Call of the Moon

Billy wandered around Chloe’s living room, taking it all in before sitting on the long leather couch. She stood just inside the doorway, her body language a tangle of confusion. He saw nervousness in her hands, fear and interest in her eyes, and caught a faint scent of arousal on her skin. The wolf in him wanted to pounce on her and take her to the floor where she stood, fuck her and mark her as his. He forced himself to sit still.

He’d come to the council meeting with one mission. To convince her to accept his bond and come home with him. He couldn’t take much more of the distance she’d put between them. For at least the ten thousandth time, he wished Wyatt was alive for him to kill all over again. It wouldn’t make him any more dead, but it would give Billy a great deal of satisfaction. The werewolf had stolen his mate and even in death kept them apart. He took a deep breath, willing his hammering heart to slow and reaching for the calm for which he was so well known.

“Why don’t you sit down?” he asked Chloe.

She stepped into the sunken living room and dropped her bag on a side table. Then she surprised him by perching on the far end of the couch, when he’d expected her to choose one of the chairs out of his reach. Her hands fisted in her lap, and she looked down at them.

“How have you been?” he asked.

Her head jerked up. He was glad he had her attention, but he wasn’t sure if he could take the scared look in her eyes.

“Fine. You?”

“I’m good.” He shook his head. “No. That’s a lie. I’m miserable and irritable and apparently such a nightmare to work with that Jackson keeps threatening to…well, never mind.”

She stared at him like he’d grown an extra head, and stood, the movement abrupt and jerky.

“I can’t do this,” she said, attempting to pass him.

He couldn’t let her escape so easy and grabbed her hand. “Chloe. Wait.”

She looked down at him and tried to tug free of his grasp. Her eyes brimmed with tears. Ah, hell. He wished more than anything that she’d let him pull her down onto his lap and kiss them away. He sighed. Another time.

“Let me go, Billy. Please,” she whispered.

The word please almost killed him, almost made him abandon his mission. Before he could talk himself into it, he shook his head.

“I can’t, and you know it,” he answered softly. “I can’t stand to see you upset like this. You know I’d never hurt you.”

She snorted a laugh, but quit trying to pull away. “You want to take over my life. You want me to submit.”

He couldn’t deny the domineering nature of a werewolf and nodded in agreement. “That doesn’t have to equal pain. I’m not here trying to pretend to be something I’m not.”

He took a deep breath, biding his time, unsure how to convince her to give them a chance. He could tell her how much he loved her, but she wouldn’t believe him. So he might as well fall back on the physical needs of his species. That she understood, and since he could already smell her arousal on her skin, the scent faint but definitely there, he thought it might be his best shot. So, giving in to temptation, he tugged her down onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her. She felt so good there he almost forgot his plan.

“Give me this weekend,” he demanded, meeting her startled gaze. “Anything I want, anything at all, and I give you my word I won’t bind you to me. Not unless you ask me to.”

Gasping, she stiffened and tried to move off his lap, but he held on tight. “That’s crazy,” she said. “You don’t have that kind of control.”

He arched an eyebrow.

“Well, you don’t.” She swallowed. “No werewolf is able to do that.”

“I’m not just any werewolf.” He smiled. “I can handle it. But maybe you can’t. Or maybe you’re going to latch onto that as an excuse to keep living in fear.”

Chloe’s eyes narrowed and flashed as her anger sparked, and some of the weight lifted from his heart. He’d drag her back to the world of the living by keeping her pissed off if that’s what worked.

“I’m not afraid of you.”

He grinned. “No, I don’t think you are.”

She cocked her head to one side. “You did that on purpose.”

“Yeah, Chloe. I’m not letting you go. I gave you as much time as I could, and now I’m asking you to give me time. Let me show you how good we can be together.”

“Just for this weekend?”

“Yes.”

“And you won’t bite me?”

Billy paused. This was the tricky part. “This weekend I won’t bite you.”