Page 23 of Tolerated By the Sigma (Mate Hunt 7)

Oscar zipped the tent back up, and then collapsed beside me. He was growling quietly, his tongue stroking my neck, arms, and shoulders on some kind of rotation.

“We’re okay,” I told him quietly. “I’m sorry that my words hurt you. I should’ve been more careful about what I said.”

He snarled at me, and it wasn’t quite as half-hearted as I would’ve expected. If anything, it was… one-quarter-hearted.

And then he shook his head, a bit violently.

“You don’t want me to be more careful with what I say?” I asked, a bit incredulously.

He nodded emphatically.

“So you want me to tell you everything, even if it leads you to hunt someone down and nearly kill them.”

He nodded again.

I sighed. “Sorry, bud. No can do. My ex-date was an asshole, and might belong in jail, but we don’t get to play God, or fate. You and I don’t determine whether or not someone dies.”

He growled at that, but it didn’t faze me.

“If you want me to keep telling you sensitive things, you’ll have to agree to stop chasing people down, even if they’re assholes.”

He scowled back at me, but since he was a wolf, it really wasn’t all that different from his usual expression.

“I’m not telling you anything remotely sensitive unless you agree,” I said bluntly.

Honestly, I wasn’t all that good at watching what I was saying, unless it came to something important that one of my students had told me.

The wolf growled at me, then nipped at my throat, licking it when I pushed him away a bit playfully, and stepped back. I wasn’t sure what he was doing until the first crack of his bones—and then the contortion of his body.

He was shifting back instead of agreeing with me.

Bastard.

…Adorable bastard.

Oscar shifted quickly, and then I was staring at a really damn gorgeous ass.

Ryder’s face was on the floor of the tent, and my eyes trailed slowly up from his head to his toes.

Hot damn.

Ryder groaned. “Fucking wolf.”

I couldn’t help it; I laughed.

Hard.

So hard I snorted.

Ryder peeled his face off the floor and turned his head so he was looking at me. “Adorable.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure.”

He reached up to the camping mattress pad thing I was sitting on and tugged me off of it, rolling to his back and taking me with him.

I landed hard on his chest, and one of his hands slid over my cheek, around to the back of my head. His fingers dug into my hair, and I loved that his grip wasn’t gentle or too tight as he used the grip to tilt my head so our eyes met.

“When I compliment you, don’t argue with me.” His voice was low, and gravelly enough to give me goosebumps.

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