Free Captured Moon-6 by Loribelle Hunt Page B

mentioning the plan. Still, it was better than being called on running out on them or lectured on the dangers of entering another pack’s territory without permission. She’d fully expected to get both those lectures.
    Lawe ran his fingertips up the inside of her arm, and she shivered.
    He grinned at his twin.
    “I have just the thing.”
    Before she could speculate or protest, he was out of the bed and lifting her into his arms. She was curious when he left the room, and alarmed when he opened the back door. It might have appeared so, but the cabin was not isolated. She didn’t want to flash anyone who happened by.
    Half the deck was open, and he turned left into an enclosed area.
    She smiled when she saw the hot tub. He and Rule uncovered it and turned on the jets. Soon, it was bubbling and warm, and she stepped over the edge to sit on a center seat. She leaned her head back to rest against the padded rim and closed her eyes with a deep sigh. Perfect.
    She heard them enter, too, but neither sat next to her. She cracked
    one eye open and saw them lounging back on seats in front of her. Rule’s grin was lazy and sexy. Lawe was not betrayed by any expression on his face, but his eyes were hot and intense. His default expression. It seemed she wasn’t in too much trouble. Smiling, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes again. Silence stretched for several minutes.
    “Anytime you’re ready to explain, honey. Don’t hold back.” Lawe.
    He had a right to an explanation of course. She had left him in her shower.
    “I needed space to think, and you weren’t giving it to me,” she answered without moving or opening her eyes.
    One of them grabbed her ankle and pulled her forward under the
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    water. She came up sputtering and glared at them.
    “What the hell was that for?”
    “That non answer,” Rule said. “If your problem is with us, then it
    doesn’t make much sense to run away where you can’t ask us questions.
    Does it?”
    She pressed her lips together. She didn’t want to touch that.
    “And if your problem is more with yourself, running away from us
    is shooting yourself in the foot. No one wants to help you through that more than we do.”
    Shit. She repressed a sigh. She might as well get it over with. “I always thought I wanted what my mother had. And I did. I do.”
    “But?” Lawe asking questions now.
    There was no diplomatic way to answer that. She shrugged. What
    the hell? “My father didn’t try to run her life. Didn’t try to control her. He loved her,” she ended softly on a sigh. Damn, she missed them.
    Rule’s grip on her ankle loosened, and she pulled free moving back
    to the bench she’d been sitting on. Reluctantly, she looked up and met first his gaze then Lawe’s. Rule was thoughtful. Lawe was pissed. She winced at the tirade she knew was coming from him, but she could in no way anticipate what or when it would happen. That temper she knew, though.
    He’d never had a problem holding back when he was angry or irritated with her.
    “Let me get this straight,” he said, the words forced out between clenched teeth. “You ran because you don’t think we love you? Is that it, Abby?”
    She ground her molars and glared. She’d rebuilt herself, rebuilt her self‐esteem, started on the path to knowing herself again. She wasn’t the same girl, and he was not Alex. No. He could hurt her much more than her ex‐husband ever dreamed of.
    And suddenly, she did want this to work. He wasn’t Alex. he wouldn’t hurt her if there were any way to avoid it. She took a deep breath and tried to work out how to explain it.
    “Have you ever watched the couples in the pack? I mean, really watched them?”
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    Neither answered just waited for her to explain.
    She shrugged. Tried to sound more blasé than she’d ever feel.
    “It’s clear that some of them are together only because of the bond.
    They don’t like