Page 52 of Chased By My Grumpy Alpha
My wolf rumbles in pleasure.
Pure. Innocent. Ripe.
For the first time, I find myself in agreement with my animal.
She shakes her head, still not looking at me. “I’m not going to sleep tonight. You should’ve woken me up.”
Under the embarrassment, there’s something else: a hint of shame, wariness.
“I didn’t mind. It was a cold night,” I find myself saying. “It was fine.”
When she only buries her face even deeper in her hands, I take pity on her and change the subject.
“Your leg. How does it feel?”
She flexes it experimentally, and when she drops her hands to her sides, I see the surprise cross her features. “It’s muchbetter. Like, significantly better.” She takes a few tentative steps. “The stiffness has almost completely disappeared.” She checks the wound, and her eyes widen. “How is this possible?” Her head whips up, delight and shock in her pretty eyes. “Look, Lucian! It’s gone. It’s practically gone!”
Her enthusiasm over something so small makes me have to fight the urge to smile in response. Her joy is infectious.
The improvement is remarkable—exactly what I hoped for with the palace healer’s tonics.
“That’s good,” I say, keeping my voice neutral. “I guess you won’t have to worry about dying anytime soon.”
She grins at me. “I guess not.” She’s assessing her full range of motion now, bending and stretching. “Do you think I’m finally getting my shifter’s healing ability?”
The look in her eyes and the tone of her voice are so desperately hopeful that something uncomfortable tightens within my chest. Before I can say anything, she picks up a branch.
“Let’s test it!”
She’s about to stab herself in the arm when I grab the branch and toss it into the woods, growling, “Let’s not!”
Astra blinks. “But—”
“You’ve barely healed from one injury, and now you want to inflict another one on yourself?”
She looks up at me, and her lips part, a soft “oh” slipping past them. That’s when I notice our proximity. I’m leaning over her, our faces inches apart.
“I—”
The scent of her brief arousal is sharp and tangy, stirring the animal within me and making my cock uncomfortable inside my pants.
“S–Sorry,” she stammers, her face red. “I just thought—” She takes a step back from me. “I have to go.”
When she tries to move away, a strange panic overtakes me, and my hand takes hold of her wrist. “Where are you going?”
She stares at me. “To, uh, you know…do my business?”
“Your business?” I narrow my eyes. “What kind of business are you—”
She wrenches her wrist from me, her face a bright red. “Pee, Lucian! I have to go pee!”
I watch her hurry away from me, still favoring her left leg, and my ears feel hot. “She should’ve just said so,” I mutter to myself.
I’ve already begun heating up the last of our meat by the time Astra returns. She doesn’t meet my gaze, and I see her put something in her knapsack. “What’s that?”
“Nothing.”
Her answer is a little too quick, and as I move to seize whatever it is, she lets out a startled cry. “Luna, no!”
