Page 15 of Wolf Desired

It was mid-afternoon on the seventh day when I strode down the narrow path back to the cabin with a bundle of clean sheets and towels.

I was tired, having only managed sporadic sleep since we’d returned to Kelna, and the tension in my body made the headache I started two days ago pound behind my eyes. But I couldn’t give in and stop. I had to keep taking care of her, and we’d been at the cabin long enough for Audrey and Bishop to have gone through all the clean bedding and towels in the cabin.

It didn’t matter that Bishop said she was barely lucid with the biological drive to mate fully consuming her. She could have a moment of clarity at any time and I wanted her to know we were taking care of her.

It made my wolf furious that all we were doing was cooking and cleaning and keeping our gods damned distance so we didn’t do something stupid.

I rounded the rocky outcropping and climbed the half dozen shallow steps carved into the stone ground up to the glade and followed the narrow path through the thigh-high grass and wildflowers to the cabin.

Knox lay on the porch swing, his eyes closed, and his breathing slow and steady.

Thank the Sisters!

He’d finally passed out. He’d been pacing and snarling so much in the last few days, I was afraid that even if he didn’t manage to break the collar containing his wolf, I was going to have to chain him up. He’d even begged me to do it just before dawn this morning when Audrey was whining and begging and desperate.

When this mess had started, I’d been jealous of Bishop — and a very small part of me still was — but now I was worried for him. I was pretty sure I dozed at least a little last night but every time I jerked awake, he and Audrey had been going at it. Without a doubt, he was getting even less sleep than I was.

I tiptoed onto the porch and cracked open the cabin door. Audrey’s sweet fresh scent — a scent that made my wolf sit up, wag his tail, and yip with joy — wafted over me. Then the heady, rich scent of her arousal followed and my cock jerked to attention.

Fuck. Her scent was killing me. Every instinct I had screamed to satisfy her. By satisfying her, I’d be protecting her. And by protecting her, my wolf and I would prove to her that we were a worthy mate.

Because hehadto have her. She’d do anything for pups who weren’t even her own. We wanted a mate like that, a mate who wanted— noneededto protect those too small to protect themselves.

Inside, everything was quiet and I prayed that meant Audrey and Bishop had managed to fall asleep.

But I’d only gotten a few steps inside when the bathroom door opened and Bishop stepped out. He looked tired and worried, and even with the air thick with her sweet scent and heady arousal, he was only at half-mast — which meant he was as exhausted as he looked.

“Tell me you have more of that broth,” he whispered.

“Did she drink it all?” Well, that was a miracle.

He hadn’t been able to get her to eat anything and she was barely drinking water. And while the heat put her body in a state of conservation, that was only supposed to be for a few days and even a normal shifter with a normal fever came out weak and dehydrated. Which was why the pack tried to avoid letting a heat get to the fever stage and why Wilder and Nova had set up the heat clinic.

“Unless there’s a pot in the cold cupboard I can’t see, she’s had it all.” Bishop’s expression darkened and he glanced at the partially open bedroom door. “But even if you make another batch, she’s not going to be able to last much longer.”

“Maybe that means the fever is almost over.”

He shot me a hard look. Yeah, I didn’t really believe that, either, but I couldn’t let Bishop lose hope. He was the one who had to hold it together. Without him, Audrey’s heat would never break.

He shuffled to the couch and sagged onto the worn seat cushion. “I have no idea how Wilder does it. I think I’ve gotten two hours of decent sleep in the last three days, and now it takes half a dozen orgasms to ease the fever long enough to give her ten minutes of peace.”

“Wilder doesn’t do it alone,” I reminded him even as my wolf strained against my control. Bishop wasn’t enough. Audrey needed us, too. “And this should have been over at least two days ago.”

“I know.” He raked his fingers through his hair, pushing it away from his face. “Whatever we’re doing? It’s not working.”

I’d been thinking the same thing all day but couldn’t figure out what we were doing wrong. The only thing I could think of that might possibly influence a heat and made Audrey’s different from any other heat I’d heard about was her incomplete mating bond.

“It has to be the bond,” I said and Bishop nodded his agreement.

“That’s what I’m thinking and why the fever isn’t breaking.” He swiped his hand through his hair again. “What are we going to do? Knox refuses to accept her.”

“He’s still adamant that she shouldn’t be stuck with him.” I dropped the towels and sheets on the couch beside Bishop and headed to the kitchen to pull out what I needed to make another batch of bone broth. Because Ihadto do something.

“You know, sometimes she cries for him when the fever is riding her hard.”

I knew. I heard her through the open windows. Knox knew it, too, and he usually retreated to the far side of the glade.

But as much as Audrey begged for Knox, that was the fever talking. She’d walked until her feet bled just to try a slim-chance spell to break their bond.

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