Grace of a Wolf by Lenaleia

Chapter 30: Caine: Behaving Strangely

CAINE

There’s something strange about her tonight. She’s calmer than this morning, a little more assured, despite the familiar scent in her room. Storming down the hall, I snap at Fenris, Are you sure it’s him?

When have I ever mistaken a scent? It’s the wolf who followed her when we first met. His irritation only feeds mine, like a cloud of dark energy following behind.

No new injuries marred her skin, no fresh bruises. At least there’s that. But that doesn’t explain the scent of another wolf in her room. A Blue Mountain wolf. One who shouldn’t dare approach...

"Damn it. She’s driving me crazy."

It will only get worse if you keep denying our connection to her.

The tattoos on my neck burn, and I lift my upper lip in a snarl. "Everything will be fine once I settle things." The others were right; she’s a victim, not a prisoner. And yet I can’t bring myself to send her back to human society.

She’s been under Brax’s thumb for six years. There are things she needs in order to survive as a human. A driver’s license. A place to live. Money. Food. A job.

The more I think of, the worse it feels to even consider sending her back to the humans. At least if I brought her with us, she would have shelter, food, and never have to work again...

Shit. Fenris is messing with my thoughts again. Now I’m even considering bringing her to our pack, as if a human could ever survive surrounded by Lycans.

without this obsessive need to surround myself in the aroma of blueberry muffins fresh out of the oven. Without imagining how her hair would feel between my fingers.

skin flushed and warm beneath my touch. I see every curve, every soft plane of her body, exposed for my eyes alone, the vision

Fuck.

sharply, forcing the

forced upon me is disrupting everything. I’ve already

agrees. I’m glad you’re

you," I

is clear because I’ve accepted our connection with

so

normal wolf.

evidence marked on my skin in the form of tattoos. The separation

possession. Where they feel protectiveness, I feel rage.

gave you power, but

the way I came. The Blue Mountain shifter standing guard outside her door stiffens. It wasn’t his scent in her room, but he probably knows who it

know why he was visiting? The girl isn’t hurt; if I go around tyrannizing everyone who looks at her twice, the rumors will only grow. As if Jack-Eye’s nagging

eat with me standing there, and she needs the sustenance. I have to give her space, even if I want to throw open the door and stand there, breathing in her scent for the next hour. Maybe three hours.

Forever? Fenris suggests.

Brax to uphold our laws; what would it say of me if I followed in his footsteps? I swore to uphold the law when I became King. I said