Page 122 of The Stone Initiation
I slapped a palm to the wood to stop him. “I came to say thank you.”
“Then say it and go.” He glared at me with red-rimmed eyes.
We were headed out to Stone Comfort for Saturday afternoon brunch. Touron and Shar knew how Curi had stepped up to help me in the forest, and that I wanted to thank him, but it didn’t look like he wanted my gratitude.
In fact, he looked like he wanted to hit someone.
“What the hell is your problem, Mason?” Touron said coming up the corridor behind me.
“She’s my problem,” Curi snarled. “I lost my shot with my omega because of her.”
Crap. “I’m sorry I—”
“Don’t be sorry,” he pushed the words out through clenched teeth. “Just stay out of places you don’t need to be in.”
His tone, his shitty attitude, had me flushing with indignant anger. “You didn’t act like I didn’t belong last night, did you?”
His face froze for a moment then he grabbed me by my collar, hauled me into his room, shut the door and slammed me against it.
What the—
He gripped my jaw, forcing my head up. “I could have taken you up against that tree. You reeked of sex. Of need. But I didn’t, and now you throw it back in my face?”
Damn my temper. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Hey!” Touron hammered on the door. “Open the fucking door or I’ll break it.”
I locked gazes with Curi, seeing doubt and turmoil and something else…Something I’d seen in the mirror plenty of times over the years.
Something that was only now ebbing.
Loneliness.
“I’m okay, Touron. We’re just talking. I’ll be right out.”
The hammering stopped and Curi seemed to deflate as if the possibility of an altercation had been the only thing holding him up.
His hand slipped from my jaw and settled on my neck. “This place will eat you alive if you’re not careful, Walker. If it had been anyone else pinning you to that tree…” His grip on my neck flexed, and my breath snagged in my throat. “You were lucky I was there.” He released me and stepped back.
“I know.” I held his gaze. “I’m grateful, and that’s all I came to say.”
He tucked in his chin. “You should go now. I didn’t get to rut last night, and you smell too good.”
“Still?”
“Just get out, Walker,” he growled.
I ducked out of the room and smacked into Touron’s chest. He went to shove open the door, his jaw tense, mouth set in an angry line, but I pushed him back.
“It’s fine. We’re fine.”
“He’s an asshole,” Touron said.
“An asshole who saved Cam’s ass,” Sharniza reminded him from the stairwell. “Let’s go eat, I’m fucking starving.”
We made our way downstairs, but I had to know. “Touron, do I still smell…you know…”
He leaned in and sniffed me. “You smell normal to me. Why?”
