Wolf Moon by A.D. Ryan Page A

on it, and I let him
without my guilt taking over. I suspected the reasoning for this was that my
relief eclipsed it. “I’m so sorry,” he mumbled. “You shouldn’t have seen that.
I should have been better prepared to deal with that sort of thing. It isn’t
the first time she’s threatened you. I should have known she’d have some kind
of contingency plan in place should she not make it back here.”
    “I
know.” I tightened my arms around him. “And it’s okay. You have nothing to
apologize for.”
    Nick
loosened his hold on me, bringing his hands to my cheeks and urging our gazes
to meet. His eyes were bluer than I’d ever seen them, intense and searing. “I
can’t remember the last time I lost control like that,” he confessed. “Marcus
had trouble getting me to calm down enough to shift back.”
    “But
you did,” I told him, wrapping my hands around his thick wrists as his thumbs
moved over my cheekbones. “You were scared—so was I.”
    Nick
inhaled deeply, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against mine. “I
won’t let her freak show of followers hurt you,” he promised.
    “And
I won’t let them think they can,” I responded lightly. “You forget… I took out
their almighty leader two weeks after my first full moon.”
    Nick
laughed, and I felt his stress alleviate slightly as his fingers curled against
the skin on the back of my neck. “How could I forget?”
    “You
can’t,” I quipped. “I won’t let you.”
    “I
wouldn’t expect any less.” His eyes opened, and while I could still see that
glimmer of fear hanging on relentlessly, I also saw a desire that lit a spark
in me, as well.
    Soon
the aqua color of his eyes lightened to the ice-blue of David’s eyes, and it freaked me out. It was just a trick that my mind was
playing on me, but it was enough to make me balk. I took several steps back,
clenching my eyes shut as the guilt clawed its way back up from where it had
been lying dormant the last couple hours.
    “Sorry,”
he repeated. “Obviously I don’t expect—”
    “No,”
I interrupted. “I know, but everything is still so…screwed up in my head. All
of this—the new house in a new country, what happened to David—it’s
all just a little hard to sort out right now. I just need…I don’t know…time?”
    Nodding,
Nick took my hand in his again. “I know. I really didn’t mean anything by it. I
tend to get a little…worked up after I shift.”
    Heat
filled my cheeks, and I tried to hide my embarrassment behind a smile. “Oh.”
    “Not
that you’re not alluring any other time,” he rushed to elaborate, making me
giggle. It wasn’t often he flustered himself. “Apparently I have a chronic case
of foot-in-mouth syndrome afterward too. I blame the amount of concentration it
took to shift back this time. Kind of disengaged my filter.”
    “It’s
fine, really. I think I get it…or I will?” I was rambling like an idiot. How
was one supposed to segue out of an awkward conversation? Was it even possible?
Maybe I should just change the topic entirely.
    I
cleared my throat, noticed the time on the clock read almost ten, and then
turned back to Nick. “It’s been a long day,” I said. “You ready for bed?”
    Nick
glanced at his enormous bed and nodded. “Yeah.”
    I
grabbed some shorts and a tank top from my dresser and excused myself to get
ready for bed in the bathroom. After I finished changing and washing up, I headed
to the bed and pulled the thick duvet down before crawling beneath it while
Nick finished his routine. When he emerged from the bathroom and approached the
bed, he eyed it and me questioningly.
    I
didn’t need to read his mind to know he was curious about the sleeping arrangements.
    I
smiled, pulling the blanket on his side down. “I think in an effort to keep up
the pretense, we should share a bed,” I whispered to keep anyone else from
overhearing—that would be just what we needed right now: complications
within the