I’m hoping we can just carefully get him in his crib when we get home and make an easier night of it. Car rides always knock him out. “Not your fault. We need to learn her triggers and learn more about the fucked-up ways past alphas have tried to keep the rejected wolves in line so we can start to undo every damn thing for our pack,” I say calmly.

“I have half a mind to go straight to Camden’s and punch his fucking face in for contributing to her pain,” Brooks says, voice thick.

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