Page 36 of The Wolf's Appetite
This was war. Planned. Calculated.
Whoever was behind this was about to know the lengths we’d go through—the level of coordination we’d take—to put our differences aside and take them down.
21
AISLING
Istood at the threshold of his room, gripping the doorframe so tightly my knuckles turned white and ached.
Lennox had come back from the meeting and immediately stripped down. Now he wore nothing but a pair of black combat pants. His bare torso clenched and relaxed with the slightest movements.
He moved like a man preparing for battle… because that’s exactly what he was doing.
The massive walk-in closet had been left wide open, and the inside looked more like an armory than a place to store clothes. Rifles lined the back wall. Tactical vests, Kevlar, and blades were strapped to racks.
A digital keypad blinked red on the built-in safe before he punched in a code and opened it to revealsomething far more lethal. Something I’d never even seen before and for sure couldn’t name.
And I just stood back watching, letting him prepare because the tension was high and the air was thick with all the danger that was approaching.
He reached for a dark tactical shirt, and I was transfixed at the sight of his sinew and I was transfixed by the sight of his sinew rolling under his skin and the flex of his muscles.
Scars crisscrossed his skin—some old, some newer—and every one of them told a story I hadn’t yet heard. He slid on the shirt, then a vest, and finally clipped on the custom set of knives across his waist and in a shoulder harness with the precision of someone who had done this too many times.
My mouth was dry, but I couldn’t stop watching him.
He looked like the devil getting ready to collect souls.
“I’m terrified,” I whispered the words out loud.
Lennox glanced at me, pausing as he reached for one of his guns. His jaw flexed, but he didn’t speak right away. Just stared at me like he was memorizing the moment.
“Aye,” he finally said. His voice was gravel. “I am, too.”
Iwas shocked he admitted that.Otherworldmales always appeared strong, unbreakable.
“But I’m more afraid of what will happen if I donna do this. I have tae protect not only my kind and family but, most of all, ye.”
My heart beat double-time.
“We need answers. We need tae find out who the hell is controlling the Therabus. And I have tae do anything and everything in my power to fix things.”
A part of me wanted to tell him he didn’t need to be the one to fix anything, that sometimes life went a certain way that was out of our control. But I knew Lennox needed to have this situation within his grasp. He needed to feel in control.
I stepped into the room, bare feet grounded on the hardwood floor, heart pounding against my ribs. “Lennox…” I trailed off, my throat tight. “What if?—”
He turned sharply and dropped the gun onto the dresser with a clatter, closing the space between us in two strides. His large hands cupped my face, and he looked at me like I was his entire world and he was afraid if he looked away I’d disappear.
“Donna do that,” he growled, voice thick. “Donna look at me like I’m already gone.”
I blinked up at him, breath hitching, tears streaming down my cheeks before I even knew I was crying.
“I am afraid that’s what will happen. I’m terrifiedonce ye leave, it’ll be the last time because we donna kno’ what’s waiting out there.”
His eyes flicked over my face—my lips, my cheekbones, my jaw. Then he kissed me.
It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t sweet. It was heat and desperation, hunger laced with fear. Like he needed to burn this into his memory in case he never got another chance.
His tongue swept into my mouth, rough and possessive, and I moaned as my hands fisted in the material of his shirt. The gear strapped to him clinked together as he backed me up, his body hard against my softness.
