Ascension - Book Eight - Man x Man

Chapter 3 (new)

"Put me down!" I demand, squirming against his hold as he carries me. My warlord strides to our car, I resist the urge to pound his back and flail, knowing there was little hope of return if I allowed myself to get out of hand. Once we're beside the vehicle, he places me on my feet, and I quickly take steps back from him. 

I pull helplessly on my clothes as his hands grip mine, attempting to steady my fingers so that I don't shred my shirt. Every bit of insecurity I had before I was turned was heightened, brought back tenfold. I had never been happy with myself, I'd never been 'fit' and had never quite been satisfied with the various degrees of thin to pudgy and unfit my body had taken over the years. 

Now, while I had no sculpted abdominals, I was at least trending back towards lean and trim. At least, that's what I'd hoped until he'd commented that I'd gained noticeable size. Before I'd gone to Romania, I'd been too thin, I was on death's door. So surely weight was a good thing?

 "Weight? Tan? Why bring it up? Who even says things like that?"

"Darling, he's a paid reporter. You know how the press is."

Shaking my head, I felt torn between the need to show them exactly what lurked beneath and to hide away. If I couldn't win favor by saving the planet, if that didn't earn me a scrap of grace, why was I even doing this?

"I've been so good, I've kept so quiet, how could anyone suspect that I was any different? What do they want to see? It's as if they want me to break down into tears and beg them not to send me back into the depths?" My chest heaves, and I feel sweat threatening to trickle down my temple as my body struggles to hold itself together. 

Yanking out of his hands, I wrap my arms around myself with a snarl of agony. It was excruciating- as if my anger boiled my very bones. I couldn't do this, I didn't want to continue to burn.

Patience crosses his expression, Verando sighs and I feel the pang of guilt. He was so exhausted, so tired of trying to manage all of us after worrying about me for so long. "You've got to get your temperature down or you're going to stay on the edge of the shift. You can't let the wolf out here." 

As I slowly begin to reason out the pain and the anger, the strength in my resolve starts to crack. Straightening from where I'd leaned against the car, I managed to glance up at him and cautiously untangled one of my arms from where it'd wrapped around my body. "Hold me. Please. Pull me back together."

Verando takes me into his arms, squeezing me so impossibly tight as I bury my nose in his chest, taking long and slow inhales that damped the inferno. The scent of him, and the way my body reacted to his touch, were all the clues that I needed to remind me that he belonged to me. The lights of the parking garage cast strange shadows, and the damp and dusty smell of the concrete structure played weird tricks on my nose. 

"You're doing very well," Verando reassures me, brushing his nose against the top of my head as his warm hands caress me. I shiver at the strength in his arms, the solid nature of the muscle beneath my fingertips. His steady breathing commanded my own, the praise making my body soar to new heights.

 Molding me against his body, intoxicating me with the feel of him, he bends slightly to kiss my forehead. "I'm sorry I continue to fail you. I'm not doing a very good job controlling my wolf."

Taken aback by his words, I glance up through my lashes, surprised by the admittance. "You seemed pretty in control." I retort shortly, almost scoffing. 

"A farce, I assure you. I could have gutted him for saying that about you, you were beautiful before the shift and you're beautiful now. What a horrible thing to bring up to any human, let alone the savior of the planet... I think you handled that very gracefully. Alpha was giving me a thorough thrashing."