Free Wolf Next Door by Heather Long

I left, all I thought about was my pain. I didn’t see hers. Didn’t see it for a long time. It can be hard to acknowledge your part in someone else’s pain. Once you do, you can atone for it and begin to make it right.”
    Bullshit. He’d known Claire from the beginning. His wolf recognized hers. Being her mate was all he’d ever wanted. Making her world safer and preventing anyone from taking advantage—he’d…ordered her around. Dictated whom she could be friends with because her judgment always seemed questionable. Made decisions and choices for her, because he didn’t like what she was doing. She’d said Justin gave her something she’d never had—a choice.
    Fuck. Ty wanted to beat the shit out of something. Was I really that arrogant and stupid?
    “Ahh, now someone’s thinking.” Mason clapped his shoulder. “I trust you can figure it out from here on your own?”
    “Yeah, unless you have some great insights about how to court an alpha?”
    “Don’t give an inch.” Mason smiled as he walked away. “We know how to take the mile.”
    At the forest edge, Mason paused and said over his shoulder. “Do remember she’s not the only alpha potential, Ty. You have that same strength in you. You choose to submit to A.J. and to your parents and to me, a choice I appreciate.”
    But he’d never chosen to submit to his mate. No, he’d lorded his dominance over her and, instead of fighting him, instead of pushing back, she’d left. His wolf growled and Ty studied the place where Mason vanished into the trees. Ty took more than an inch. If he’d pulled half of the crap with his brothers that he’d pulled with Claire through the years, they would have pounded him flat.
    His wolf understood the answer before he did, and Ty began to grin. She hadn’t fought him because her wolf didn’t want to fight him. Last night, she could have thrown him out, but she hadn’t. She’d dictated her terms and left him to make the choice for himself.
    Well, two wolves could play that game. Hope and determination flooded him for the first time in years. He had the scent of the hunt now. Claire wanted a choice? Then he’d give her one and prove to her he was the right mate for her.
    The only mate.

Chapter Six
    A fter stacking the last of her father’s books into a box, Claire sealed it and scrawled a note across the top for the library. Twenty-five boxes of books and she planned to donate all of them. The last time she’d cracked a book had been in high school and, since she hadn’t graduated—well, reading wasn’t her thing. The dust level in the room was ridiculous. She’d spent her afternoon sneezing even after she’d opened every available window.
    With a bottle of polish and some rags, she began wiping down every wooden surface. Gradually, inch-by-inch, she reclaimed her father’s office. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine the scent of him lingering in the room. He’d have hated what she’d done to survive. An academic, her father had served as pack historian. He’d told her once that he wanted her to take over for him and to carry on the oral histories of their people.
    “Well, that didn’t happen.” Setting aside the rag and polish, she circled the large desk. The leather chair carried a hint of her father’s cologne and more of his scent. Sliding onto the soft seat, she pressed her nose to the leather and inhaled deeply. All through her childhood, she could wander into his office and find him working—detailing a history from memory onto paper or making notes about the latest event.
    Hours she’d spent, curled on his lap as he spoke to others when they came to him with their questions. She’d been there when Andrew Clayborne asked him a series of hard questions about their alpha. She’d been there when Ryan Huston sat across from her father to detail his mating—he’d wanted a history set aside for his daughter Alexis. Human or not, she belonged in the annals.
    She’d even been