Scout: Reckless Desires (Norseton Wolves Book 7) by Holley Trent

hash her words, but for her to be so open about her flaws humbled him.
    “ Try to enjoy the gift, ” she projected. “ You might as well. You don’t get another match, and you know deep down that the ultimate reason none of your other relationships lasted was because you weren’t meant to be with them. You were just biding your time. ”
    “ Until a werewolf fell into my lap, you mean. ”
    “ It was going to happen eventually, Paul, with more wolves moving here. Some wolf was going to hook up with a member of the clan, and why not you? ”
    He wondered the same. Why not him? If there was no woman right for him in Norseton, where they all knew him too well, and if no one out in the larger world had hit the right buttons, either, why not accept the match?
    He knew the answer to that, though. He was scared that he wouldn’t be enough of what she needed, just like with all his friends in the past, and all his demanding lovers. He couldn’t give them enough. He either hadn’t had the right stuff to give, or he hadn’t wanted to give it.
    He raked a hand through what was left of his hair and risked a glance at the wolf. “ What the hell am I supposed to do with her? What am I supposed to give her? I’m not a wolf .”
    “ And she’s not a witch, so it seems to me, you’ve both got some things to worry about. ” Queenie reached up and gave his shoulder a tender squeeze. “ You’re skeptical. I understand that. But you’re not going to be able to shake the feeling that she’s yours. You feel that, don’t you? ”
    “ Yes. ” He didn’t see the point in lying. Even if the queen hadn’t been in his head, she’d already intuited his connection with Petra. Those bonds didn’t disappear.
    “ So what good is ignoring her? What good is going slow and setting up unnecessary roadblocks? ”
    “ Is this a, ‘You’re not getting any younger, Paul’ speech? I could go get one of those from my mother. ”
    Queenie grunted and got him moving toward the shop window Petra and Nadia were standing in front of. “Well, you’re not getting any younger, and the older you get, the more stuck in your stubborn asshole ways you’re going to be.” She deposited him beside Petra and rubbed her palms together gleefully. “Okay!” she said brightly.
    That merry sound always sounded so ominous coming from the queen, given her usual tone’s husky nature. “Let’s hash this out so I can go eat pie before my little princess wakes up, deciding she doesn’t want to sleep through the night anymore.”
    “We’re doing this right here?” Paul asked.
    Petra cocked her chin at him again. “You got something to be ashamed of?”
    “Do you?”
    “You’re the one who was running. I’m not going any-damn-where.”
    “I never told you to leave. You can stay all you want to.”
    “Good. I’m going to, whether you want me to or not.”
    He laughed. All he could do was laugh, because nothing else made sense at the moment.
    “You’re not running me off, Paul.”
    “I never tried to. I’m so confused. All I did was go to work.”
    “You abandoned me to shapeshift on my own.”
    “You’re mad at what? ” Paul raked a hand through his hair again, and then gave it a frantic tug. “You fell asleep, and I recall it being at a very inopportune moment. Really, I’m the one who should be pissed.”
    Petra pantomimed playing a very tiny violin.
    He growled. “How the fuck was I supposed to know you were getting up again soon? You were in a coma when you came here, and went right back to bed after you got up. For all I knew, you were going to sleep until Ragnarok.”
    “You bit me. You were supposed to stay.”
    Nadia put up her hands. “Wait. I think this is where we’re gonna have an impasse.” She looked to Petra. “He couldn’t possibly know that. Maybe it’s instinctual to you, but he doesn’t have a wolf’s instincts. He has Afótama instincts.”
    Queenie cleared her throat and muttered through the fingers she