Reclaim the Wolf: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Wolf Valley Raiders Book 3) (4 page)

Taking down a bowl, she poured in the water, leaving it to cool while she made coffee.

Placing everything on a tray, she went back to the sitting room. “Here,” she said, passing him a cup.

“Thanks.” He sipped it. “Oh, that’s good. I didn’t eat or anything before I went for a run this morning.”

She knelt on the sofa beside him and said, “Do you want me to undress you, or just cut the arm of your T-shirt? Cutting will probably hurt less.” But boy, would she rather undress him completely.

“Then cut away. My shirt is ruined anyway.”

Taking her kitchen scissors, she carefully cut the torn sleeve of his shirt off. Kira couldn’t help herself; she slid her hands over his back, feeling him shiver as her fingertips trailed across his shoulders. Now who was drooling?

“Like what you see?” he asked, his voice thick with desire.

“I was just checking your wound.”

Quick as lightning despite his wound, he turned, his hand closing over hers and he dragged it to his mouth. Palm open, he kissed it, his tongue trailing across her skin leaving a fire in its wake.

“Can’t we drop the pretence? We both know what’s at stake here. We both know you can’t walk away from me. Just as I can’t walk away from you.” He held her eyes, daring her to tell him it wasn’t true.

Kira let her gaze drop to where his hand held hers against his lips. “What if I don’t want you?”

“Do you have a choice?” He moved her hand from his lips but didn’t let it go; instead, he rubbed his thumb across her skin, making tendrils of desire awaken in her stomach and unfurl, ready to bloom in a rush of passion.

“Shouldn’t I have a choice? I mean, what right does
fate
have to hand me a man like you.”

“
Fate
, indeed,” he chuckled, which infuriated her. She had given herself away, told him she knew about their bond the moment she mentioned fate. “I can see why you are disappointed. But maybe if you learned a little more about me... If you knew my story.”

“That I’ll just change my mind about you? You broke into people’s properties. You wrecked lives.” Her breathing grew ragged as rage consumed her. “Did you see Fara’s barn? Do you know she won’t make it through another winter without it being fixed?” She held her hand up to stop him speaking. “Don’t say it! I don’t want to hear that it wasn’t you.”

“I didn’t wreck her barn.” He looked away, out of the window. “But I did steal from her. Can’t I make you see I just want to make amends?”

“And you got what you deserved. Don’t expect my sympathy.”

“That’s not what I want. I just want you to stop seeing me as the bad guy. People make bad decisions sometimes, for the right reasons. Or because they were made to
believe
they were the right reasons.” He winced as he released her hand. “I don’t want to try to excuse what I did. And I am ashamed, but can’t people change?”

“Yes. They can. Now let’s look at this shoulder.” She brushed his skin with her hands, a secret smile easing across her face when she saw him shudder. This mate thing gave her some control over him. Maybe she could begin to let her guard down just a little bit.

“You know,” he said, “since we are going to be spending a lot of time together from now on, maybe we should introduce ourselves. I’m Cole.”

Pushing the area around the wound with her fingers, she assessed the damage while trying to figure out if there was any harm in giving him her name. It wasn’t as if he could steal her soul or anything by using it.
It was already his.

“Kira,” she answered, reaching for the cotton wool and beginning to clean the wound.

“Nice … to … meet you … Kira,” he said, his teeth gritted together as he winced at the pain.

“I would say it’s nice to meet you, Cole. But I’m not convinced that wouldn’t be a lie.” She dried his wound. Luckily, despite everything, he did not have any dirt in it and she doubted there would be any infection.

He lifted his good arm and placed his hand over hers. “All I ask is you give me a chance, Kira. Just one chance. I promise I won’t blow it.”

Silently, she took the dressing and applied it to the wound, thinking over his words while she bandaged it securely. “One chance, Cole.”

With that, she took the dirty bowl of water to the bathroom and emptied it down the sink, her reflection catching her eye. In the mirror, staring back at her, was a young woman whose eyes were alive with expectation for the first time in months.

