Wolf's Call (Wolves Next Door #2) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,67

the perfect man for you. I also want you to think the same about all of us, and those two? They need a fucking nudge, ok?"

She reached over and pressed her hand on my thigh. "Seth, I'm going to tell you something. This? You letting me see when you're nervous? Explaining to me how you're thinking? It makes me feel like I know you a little more, and that is what I need to fall in love with someone. Not sex. Not flowers or diamonds, or even amazing pickup lines. Women tend to feel things for men they know, and I like it when you let me in."

"Yeah?" Damn, now my face was feeling warm. "I just don't want to convince you that I really am the stupid little boy you got stuck with."

"You're not," she promised. "You're the man who's been helping bridge the gap between what I used to know and what is my new reality."

That was all it took to make up my mind. "Right now, I'm so torn between saying I'll show you the benefits of youth all night long and promising that I'll get Pax and Trent over here." I laughed. "And we both know I'm going to go with the second option."

"So, you're saying I should save the weekends for you?" she asked, a sly little twist to her lips. "Since I won't have to worry about waking up early the next morning?"

"That's five days away," I reminded her. "A complete eternity. How ever will I cope?"

She picked up the last bite of her lunch. "Never said you couldn't come over during the week. Just no keeping me up all night. Maybe, you'll even let me cuddle?"

"I like it when you play with my tattoo," I told her. "More when you do it lying beside me naked, but my favorite part?" I grabbed her plate, stacked it on mine, and headed into the kitchen to put them in the dishwasher. "I like waking up beside you and knowing that you're not a dream." Then I paused. "But there's something you need to know about Pax and Trent."

"Ok?" she asked.

"Elena, they were raised as a set. Like yin and yang, I guess? I dunno, but their families made sure they knew their lives belonged to Ian. They would be his shadows. They would work together to lift him up. If they were good enough at it, then they'd succeed. To do that, they needed to almost read each other's minds. Everything one had belonged to the other. Ever since they were babies, Elena."

"Really?"

"They might as well be twins," I explained. "Opposites in some ways, but they're a matched set. Their parents were very traditional wolves, and it was hammered into them. This? Everything Ian's doing? It was fueled by that. By seeing his best friends forced to become 'one' to serve him. Serve. Ian's given them as much freedom as they want - which most alphas wouldn't do - but they were still trained so well that it's second nature. You don't really get one without the other. The thing is, they kinda wish they could. That each one could be his own."

Her hand had moved to her mouth and her eyes were a little too wide. "Really?"

I nodded. "I happen to think it's disgusting. Not them, but the idea of raising kids like that. They thought it was natural. But if you want to get closer to them? Just... You need to know that. I also think you need to make it clear that you don't see them as a pair, but just as two different men."

She took just a little too long to answer, then, "Is there any way you can help me get Trent to come over alone?"

"I'll make sure of it," I promised. "I'll also walk you back to the office, because I still don't trust Karen."

She hopped off her chair and passed me my coat. "So you know, I like it when you play the bodyguard. It's rather sexy."

"Good to know." Putting my coat on, I headed to grab hers, holding it up to help her get into it. "Maybe it even means you'll call me before walking home alone, hm?"

She slid one arm in, then the other. "I think I just might," she promised, turning to take my arm.

When she hooked her hand around my elbow, I bent it, pressing my fist against my belly and feeling like the biggest man in the world. Damn, but this woman was