Free Wolf Moon by A.D. Ryan Page A

vampire’s scent had filled my head.
    Before he could leave, I
stood up. “I’m sorry David shot you. You’re not as bad as I thought you were.”
    Jackson laughed and shook
his head. “Truth be told, I didn’t even feel it. Anyway, I’ll leave you to it,
kid. Have a good night.”
    “You too,” I called after
him. “And thanks.” He turned to me. “For the talk.”
    I sat there for a few
more minutes and reviewed everything he’d told me. Deep down, I knew that what
happened to David wasn’t my fault, and Nick had been telling me the same thing
time and time again, but that didn’t negate my guilt. I still needed time to
work through my grief. My heart needed time to heal, even if it remembered and
craved how easy it was to be with Nick and turn off everything else.
    God, how I wanted to turn
it all off and just lose myself in anything but this empty feeling.
    By sundown, the sky above
the mountains looked like it had been lit on fire with shades of orange,
yellow, and pink. It was so beautiful, but the temperature dropped
significantly despite its magnificence, so I decided to head back.
    As I crossed the little
bridge, the wind picked up and cut through my wool sweater, and I experienced
the chill of a Canadian winter for the first time. I picked up my pace,
watching my footing every step of the way to avoid any patches of ice, and when
I reached the back corner of the house, I looked up to find Nick waiting for me
in the front.
    I offered him a nervous
smile and continued toward him. When I reached him, I stopped and looked up
into his eyes. “I’m sorry,” we both said at the same time before lightly
laughing. I opened my arms and wrapped them around Nick’s waist, and he did the
same, holding me and kissing the top of my head. The emotion behind this
gesture was obvious, but he had promised not to push, and I appreciated it.
    I shivered when another
snap of wind picked up, and Nick turned us toward the front door, keeping one
of his arms wrapped around me. “Come on, let’s head inside. Dinner will be
ready soon, and I’d like to talk a bit more before that happens.”
    We headed inside, and as
we climbed the stairs and headed for our room, the door next to ours opened,
and Roxy stepped out, dressed in the tightest pair of jeans and a low-cut red
sweater. She eyed us as we walked past, but Nick didn’t seem to notice her. His
focus was solely on me…
    And I could see just how
much it pissed her off as we stepped into our room and closed the door.
     

Chapter 6 | war
    A fter putting my things
in the empty dresser drawers and hanging any clothes that required it in the
ridiculously oversized walk-in closet, I sat in the middle of the bed with my
legs crossed. Nick had changed the bedding—I didn’t know where the other
stuff was, but this set was a beautiful array of rich brown and gold with deep
red accents. It smelled like fresh laundry, all detergent and fabric softener.
Way better than naked, horny werewolf skank.
    I
still had a few jealousy issues to work out.
    For
the first time since we arrived, I got a chance to really admire Nick’s room.
It was huge—which shouldn’t have been too surprising given the impressive
size of rest of the house. Two deep red armchairs sat in front of the windows,
facing inward with a table in between them, and there was a fireplace across
from the foot of the king-sized bed. There was a fair-sized ensuite bathroom that had a Jacuzzi tub and a shower stall that would put all others to
shame. It literally took up half the room and had no glass door. Instead, there
were tile walls built up about three feet on either side of the central
entrance before curving up to the roof. I didn’t get a good look at it yet, but
both sides looked to have regular showerheads, while the middle had one of
those pricey waterfall ones that also had ten additional high
pressure heads beneath it. It looked intense and like it would surely
hit every square inch of your body. I