the food.
Not one complaint left her lips as she devoured it, and he enjoyed the comfortable silence as they both ate. When she was done, he took the plate from her and set it on his, and placed them both on the floor.
He sat back and stared at the fire. It would be good for a while, had enough logs to keep it going. He tried not to be hyper-aware of Holly where she sat beside him, close to him, but it was impossible. Her scent of berries teased him, her warmth made him hotter than the fire did, and nerves trickled through his veins, had him glancing sideways at her to see if she was as on edge as he was.
“That was nice,” Holly murmured, no trace of nerves or fear in her voice. “Thank you.”
He glanced at her, lingered as he found her looking at him, as their eyes locked for a moment before hers darted away, settling on the log burner. Maybe she was as nervous as he was about sitting together like this. It seemed crazy to him. It wasn’t as if anything was going to happen, but he couldn’t shake his nerves, couldn’t stop his palms from dampening or his heart from racing.
Gods, he felt like a kid again.
Scared witless by a female, by the feelings she stirred in him, and the thought she might reject him if he dared to act on his impulses.
Holly tucked her legs up beside her and leaned back into the couch, and he sat with her, listening to the fire popping and the wind rattling the panes, debating what he was going to do. He wasn’t talking about whether or not to kiss her either. This was bigger than that, something that had been on his mind from the moment he had realised she wasn’t Ember.
Actually, it had been on his mind from the moment he had cooled down and realised what he had done. Kidnapping really wasn’t his style. He blamed his bear side, blamed the cougars too for riling him when he was tired. Blamed himself. He should have had more control over himself. Should never have resorted to stealing one of the cougars as revenge.
It hadn’t been his finest moment.
And it was unbefitting of an alpha.
He chuckled low as he thought about how reckless he had been back before he had been alpha. That part of him clearly hadn’t changed. Sometimes, he still did stupid things.
“What’s so funny?” Holly sounded sleepy.
He glanced at her, met her gaze again and saw in her eyes that she was tired, that everything was catching up with her now. He wanted to set her at ease so she would sleep, and maybe he could do that by opening up to her a little. Besides, he wanted her to know more about him.
“Thinking about when I took over the pride. I was… not really cut out for it.”
Her dark eyebrows pinched and then relaxed. “Did you lose your parents?”
“Yeah, but they weren’t the pride alphas. They were killed by hunters shortly after I matured.” He sank a little deeper into the couch. “I’m the last of my line. Was raised here and lived here long enough to see it go from a good, happy pride to one that feared its leader.”
She shuffled to face him, her grey-green eyes serious. “And you decided to do something about that.”
He shrugged, but it came off stiff. “I couldn’t let it continue. Saw too many good folks getting hurt… living their lives in fear. Like I said, I was pretty reckless back then. Guess I still am. Always leaping before I look… letting my bear instincts take the reins too easily.”
He waited for her to pick him up on the fact he had kidnapped her, only she didn’t. She just stared at him, her expression soft, firelight flickering over the right side of her face and bringing out the cougar gold in her eyes.
“I took the position of alpha through combat. Woke up one day in a bad mood and just walked right up to the bastard and challenged him. Caused quite a stir.”
The corners of her mouth twitched slightly. “I can imagine. You seem to have a habit of doing that.”
“I’m trying to get better. I try to do the right thing.” He scrubbed the back of his neck. “Sometimes I screw up though.”
She didn’t look angry at him because of his screw up this time. In fact, the more time he spent with