He had done this. Her mate. This man who had stolen from people she knew, taken the property of good people, somehow made her happy.

Closing her eyes, she made a deal with herself. He promised to make her see that he was a reformed character. When she opened her eyes again to stare at the almost recognisable grey eyes looking back at her, she made a promise too. She would give him that one chance, a fresh start, and hope that they could build a future together, because the wolf inside her was determined to mate with the man sitting on her sofa.

And she didn’t want to put up with the eternal howling of her wolf if they didn’t at least give him a chance.

Flexing his arm, he winced at the pain, but it was manageable, and he would heal quickly. The only disappointment of being incapacitated for a few days would be his inability to help the woman who shot him repair her barn. Cole was convinced that was the first step towards proving to Kira that he meant every word of his promise to be the man she needed. The man she deserved.

The man he wanted to be
.

His neck prickled—at least that reflex was working perfectly—and she came back into the room, standing in front of him, arms crossed defensively.

“One chance. Blow it, and I’ll let Fara finish the job.”

He smiled, but not in a conceited way, despite his obvious pleasure at this small victory. “Thank you, Kira. And I mean it. I want to make you happy.”

“I’m not asking you to
make
me anything; I just want to get to know the real you. No pretence, I want you to be honest.”

“If you want real honesty,” he said, getting up, covering the twinge of pain that shot through him, “then can I just say…”

He moved towards her, and he saw her catch her breath: she was expecting a kiss. Or was she? He couldn’t tell, her body language was so hostile.

“Say what?” Her voice was definitely higher in pitch; he unnerved her.

“That I am
starving
.” His stomach growled in response. “Sorry, I came out before breakfast, something I’ll think twice about again. I never knew so much could happen in a morning.”

“Perhaps if you had breakfast before you came out, none of this would have happened.” She turned to leave, but he put his hand on her shoulder and turned her to him, the now-familiar jolt from his touch rocking her senses.

“Kira, I know you aren’t sure about me. And I get it. But even with a wounded shoulder and a lump on my head the size of a mountain, I would not wish we hadn’t met.”

He felt the tension leave her body. “I guess we’ll both feel better once we’ve eaten. Believe it or not, picking strange men up from Fara’s farm is not what I usually do with my days either.”

“So glad to hear it. I want to be the only strange man in your life.”

Shaking her head, she went into the kitchen. He hesitated and then followed her, wanting to be with her to find out what he could about this woman who was his. He had a sense that things had not been going well for her. The cabin, although neat and tidy, was in need of a good coat of paint and the furniture had seen better days.

It didn’t bother him, and it was better than the place he had been living in the last few months with his brothers, but still he wanted to know if she was here by choice or because of the trouble in Wolf Valley.

Kira got out a pan and put some water on to boil. Then she lit the stove and went to the fridge while it warmed. Before long, she had a delicious cooked breakfast on the go, the smell filling the small kitchen and making his mouth water. He could certainly get used to this, good home-cooked food, his woman working in front of him, and when they had eaten their fill, he would take her to bed and satisfy her in so many other ways.

A sharp pain in his shoulder told him he might have to put the latter thought on hold until he was mended. But breakfast with his woman—now, that on its own satisfied a primal urge.
To be with her every waking minute of the day.

“This is delicious,” he said as he sat across the small, well-scrubbed oak table, chewing his food and swallowing far too fast.

“You’ll give yourself indigestion,” she chided, but it was good to be seated in her small cabin with another person. She had spent so much time on her own lately that she was worried she would end up like Fara. Old and alone in the blink of an eye.

“I’ll take that chance,” he grinned, picking up his coffee and swilling down the bacon. “You sure know how to cook.”

“I had to. It was just me and my dad for so long. He would work long hours, and I wanted him to have something warm to eat when he came home from work.”

“What was his job?” Cole asked, taking another slice of toast.

She placed her cup down on the table, gathering thoughts she didn’t want to share. “He worked in town.”

Instantly Cole’s eyes darted to hers. “You don’t want to talk about it. Is that because it’s too painful? Did something happen to him?”

