Chapter 19
Jerking his chin at Bull by way of salutation, Modess made his way up the front steps to his house. Even from outside he could smell Hillary’s baking and it had his belly grumbling in eager anticipation. The woman was a damn sorceress when it came to cooking. He grinned at that stupid saying about the way to a man’s heart being through his stomach because since she’d come to stay with him, he’d been really excited to return home every day. He told himself it was simply due to her culinary abilities. His wolf snorted.
Shoving the front door open, the scent of sweet decadent chocolate hit him so hard he nearly moaned. Typically, he wasn’t a fan of chocolate, but something about the smell of this had his mouth salivating and his gut clenching. Tossing his keys into the bowl on the table behind the door, he strode to the kitchen, ears straining to pick up the sounds of Hillary working. There were none and when he got to the kitchen, it was empty. He checked the oven and the fridge and there was no dessert to be seen. He wondered if maybe she’d made something for Simone and had taken it to her, but a crashing upstairs had his head jerking around before he hurried out the kitchen and hustled upstairs.
The scent of the dessert increased with each step he took and now his heart was racing, his palms sweating, and his brows spearing down as worry seized him. His nose led him to the bathroom in the hallway. He tried the door, but it was locked. “Hillary?”
She didn’t answer, but he could hear her inside now. It sounded like she was…crying?
Turning, he threw his shoulder into the door and it crashed open. Hillary sat on the edge of the tub wrapped in a sheet. Her shoulders were bare and so were her legs that peeked out telling him she was naked underneath. Her hair was damp like she’d just taken a shower, but she wouldn’t look at him. “Hillary?”
He took a step toward her and his feet crunched on the broken glass of what used to be a vase that Wanda had painted, which previously sat in the window sill. The window was wide open and a breeze was wafting in, sending goose bumps blasting across Hillary’s wet skin.
“Hillary!” he snapped. “Are you okay? What’s going on?” Something was going on! The second he stepped into the bathroom, his wolf lunged for the surface. He thought it had been a protective instinct, but even now his wolf was shredding his insides. His beast wanted free.
He crunched across the glass and stopped in front of her. “Are you hurt?”
She still refused to look at him, but he could see her body trembling.
“Hillary!” He crouched in front of her.
“I-I was trying to get fresh air.”
She motioned toward the broken glass, but he didn’t give two fucks about the vase. It bothered him that she still wouldn’t look at him.
“Why are you wrapped in a sheet?” He looked toward the door, anger seizing him as the scent of her release overpowered the sweet dessert scent and wafted to him. She’d been trying to hide it by opening the window. “Was someone here?”
She shook her head but kept her chin down. Forcefully, he collared her throat and her lips parted on a gasp. His wolf was raging inside him and it was a struggle to stay in control. “What’s. Wrong?” He didn’t mean for his voice to come out so harsh or for his grip to be so firm, but he had to know what the fuck was happening before his wolf broke free.
“I’m…” She pinched her eyes closed and a tear tracked down her cheek. “I’m in heat.”
Just the words had his balls drawing up tight as his cock instantly hardened. That scent, that sweet decadence was her in heat. He had to swallow hard as his nostrils flared, involuntarily drinking her in. His gut clenched with need and inside his wolf was baying. He understood now. Where before her wolf had simply called to his, the she-wolf was now howling for him too.
It took several moments to get himself under control and another few to convince himself to release her throat. Slowly, he got to his feet while his mind raced for soothing words.
“It’s alright, we’ll…”
“I need to go back to Shadow Wolf,” she cut him off. “I have a friend there. Blake. He sees to my needs when this happens.”
Blake! Rage engulfed him. Even the thought of another man touching her right now had his back teeth gnashing together. The thought of taking her home so some other man could sate her sexual needs. He was shaking his head. “Not fucking happening, Cupcake!” God her nickname made so much sense now. Her scent had always called to him, but this, her in heat, it was overpowering.
“He’s just a friend,” she snapped. “He only touches me when I ask him to…when he has to. He helps ease the ache. That’s all.”
Her explanation was only serving to piss him off more because one, what the fuck did she mean this fuck only touches her when he has to? Was this Blake fucker blind and dumb? And two, he didn’t want to hear about any other male easing her ache. His wolf liked hearing it even less.
