Page 36 of Wolf Desired

The bond was inevitable and even if I stayed away from her, it would pull us back together.

I was a selfish asshole for not even considering that we’d have to figure out how our relationship would work. Even if she bonded with Bishop that wouldn’t absolve me of my responsibilities to her and our bond.

I shoved a canteen into the river to fill it.

It had felt so good, so right carrying her while she was unconscious for those first few days after we left Kelna.

I’d been so sure I was going to have to let her go to embrace her relationship with Bishop that I’d clung to her every possible second until it looked like she was going to wake. But then I hadn’t known how to say goodbye or deal with her sobbing, so I’d avoided her.

I couldn’t have been a bigger idiot and now I needed to figure out how to fix it.

Except I had no idea how to fix a normal relationship let alone one as fucked up as the one I’d made with Audrey.

Hell, I didn’t even know how to start one.

Movement downstream caught my attention and Cyrus pushed around a bush to get to the water’s edge. He saw me and came closer to crouch a few feet away.

“I told Audrey to help you,” he said, setting his catch — a skinned and gutted fox — on the rocks beside him, before shoving his bloody hands into the water.

“You should have minded your fucking business,” I snarled. He’d made the order on purpose to force us together.

“And you should have taken the gift offered to you,” he snarled back. “She’s your mate and you’ve already fucked it up. She’s shy and uncertain, but even a cornered mouse will bite back.”

No shit. And she was hardly a mouse. She’d just been trained to act like one by the assholes who’d raised her.

“You don’t deserve her,” Cyrus said, his voice a low rumble, his wolf pushing to the surface. It almost sounded like Cyrus wanted Audrey as well even though he’d vowed to put the needs of the pack first.

“Then you do your fucking chores with her,” I spat back, a sudden jealous rage surging inside me.

She was mine. Mine.

“I’m not the one who needs to build a relationship with her. You’ve avoided her from the start. Any idiot can see she doesn’t trust you.”

I huffed. She didn’t trust me and she outright despised me.

And I deserved it all.

---