getting your way, don’t you?” she throws at me.
I don’t have the heart to tell her I’ve been soft on her compared to my normal approach, but I smile in response. “Let’s get you warmed up.”
She isn’t moving.
Instead, she lowers her head, her hands playing with the water.
“Were they really goddesses?” Her voice is tender, and when she finally lifts her glistening gaze, her expression is one of disbelief.
It takes me a moment to realize she is talking about the sentinel trees. “Stone said they were part goddess and keepers of the forest, but were also of evil origin and most likely easily swayed by the witches to do their bidding.”
She tugs her lower lip between her teeth, chewing on the corner of it, and my earlier fighting spirit has spiraled into one of concern.
“It was us or them; there is nothing to regret or pity. There was no hesitation about what they wanted to do to us,” I say and head toward the shore, noting that she joins me.
She rubs away the water running down her face from her messy hair. “I know, but it doesn’t make it any easier. Until a couple months ago I’d never met anyone other than my own pack of wolves I grew up with, and now I just killed five tree goddesses. I’m a monster.” She gasps, and I can’t help but laugh at how adorable she is.
“It’s not funny.”
“Actually, it is,” I say. “You mourn those who would have you killed? Where is the sense in that?”
She looks at me for a long pause, her tense shoulders physically drooping as the realization sinks in. “I get what you’re saying, but I’m not sure I completely agree. A death is still a death. But then again, I did react in self-defense.”
“That’s right.”
In her presence, my mind weakens, and I let her get away with so much more than I’d ever permit anyone else with.
As we move through the water, Crius and Stone emerge, stark naked, while Nikos takes this chance to dive off the rock he’s been sitting on and plunge into the river.
Narah doesn’t seem to notice, as she’s looking at me as we step out of the river, her gaze trailing down my body to my erection.
“What made you behave this way?” she asks.
Her question takes me aback. It’s not something I’ve ever had anyone ask me. I can only assume she’s talking about me pushing her, not my hard-on in response to being so close to her.
But she keeps talking before I can respond. “Everyone has history that makes them who they are. You know mine, which isn’t much, but what made you who you are today?”
I wonder just how much interaction she’s truly had with the pack she grew up in to ask me such a question. I also doubt I know her full story, but I’ve pushed her enough for now. “It’s expected of me. I take charge or I will get walked over. Never show fear is how my father brought me up. And when I did get scared, he beat the hell out of me until I feared nothing but him and his strap.”
“That’s horrible,” she says, and I realize then how naive she is. Wherever she has been living, they have kept her hidden from the real world.
“Not really,” I say. “I hated him then as I do now, but he made me who I am.”
Confusion crosses her face, but she lowers her head. Narah is a complex woman who I am only starting to understand. This is just the beginning with getting her to open up, as far as I’m concerned.
I gesture for her to walk over to where we set up camp just on the edge of the woods, while I stride over to Crius and Stone.
“Change into dry clothes,” I tell her. “We’re going fishing for our meal.”
She nods and doesn’t say another word as she hurries across the pebbly shore with conviction in her eyes. Her clothes are dripping and plastered to her body, following every curve of her ass, her toned legs, her tiny waist.
My heart pounds in my chest, and I try my damn hardest to not let my instincts make my decision when it comes to Narah. But that may be a battle I’m happy to lose.
12
Narah
I take another bite of the fire-cooked fish while the rest of the pack also enjoy the freshly caught meal. Chatter crowds in around the blaze from Ragnar, Stone, and Crius comparing