Free Wolf's Oath (After the Crash 3.25) by Maddy Barone

cake to his lips. He barely noticed the cake he swallowed. He watched Connie lick frosting off her upper lip and nearly shuddered with the need to do it for her. Soon, he told himself. Soon.
    She sat down, eyes focused on him, brows lowered. “What are you looking at?”
    “You,” he whispered.
    A slight flush rose to her cheeks. “Well, stop it. Sit down. Eat your cake.”
    He sat, liking her blush and her commanding tone. He picked up his fork, cut a bite of the cake, and offered it to her. “I’d rather eat you.”
    “Des!” Her flush heated to fiery crimson and she darted a glance around. “Stop it!” she hissed, pushing the fork away. “We’re not doing that, remember?”
    He put the cake in his mouth. Sugary sweetness melted on his tongue. Delicious. He swallowed, still staring at the line of his mate’s jaw as she ostentatiously turned her head away from him. The cake couldn’t compare with the taste of his mate.
    He cut another bite of cake and ate it slowly. He was doing something wrong. Connie wasn’t a shy woman. What he knew of her told him she was strong and direct, an Alpha female. But she wouldn’t look at him. She wouldn’t let him sit close to her. His wolf was a simple creature. He wanted them to mate. Wolves didn’t comprehend the nuances of human emotions and behavior. Des wasn’t sure he did either. But he needed to learn. His relationship with this woman was too important to spoil.
    Faron Paulson walked from his place at the next table to his mother and bent to kiss her cheek. His voice was low but not too low for a wolf to hear. “Congratulations, Mama. I have to head back to town now.” He reached a hand for Red Wing to shake.
    Marissa was smiling through tears while she watched her son leave. “He’s all grown up,” she whispered to her mate, tears glimmering in her eyes.
    Taye stood up, holding his mate’s hand. “Good night,” he said to the dining hall.
    Finally! The night was young, but not too young for newlyweds to go to their rooms. Des jumped to his feet, abandoning his uneaten cake, and grabbed Connie’s wrist to pull her down the hall.
    In the room he’d lived in for twelve years, he released her to light the lamp he’d brought in when he’d changed the sheets for tonight. He set it on the floor in the middle of the room. The room of an unmated wolf was stark. He watched Connie’s gaze sweep around the space, pausing for a moment on the bed, the only piece of furniture he had. He’d seldom used the bed, preferring to sleep on a pile of blankets on the floor. His few pieces of clothing were stored in the closet. There were no rugs on the floor, no pictures on the walls, and no knickknacks like the people in Kearney liked to display. Did she have things like that? Probably not, since they would have been left behind in the Times Before. They would have one thing to display, though: their marriage certificate. Pride and possession swelled his chest.
    “So,” Connie said, arms folded and eyes narrowed. “What are we doing here?”
    He stepped closer to draw her scent deeply into his lungs. “It’s our wedding night.”
    She took a long step back. “Uh-huh. We’re going back to the House tonight, right?”
    “No, it’s too late to go back. Too dangerous in the dark.”
    Her earrings jingled faintly when her head jerked. “What about Faron?”
    “He left.”
    “Yeah? Isn’t it too dangerous for him to walk back?”
    “No, he’s a man, and he hasn’t broken an ankle in the last few months. You are avoiding the subject.”
    “What subject?”
    Des felt a smile curve his lips. “Our wedding night.”
    Her mouth flattened into a straight line. “I told you we don’t know each other. I don’t sleep with men I don’t know.”
    Her brow creased and her voice wobbled a bit. He wondered if she remembered sleeping with him last night, or if she was thinking about something else. He remembered the solid warmth of her body beside his last night with a mix