Page 95 of Never Tamed
You enjoy your snuggles. You deserve them.
You two worry me. You have a lot of baggage.
It’s nothing we haven’t had coming for a long time,I whisper back.
He could use a good kick in the ass. Let me know if you change your mind.
She blows soft kisses down the bond. I gently pull the barrier up between us, hoping Torin does the same. Ren has no business in the air we’re clearing. She needs to stay untouched from the mountains of shit we'll dredge. I don’t want it touching her.
There’s no way for me to be the best mate possible unless we talk about this.
“What does she think I’m going to do to you?” Torin asks, his voice a lash of acid. “I felt her warning there but she kept me out.”
“She worries about you.” I pace to the bottle and pour out more whiskey. “She worries about me. That’s the price of having a mate we both share.”
“Please.” He sneers. “I don’t need to be reminded about it. I’m making the necessary changes to show her I’m serious.”
“I’m glad you are because she deserves a hell of a lot more than your trauma.”
“What do you really want me to say, Noble? Do you want me to apologize for paying for things? I wanted you to have what you wanted out of life. I tried to make it possible. I wasn’t about to let you hurt yourself even if you were far away.”
“You didn’t trust me to do it on my own,” I insist.
His face goes red. “Bullshit.”
“Or did you think you had to buy me to get me to care about you? Real friends can't be bribed.”
“So you’re telling me you came back for me because you wanted to? Not because you felt obligated?” He’s on his feet in an instant.
I stop then and work my jaw. “I came back because you needed me.”
And there was no one else. I’d been groomed as the perfect beta my entire life. But it’s not what I chose for myself. In a world of my choosing, I’d have stayed in the city and gotten my degree, continued on with my human girlfriend, and stayed with the university until I got tenure. I wanted to teach. I wanted to create.
Things don’t always work out the way we want, or plan for. Those things were taken from me when Torin made the call to say his father died.
“I feel like you hold it over my head, even when you’re silent,” I finish.
The silence stretches out for a moment longer than comfortable.
“I could say the same thing for you. You still think I’m responsible for your sister’s death.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Get fucking serious.”
“Iamserious.”
We’re getting off track. Or maybe we are exactly where we need to be and we’re not quite hearing each other. Or maybe we’re both so desperate to get our points across that we aren’t making progress.
Day after day, we’ve buried our heads in our respective holes and done our jobs, refusing to address the things we really needto address. And now that we have the chance, it’s uncomfortable and it’s awkward. It feels like I’m trying to tear off my skin.
“Look,” I say, my voice steady. “We have an opportunity here. A rare one. We can start fresh. We can put it all aside and be done with it for good.”
“You think I haven’t been considering it?” he asks.
I stare him down. “No, I think you’re choosing another hole to stick your head into.”
“What the hell are you talking about, holes?”
I grab the bottle and pour myself another half glass before topping his glass off. Torin’s barely touched his drink. “I know what you were trying to do by connecting us with the Briar pack. You wanted the safety of their numbers and the security of having more wolves under you. But the Briars are lost. What we have is the Grey Valley. We have our mate. She’s not going anywhere.”
