Free Werewolf Rage Book #2 in the Taming The Wolf Series by Katie Lee O'Guinn

Maybe because you’ve never had a boyfriend before. I guess it’s hard for me to trust in your feelings for me when you push me away constantly. You refuse to marry me, but that’s the only thing that would give me any relief from these feelings. If you were my wife, I could trust that no man would be able to take you away from me. But this limbo you have us in, just gives anyone the time and the opportunity to steal you away from me. And with Cole doing his best to give you doubts and telling you that he’d fight me for you, it’s not easy,” he said quietly, staring at her as his breathing settled and his hands unclenched.
    Ava turned her body away from the couch so she could lean against it. Marriage. “I’m mated to you, but by marrying you I would be giving myself completely to you. There would be no going back,” she said softly, as she stared at the family portraits on the wall.
    Cyrus sat up and moved to the floor beside her. He took her hands in his and laid his face in her palms. He then pulled her toward him, so she was now sitting on his lap. He put his arms around her and laid his tired head in the crook of her shoulder and her neck, breathing in her scent as if it were an elixir.
    “There’d be no going back,” he agreed, holding her in his arms.
    Ava closed her eyes and relaxed back into Cyrus’s arms for a moment. Cyrus took a shuddering breath and held her tighter. Ava pulled back for a moment making him groan before she moved to put her arms around his shoulders, embracing him. She softly kissed his forehead and the side of his face as she ran her hand through his wavy dark brown hair.
    “What am I going to do with you?” she asked softly before gently kissing his lips. Cyrus closed his eyes at the kiss and sighed, letting the rest of the pain, anxiety and strain out of his body.
    “Could you please just love me? Stay with me forever and be my wife . . ., please ?” he asked with a faint smile on his mouth.
    Ava held his face in both her hands as she looked deeply in to his light blues eyes, looking so far she could swear she could see his soul. She rubbed her thumbs over his cheekbones and then traced her finger over his mouth slowly.
    “I love you,” she said and bent down to kiss him, pulling back as he tilted his head. His eyes gleamed at her dangerously.
    Ava smiled, her eyes still sad though as she smoothed the hair away from his forehead . “I will stay with you forever,” she promised and then kissed him. Deeper this time. Allowing her feelings for him to move from her to him.
    Cyrus murmured something and reached up for her face, but she pulled back. She shook her head at him as she caressed the side of his neck and moved both of her hands up into his hair. She gripped his hair firmly in her hands as she brought their foreheads together. She stared into his now bright, alert eyes. “And I will be your wife,” she said quietly.
    She watched curiously as Cyrus’s eyes widened and a light filled his face. A smile cracked his tense mouth and she felt his whole body let down just before he gripped her in his arms and rolled with her on the carpet, coming to the position of him leaning over her.
    “You’re going to be my wife. You just gave me your word,” he said wonderingly as he dipped his head and spread kiss after kiss all over her face. She smiled at him and moved to roll away, but he pinned her in place and shook his head.
    “ When ?” he demanded, his voice now hard and serious, his eyes blazing down into hers.
    She reached up and smoothed the line between his eyes and touched his cheeks in her hands. She could see that he was still shaky from the pain of believing she had left him. He had been suffering for hours and she felt her heart break for him. But if he’d just trusted her, he wouldn’t have had to feel a moment’s agony.
    “I’ll be nineteen soon. How about you propose to me when I turn nineteen?” she said, feeling very saint like.
    Cyrus frowned darkly