Page 15 of Howl For Me
He moved across the room and pulled her to him. Her eyes widened in surprise. This was his mate, and he’d be damned if she left him to go mate with some other alpha. He tilted her chin up to his and crushed his mouth to hers.
Five years he had waited.
Five years since the last time he had felt her soft lips against his.
Five years since he’d held her.
Five. Long. Years.
He was not going to let her go. Not without a fight. Fate be damned.
He had longed for the moment she would be back in his arms. His heart had been right all this time. She was still alive. Out there somewhere, probably looking at the same moons as him.
Her gasp allowed his tongue to gently enter her mouth, reacquainting him with the taste of her. It had been one he craved. Her tongue shyly came forward to meet his. Her fingers gripped his shirt as she leaned into him. He angled his head to the side to deepen the kiss.
His wolf growled its pleasure deep in his chest, and he knew he had to stop before they went any further. He refused to have their first time in five years to be in a seedy motel.
He pulled back, his breaths coming fast. He knew she could feel how she affected him. It was something that hadn’t changed in their five years apart.
Her eyes widened as she stared up at him. He leaned his forehead on hers and breathed in her scent.
“You can’t go back to California,” he proclaimed. He ran his hands up her back and kept her pressed to him. The feeling of her flush against him had him wanting to take her, but he knew she wouldn’t be ready for that. He rested his hand on the base of her neck, unable to stop touching her.
She couldn’t leave him.
Not again.
He didn’t think he would survive if she left him a second time.
* * *
Brianna turned to her parents and smiled. Her heart softened at the looks in their eyes. She could see the fear in them as if they were afraid she wouldn’t be here in the morning.
“Goodnight, baby,” her father said, placing a kiss on her forehead.
Her mother grabbed her in another tight hug. She pulled back, and Brianna could see tears forming in her eyes.
“Goodnight. I’ll see you in the morning,” Brianna said, trying to fight down a yawn.
Her mother slowly closed the door, leaving Brianna in her old bedroom. She breathed in deeply and took in her scent.
Strangely enough, her parents had not touched her room, leaving it as it was before she’d disappeared. Someone had cleaned it and kept the dust from settling as if waiting for the day she would return.
She glanced over at the alarm clock on the nightstand and groaned. It was late, and even though the Burtons were in a time zone a few hours behind her, she wouldn’t phone them this late. She made a note to call them first thing in the morning to update them.
She pushed off the door and walked around the room. Her scent was still strong here. She smiled softly as she took in all the pictures that lined her walls. She studied each one, trying to learn who the younger version of herself was. She could tell the changes from her past self to the current one and saw that she had certainly lost some weight but had filled out in other places.
She picked up a photo of her that must have been from her college days. She was with a group of girls all hugged together to try to squeeze into the shot. She smiled and felt a small sense of dread as she looked down at the photo. Were these her friends who’d perished in the plane crash? She gently sat the frame down and moved to another.
This one was of her and Gavin. Her stomach clenched just thinking of the kiss they’d shared in the motel.
Mate, a voice in the back of her mind whispered.
In the photo she had taken a selfie of them, but his attention was on her while she smiled brightly into the camera. The look in his eyes made her breath catch in her throat.
He loved her.
Just one look at his gaze, and she knew he would do anything for her. His life must have been ripped to shreds when he was told she had died.
