“God their blood is disgusting. Sticky and ughh.” She mutters absentmindedly and I tense as my mate’s body gets a degree stiffer. His mood inching higher. I swallow down the inner angst that I know he’s not even close to being done.
Colton looks more unamused if that was possible and then shakes his head, hauling me higher in his arms so he pulls my face into his neck and almost crushes my body into a tight grip that has me clinging on for dear life. He turns to look down on me and I blink with a hopeful look of innocence. His eyes amber once more and it’s clear I’m not winning with loving looks or sweet smiles.
“You two… vampire blood, battles, road trips, and fucking witches. Don’t bet on getting outside of the stead any time soon, or ever again… Not happening. Letting you out of your rooms for the next decade, not likely. And letting you have any say in what we do concerning future attacks… don’t bet on it. House arrest, grounded, locked up…. whatever you want to call it. I am drawing a fucking line.” He grinds out through clenched teeth in a low and hostile, hoarse tone, Eye’s burning in rage as he zones on mine and I flinch and look way from the rage I see there. Maybe mind linking wasn’t the best way to explain and I might have had an easier time omitting some details from this back story.
He’s in full on protector mode and I can’t really say I’m mad about it, even if he has me trembling under his fury and feeling apprehensive about getting home to be alone. It’s kind of a relief to not make those decisions or have to think about leaving my bedroom ever again.
I mean I’m pregnant, I’ll happily stay in bed for the foreseeable future while groveling for his forgiveness. I can sleep as long as I like and not worry about the safety of my pack. My mate is home, well almost. I mean we still have to walk the several miles to get there, but for right now, the danger has been annihilated.
He won’t be mad at me forever. Once he calms down, and lets it all sink in and ensures the pack really is okay and that I’m unharmed and our babies are healthy… Maybe in like, a month, he’ll finally stop growling at me. Maybe.
I didn’t fall in love with just gentle Colton, but this stubborn, aggressive, crazy protector, who is physically hauling my ass home and looks like he might be about to eat me. That right there, is the guy who makes me feel the safest. I just hope he’s hungry and tired because I could use food and sleep.
It’s Not Over
The homestead is eerily silent since we returned. There’s been a strange atmosphere in the whole place and even the village out back seems still and devoid of noise. Everyone is home licking their wounds, absorbing the reality of what we did and went through, and homes are filled with warm reunions and an aura of hope. The air is lighter, brighter, and the fog is completely gone. It feels like something huge is now settling to dust yet spirits are high despite the need for peace.
Colton is sat on the bed drying his hair after the third shower he took to rid himself of a weeklong buildup of debris, grime, and of course, Vampire blood. Something he does when he needs to think for a while, and I know he probably wanted space from me to let the remainder of his anger fizzle a little. Even though now, I’m laid on the bed behind him and he seems so much calmer than before.
I’m resting after a soak in the tub in our other bathroom, where I took time to rid myself of all the vileness of our hectic adventure. It was weird taking time apart to get clean, but he’s been reserved since we came home. Simmering from anger to sadness and a lot of up and down mood swings. I know he’s probably going through every memory a dozen times to really take in the fact he lost days of his life, when to him it was seconds of a blink of an eye. I know he’s processing and thinking it all through and I’m waiting for him to come out of his head before I approach him again. He stayed close, even though he needed space and he hasn’t been cold or anywhere near as mad as he was on the walk home, but I can tell he still has so much brewing and for my own sanity I am leaving him be.
Meadow is avoiding him too as the two of them are no longer talking. On returning home they had a huge showdown in the study. Venting, arguing, stubborn meeting fire, and I know it was his way of letting everything out. His self-guilt, his feelings of failure and the knowledge of everything we have done without him here to protect us.
I know that seeing how he hurt me is killing him, his obvious distress and pain is overwhelming me. No matter how hard I try to reassure him that he couldn’t control what happened. He hasn’t said much about my pregnancy since things diffused again, but I guess given everything he must process, maybe he doesn’t know how to react. I mean what could he say after the doctor checked me over and said I was perfectly fine. He looked relieved, held my hand, and then silently brought me up here to clean up and rest, making sure I was brought food even if he was still inwardly raging my way.
It’s hardly great timing and with my abilities held back and making me vulnerable, it only adds to his worry that I might get hurt or that worse could have happened out there. I get why he’s being like this, I do, but it has me so on edge and not how I thought he would be when I got him back. I guess knowing how overprotective and anal he is about my always being safe and pampered is confirmed with how much sulking he’s doing and how much he yelled at his mom and Meadow. Colton has always been one to aggressively lash out when he was in the most emotional turmoil, even my way, and now he’s brooding. I hope it doesn’t last long given how much I want to curl up and be like we were before any of this happened.
I know him only too well, and as I watch that muscular body, now in sweats and fresh as a daisy despite being topless, I can still see how tight and rigid his muscles are. Carrying his tension and stress and I want so badly to smooth them out and roll up in his arms to relieve him. He’s avoiding touch too, to punish me for putting myself in danger, lugging my ass to another state, and heading a war against our own warriors. I’m majorly in the doghouse even though he did admit out there that the spell being broken wouldn’t have come about any other way.
Every one of the sub-pack have gone to their rooms to clean up, after a brief emotional reunion downstairs. Now they’ve gone to eat and rest before the arranged grand hall meeting where Colton intends to debrief the pack and tell them what happens now. Time out is where we are at and then we come together to talk about the future of the pack and the possibility this might be nearing the end of the Vampire battles. There’s just so much.
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