steal a mate. And over there was the highway, a symbol of the human world, whittling away at the edges of their territory.
He took it all in, shoulders slumping. His duty was here.
He tried telling himself he’d be no good for Heather anyway. She didn’t know his true nature and never would. They just weren’t meant to be. Even if the thought killed him, he knew his outer shell would keep ticking for another few centuries, no matter how hollow he got inside.
Blood mired in his veins as his heart stuttered and slowed. When Sabrina nailed him with another kiss, he willed his mind blank, even though the taste of her snuck in. Wrong, this was all wrong. Inside, his soul was kicking and screaming, but outside, he was frozen, lost. By the time they made it back down the hill, Sabrina was practically skipping in triumph while Cody dragged his feet.
“Cody, I need you now!” Ty barked, shooing Sabrina toward the council house with a look of distaste. “Kyle called. There’s a new break in the case.” He grabbed Cody’s shoulder and pulled him aside then dropped his voice to a gritty whisper. “I swear I didn’t know Dad was up to this.”
The words trickled to his ears from the far end of a tunnel. “Doesn’t matter,” he muttered. “It’s for the best.” He hauled himself into this truck, feeling gravity triple. The gears moaned as he ground them into reverse, backed out, and headed for the highway. Duty called. No matter how his wolf protested, one thing would never change. He was his father’s son, and duty came first. Always.
A glance in the rearview mirror showed Ty, jaw set hard. There, Cody told himself, he’d done it again. Seemed no matter how hard he tried, he always managed to let someone down.
Including himself.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Heather had practically breezed through the school day. A glorious week with Cody—okay, a glorious week of nights…and mornings—with Cody, and she was glowing. She’d found a new kind of calm with him, despite all the uncertainty in her life. An inner calm that came from the sensation of two hearts beating just inches apart. A glass half-full kind of feeling she’d never had before.
Hell, her glass was more than half-full. It was overflowing, at least when it came to the physical. Cody had devoted a good quarter of an hour to her breasts on Wednesday night alone, until she’d woven her fingers in his dewy hair and guided him down to lap at her sex. She’d never trusted a man to do that before, but with Cody—well, there had been a lot of firsts. Ecstasy like she’d never known before this week hit her at the first flick of his tongue. When he popped his head up to check on her a minute later, his lips glistened with the taste of her, and she could swear the word that popped into her mind came from him.
Mate.
Afterward, she nearly blurted it out.
I love you, Cody.
It seemed ridiculous, because how could anyone fall in love that fast? Clearly, she was just infatuated, right?
Something deep inside her laughed out loud at that one. They had fit enough emotion into the past two weeks to fill two years. No one had ever made her feel so complete. Just the quiet companionship of him sitting nearby when she went through the kids’ assignments in the evenings was the stuff of her dreams. But she didn’t dare say it, lest she break the magic spell. Instead, she tapped it into his skin, a kind of lover’s Morse code. Three slow taps: index finger, middle finger, ring finger.
I. Love. You.
One night at a time, he’d chased her nightmares away and coaxed out the part of her she had thought long gone. By the third night, she’d stopped triple-checking her locks and peeking out the curtains. Stopped waking in the night, drenched with fear. She remembered what life was like before. Life could be good. Life could be beautiful.
The heady feeling he gave her carried over into her days. She felt taller, freer, as if she’d doubled her yoga time or swallowed a
He took it all in, shoulders slumping. His duty was here.
He tried telling himself he’d be no good for Heather anyway. She didn’t know his true nature and never would. They just weren’t meant to be. Even if the thought killed him, he knew his outer shell would keep ticking for another few centuries, no matter how hollow he got inside.
Blood mired in his veins as his heart stuttered and slowed. When Sabrina nailed him with another kiss, he willed his mind blank, even though the taste of her snuck in. Wrong, this was all wrong. Inside, his soul was kicking and screaming, but outside, he was frozen, lost. By the time they made it back down the hill, Sabrina was practically skipping in triumph while Cody dragged his feet.
“Cody, I need you now!” Ty barked, shooing Sabrina toward the council house with a look of distaste. “Kyle called. There’s a new break in the case.” He grabbed Cody’s shoulder and pulled him aside then dropped his voice to a gritty whisper. “I swear I didn’t know Dad was up to this.”
The words trickled to his ears from the far end of a tunnel. “Doesn’t matter,” he muttered. “It’s for the best.” He hauled himself into this truck, feeling gravity triple. The gears moaned as he ground them into reverse, backed out, and headed for the highway. Duty called. No matter how his wolf protested, one thing would never change. He was his father’s son, and duty came first. Always.
A glance in the rearview mirror showed Ty, jaw set hard. There, Cody told himself, he’d done it again. Seemed no matter how hard he tried, he always managed to let someone down.
Including himself.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Heather had practically breezed through the school day. A glorious week with Cody—okay, a glorious week of nights…and mornings—with Cody, and she was glowing. She’d found a new kind of calm with him, despite all the uncertainty in her life. An inner calm that came from the sensation of two hearts beating just inches apart. A glass half-full kind of feeling she’d never had before.
Hell, her glass was more than half-full. It was overflowing, at least when it came to the physical. Cody had devoted a good quarter of an hour to her breasts on Wednesday night alone, until she’d woven her fingers in his dewy hair and guided him down to lap at her sex. She’d never trusted a man to do that before, but with Cody—well, there had been a lot of firsts. Ecstasy like she’d never known before this week hit her at the first flick of his tongue. When he popped his head up to check on her a minute later, his lips glistened with the taste of her, and she could swear the word that popped into her mind came from him.
Mate.
Afterward, she nearly blurted it out.
I love you, Cody.
It seemed ridiculous, because how could anyone fall in love that fast? Clearly, she was just infatuated, right?
Something deep inside her laughed out loud at that one. They had fit enough emotion into the past two weeks to fill two years. No one had ever made her feel so complete. Just the quiet companionship of him sitting nearby when she went through the kids’ assignments in the evenings was the stuff of her dreams. But she didn’t dare say it, lest she break the magic spell. Instead, she tapped it into his skin, a kind of lover’s Morse code. Three slow taps: index finger, middle finger, ring finger.
I. Love. You.
One night at a time, he’d chased her nightmares away and coaxed out the part of her she had thought long gone. By the third night, she’d stopped triple-checking her locks and peeking out the curtains. Stopped waking in the night, drenched with fear. She remembered what life was like before. Life could be good. Life could be beautiful.
The heady feeling he gave her carried over into her days. She felt taller, freer, as if she’d doubled her yoga time or swallowed a
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