How did he know?
“Something like that.” She got up, the companionable scene broken by thoughts of her dad. “Want anything else?”

“I could think of a few things,” he said and she caught his meaning, and ignored it.

“I’m going to go ahead and do the dishes. You ought to go and lie down for a while and rest.” Kira switched the faucet on and waited for the warm water to fill the sink while she gazed out into the scrubby garden she had tried to turn into something pretty. She had totally failed.

“I’ll help.” He shoved some more food into his mouth and then got up, gathering the dirty plates up into a pile.

“You want to get as much rest as you can. That shoulder should heal quickly if you give it a chance.”

“I’m not used to lying around, not sure if I have the patience,” he said, rubbing his arm.

“Then just sit down and don’t strain it. I don’t think
I
have the patience to have you under my feet all day. I’m used to being on my own.” She began to rinse the dishes, placing them on the rack one at a time.

“Once I’m well, I intend to pull my weight. Maybe later we can go around the property and you can let me know what you want doing. I also hope to mend Fara’s barn too.”

“The one you didn’t break?” she smiled at him.

“That’s the one. I hope you believe me, Kira.”

“To be honest, I’m not sure it matters. I said I would give you one more chance, and so we’ve wiped the slate clean.” Sighing, she added, “Don’t worry about this place. Why not help Fara, she needs it more. That farm has been in her family for generations, she would hate to lose it, but if we can’t get her barn fixed and her animals fed, then I’m afraid she will be selling up, or plain walking away from it.”

He frowned, taking in her words with a serious expression. “I know you don’t really want to talk about it, but since there isn’t too much else I can do, why not share with me what’s been happening, and I’ll tell you what I can do to help.”

“Cole, the best thing you can do is stay out of it. What Fara did to your arm is nothing compared to what the sheriff will do if you get stuck in the middle of town business.”

“I can handle myself,” he said, stretching his legs out in front of him and leaning back in the chair. She could feel his eyes on her body; they didn’t leave her for a second. It made those warm feelings of desire surface once more.
They got firmly pushed back down
.

“One man against the sheriff is not going to be any god. He has some of the other men under his wing. The bad ones,” she warned.

“Well, I will tell you my secret. I am the son of the last beta. My father was the next rightful alpha. So it stands to reason that I am potentially the next alpha of Wolf Valley.”

Kira nearly dropped the plate she was holding. “If you are lying to me, I swear you will find yourself at the bottom of a shallow grave.”

“I’m not lying. That’s why we were here, why we were raiding the valley. My father made us swear a blood oath, one that made us do all those things.”

She eyed him with even more suspicion now. “Are you telling me you aim to take over Wolf Valley and make everyone pay for what happened to your father?”

“Originally that was the plan. Now it’s changed; the blood oath is broken. That’s why I was at Fara’s place, to try to make amends.”

Kira nodded. That at least began to make sense. Still, it was hard to believe that this man, her man, was going to be the one the one to claw back Wolf Valley from the hands of those who controlled it for their own means.

“I appreciate your honesty. It must have been tough on you,” she said, beginning to dry the dishes.

“I only wish we hadn’t been stupid enough to make the promise to our father, but he was so adamant that the town had wronged him.” Cole poured himself some more coffee. “He was sent away from Wolf Valley, even though he was destined to be the next alpha. It ate away at him until he became this bitter old man. He drank himself to death. I didn’t see it at the time: it was my sister that dealt with it and my younger brother. I’m ashamed that we left her to cope on her own.”

“What’s wrong with your brother?” she asked, beginning to put everything away, restoring order to the small kitchen.

“He had a difficult birth,” Cole said, hesitating and then ploughing on. “Our mom died while she was in labour.”

“I’m so sorry.” Kira began to see the man in front of her in a new way. For all his muscle-bound rough edges, he was hurting inside. Just as she was. His words gave her a glimpse of just how right they might be for each other. Would he give her the strength to overcome her bitterness and live a life free from the need for revenge?