Free A Love Worth Biting For by Roxy Mews Page B

man…er…wolf…uh…vampire…whatever that I’m losing it for.” I knew he was frustrated. Dammit, so was I. He stood with his hands gripping the back of his neck, now just waiting.
    Any other Alpha wolf would have demanded action. A werewolf would have probably ignored me at that moment and just gone inside to deal with the situation himself. The hybrid in front of me stood strong and gave me, maybe not the lead, but at least an equal say. He was waiting to let us walk in together. This is what I wanted. I wanted a mate who could run with me, play with me and let me run through the obstacle courses my brain sometimes took me on.
    “I’m in, Jake. All the way. We go to your Family tomorrow. Either you carry my dead body out, or I walk out as a hybrid the likes of which nobody has ever seen before.”
    He moved toward me with that supernatural speed that had my heart beating in time with his steps. I was in his arms, and his mouth descended on mine. His tongue broke the barrier of my lips, and I opened on a sigh to his assault. My heart was still racing as we broke apart.
    I would like to say that I calmed as we took those final steps up to the cabin, but I think all that heavy emotional work was taking its toll. I had the happiness of my mate and the excitement of his new wolf, right alongside the horrible realization that I was making the final walk to tell my daddy that I was leaving him.
    The tears on my cheeks escaped my notice until Jake brushed them away with a slide of his thumb. He tilted my face up to meet his as we hit the front porch. “I am yours as much as you are mine. We belong. But that’s not why we will make this work. We will make this work because I am a stubborn son of a bitch and you are the first female I have met in the entirety of my life who has brought me to my knees with want. I would beg for you. And I beg for no one. But if you were to leave me, I would fight whoever stood in my way or die on the journey just to be able to have another chance.”
    Before the last syllable of that fantastic speech made it past his lips mine were over his. Maybe it was all the life or death talk, or maybe it was the fact that I was facing a transformation that neither of us knew was survivable. However you want to look at it, I took strength from him.
    We entered the doors to find my daddy sitting in one of the dining-room chairs, much like I had seen Jake the other day. His head was down and his hands were draped between his knees. The tears in his eyes, even through they didn’t escape, said the goodbye before his words could even leave his mouth.
    “I would have killed him to have you back, but no matter my actions, I’ve already lost you.”
    Talk about shredding my internal organs with just a few words. I was mush inside.
    “You could have tried.”
    “Jake!”
    My daddy just chuckled. Men —I swear.
    “He’s all Alpha, Amber. Even if he were all wolf, or his position were different, you would still be leaving. He could never serve under another Alpha. All I hope is that I get a chance to see you again.”
    “Of course you’ll see me, Daddy! Jake wouldn’t dream of keeping me from you. And even if he did, I would just beat that crazy notion from his head and come anyway. I don’t think we can live on Pack land, but it doesn’t mean we can’t visit.”
    Daddy looked at Jake with a sharpness I wasn’t expecting. He wiped his eyes and stood to his full height. Daddy had put on a few pounds since his change. He’d always had the look of a mid-western lumberjack, but since his change, he looked like he had walked through some steroid sludge on his way through the transformation. Big and Tall shops had a hard time fitting him.
    He was eye to eye with Jake. “Why haven’t you informed her of the Treaty?”
    Jake turned his head and popped his neck. The sound bounced off the tension starting to build in the room. “With all due respect, I could ask the same of you. Sir.”
    I was getting