Finally, Hillary looked up at him. Eyes full of tears, lower lip trembling, she shook her head as her hands fisted the sheet at her breasts. “I have to go home, Modess. I can’t stay here like this! It’s too hard, too painful!”
No. No fucking way! Bending, he scooped her up off the edge of the tub and carried her out of the bathroom. In the hall, her arms went around his neck and she moaned at the skin to skin contact. He understood the sound she made because just touching her was calming his inner wolf too.
“This is wrong.” Her words were muffled though because her face was buried against his chest.
“It’s natural,” he countered but cringed when her shoulders started shaking. Wetness soaked through his shirt to his chest as she silently sobbed.
At the entrance to his room, he stalled. The bed was disheveled. Surveying the space, he let his nostrils flare as he drank in scents trying to decipher what had happened. There was a faint hint of Wanda and…Brooke? He didn’t dwell on those too long, though. They were buried by the overwhelming scent of Hillary’s pheromones. She’d been aroused in his room and he wondered what in the hell that had to do with Wanda and Brooke. Perhaps she called the women to help with suggestions regarding her heat? When he thought on how Hillary could have asked Wanda to take her back to Shadow Wolf, his mouth went dry. She could be gone right now. She could be racing back to her pack so another male could ease her heat. The knowledge made him queasy.
Hillary sniffed and unsure what exactly to do with her, he toed off his shoes and padded barefoot to the bed where he gently set her down.
“Stop crying,” he soothed. “Here.” He reached into his pocket hoping to distract her from her current dilemma. “I got you something in town today.”
Her head lifted as she stared at the shiny silver chain in his hand with red-rimmed eyes. Her small hand lifted and grabbed the oddly shaped white stone that hung on the necklace. Fingers smoothing over it, it took her a second to realize what it was. “I-is this an elk ivory?”
“Yeah,” he dipped his chin in a nod. “Went to get mine put on a chain and…well, they come in pairs and I didn’t need two, so…”
Lifting her chin, she looked at his throat where a thicker chain rested with the matching ivory.
“Is this your kill?” she asked.
“Yeah. Took him last year mid-winter.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You should give this one to whoever helped you take him down.”
She tried to hand it back, but his closed his fingers over hers. “I took him alone, Cupcake.”
Eyes rounding, they dipped back to her hand. “You took down a bull elk by yourself?”
He grinned, pride in his eyes. “Well, I am Alpha.”
“Still,” her face morphed back into a frown. “That’s dangerous!”
She was right, it was, and he’d had to fight long and hard to get the beast down, but it’d been worth it. That bull had fed the pack for a week while the roads had been too snowed over for the trucks to get into town to resupply. Not wanting to brag, he shrugged casually and pulled the necklace from her hand before clasping it around her throat. “My kill, my ivories. I’ll do with ‘em as I please.” The necklace looked good on her. Something about her wearing his gift filled him with satisfaction and some other emotion he didn’t want to scrutinize right now.
Reaching over his head, he pulled his shirt off in one quick movement, drawing Hillary’s attention.
“What…what are you doing?” Her eyes rounded and a blush took her cheeks as she planted a hand by her hip and scooted away from him.
“Easy,” he crooned. “Not trying to take advantage of you. Just gonna hold you until the ache goes away.” He placed a knee on the bed and stopped holding up his hands. “Is that alright?”
Hillary eyed him like he was a poisonous snake before her expression finally crumpled and she nodded.
He climbed fully onto the bed and rolled to his back before holding out an arm. “Come here.”
She hesitated a moment before slowly lowering herself down to tuck in at his side. Because of Wanda and her penchant for the divulgence of too much information, he knew all about females going into heat, the ache that accompanied it, and how it was soothed. Because Hillary wouldn’t let him take her, she’d have to settle for skin to skin contact. It’s why he’d ripped off his shirt. His jeans would stay on though, because while he was trying to be a good guy here, he was no fucking saint.
Hillary’s shoulders went back to shaking as she wept against him. “Shhhhh,” he soothed, running small circles over the bare skin just above the sheet at her back. She smelled remarkable and while his one hand on her was gentle, the other was fisted into a white knuckled fist. This could very well be the longest night of his goddamn life!