Page 100 of Pack Frenzy
And Eli…he looks wrecked, but I see how hard he’s fighting not to be. I kiss him, slow and deep, a mouth-to-mouth promise:not borrowed, not a mistake; I choose you.
He groans into me, and that sound is my new favorite thing.
“Please,” he breathes against my lips.
I change my angle, work him faster, harder. His control trembles and holds. I don’t want him small. I want him to take upspace, even here, even quiet of the car.
He comes with a stifled curse and a helpless thrust, heat spilling over my fingers in hot, steady pulses. I keep kissing him through it, then tuck him back into his denim with careful hands.
I keep my hand on his thigh. He keeps his arm around me. We don’t move until we pull into the driveway.
Cassian finally meets my eyes; his smile is sharp and fond at once.”Good movie,” he deadpans. “Don’t you think?”
“Yeah,” Eli answers, voice roughened. He clears it, softer. “Yeah. Ten out of ten emotional devastation, right?”
Cassian huffs a laugh; even Rowan’s mouth twitches.
We head inside the cabin, and my heart doesn’t feel like a test I failed. It feels like a door someone left open and trusted me not to run.
At the stairs, Eli’s mouth finds mine. “Stay,” he says, barely sounding like he’s terrified I’ll say no.
But I stay right here in his arms.
CHAPTER 23
JESS
Rowan pulls into the cabin’s driveway and kills the engine. Outside, drizzle clings to everything—the windshield, the porch rails, my nerves.
“I’ll get you an umbrella,” he says, already pushing his door open.
“It’s barely raining.” I shove mine open, pretending my pulse isn’t still tripping from the last thirty minutes.
Eli’s beside me with shock and satisfaction written all over his face, and my chest squeezes.
I know from the bits and pieces they all told me that Eli was usually the one left out whenever they brought a woman into their pack. Omegas. Betas. Didn’t matter. Somehow, he always ended up watching from the sidelines while everyone else paired off.
Not this time.
“Eli, come on. We’re not done.” My whole face heats from me being too bold, too much. But I can’t take it back, and I don’t want to. Because watching him, imagining how after Meredith, he was always on the outside looking in—I can’t do that to him. Not when I want him this much.
And it’s not because of what happened in the theater or the car—though God, my body still remembers his touch—but because of the way he looked at me after. Like I’d given him something he’d stopped hoping for.
His sharp, green eyes lift to mine and are unreadable for half a second, then he smiles, slow, almost disbelieving, like he’s been waiting his whole damn life for someone to choose him first.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” My throat’s dry. “I want?—”
I stop, because what do you even call this? The way his fingers worked me in a crowded theater, the way he melted under my touch later in the car, the way every nerve in my body still hums forhimspecifically.
“Jess,” he murmurs, like a warning and a plea all at once.
I shake my head. “Don’t. Don’t talk me out of it.”
Rowan’s already halfway to the porch with Cassian behind him.
It’s just us now.
