Hungry Wolf - Aidy Award Page 0,36

happen to you.”

A. She didn't know what a one-blood was, but it sounded disgusting, and B. This conversation was not going the way she wanted it to. As of tonight, they were a team. At least she'd thought they were. She'd given her heart and soul to him. She hadn't meant to, hadn't planned to, in fact, she'd told both him and herself that this didn't have to be serious.

It wasn't a lie at the time, but she'd been so very wrong.

But maybe he didn't feel that way. Or maybe she'd made him think she wasn't ready for him to feel that way. Yeah, probably that one. She was great at that particular skill. She'd been pushing people she loved away her whole life. She didn't want to push him away. Out of anyone in the whole wide world, she wanted to pull Aleksei to her and keep him there.

Forever.

“Aleksei, you need to tell me right now if everything that happened between the two of us tonight meant something to you or not.” Yes or no. Don't say no.

The scratching at the window sounded again and Aleksei inserted himself between her and the intruders. “Now is not the time to talk about our relationship.”

“Our fake relationship?” She did her best not to sound like a clingy, needy woman asking these questions. She'd never been either in her entire life. She wasn't starting now. Because she wouldn't believe for a second that what they'd become was fake. It never was for her, even if she'd lied to herself and said it was.

If he said no now, she was going to fight for him. She'd rather fight alongside him against the monsters outside.

His head snapped back from his view of the window and he grabbed her face between his hands. “Fuck. No. Dammit. It's been all I could do all night long not to mark you and claim you as my mate. You're mine, Helena, and I'm yours.”

Thank God. She clasped her hands over his and gave them a squeeze. “Good. That's what I thought. We're in this together and you're not shipping me off to the convent now.”

Even in this moment where something unknown was knocking at their door and she knew he was worried about protecting her, he smiled in a way that went all the way to his eyes and took her breath away. “Never the convent. I think it might erupt into flames with the heat of our lust for each other if we even got close.”

Aww.

Now they could kick some ass and take some names. Together.

Something slammed against the side of the house so hard the lamp on her bedside table fell over and toppled to the floor. A ruckus that sure as hell sounded like the worst kind of dogfight erupted right outside. Time to get that baseball bat. And maybe call animal control. Or the Troikas. Or both.

“Love, call Heli, quickly. Tell her to send Kosta and any other Troika, Grimm, Bay, or Serenity Enforcers here to your house.”

“What are you going to do while I call for backup?”

“I'm going to hold them off.”

“What can I do to help?”

The twitch in his eye told her he didn't want her anywhere near the danger, but that he was trying his best to honor that she wasn't going to back down. “After you’ve made that phone call, get the bat and keep it at the ready. If I need to, I'll retreat back into the house. You can clobber anyone who tries to follow me in.”

It wasn't exactly taking action, but she knew he was trying. Plus, they really did need some backup. That fight was getting worse, and soon the Troikas and their friends weren't the only ones who would be showing up. The police were probably already on their way.

Hadn't Heli mentioned that the Sheriff's department was staffed with shifters, though? If she couldn't get hold of Heli and Kosta, she'd call the Sheriff himself. There ought to be a 9-1-1 for shifter emergencies too. She'd suggest that tomorrow.

What she could only guess was the body of a wolf slammed against her house again. That was her signal. Helena took off running down the hall, naked as the day she was born. The glass in her bedroom window shattered, scaring the bejeesus out of her and spiking her adrenaline. She made it to the front hallway in about two seconds flat.

Helena grabbed her bag from the floor where she'd dropped it and dumped out the