Loner (Norseton Wolves #2) Read online

  “I just want to make sure you’re happy,” she said.

  “I will be if you don’t run out of patience with me.”

  She slipped her hands under his shirt and slid them up his chest. Skin-to-skin contact made talking so much easier. She always knew she was on the right track by the way his muscles relaxed and his breathing slowed.

  “Remember, I need you as much as you need me,” she whispered.

  “You don’t need me. You’d be okay without me. You’d probably be better off with some human guy who wears a suit to work.”

  “I needed a wolf, and I like the one I have. No human guy in a suit would let me make Sharpie doodles on his chest whenever I want.” She nudged up his shirt and took a peek at his pecs. Her black ink drawing of a cross-eyed wolf was still there, though somewhat faded. She giggled at the memory of him trying to scrub it off in the shower with her purple bath pouf. She made them increasingly silly just to see those precious expressions he made when he looked in the mirror at them.

  He looked up from his chest and met her gaze. She knew how hard that was for him, so she rewarded him with a kiss on his chin. Weeks ago, she would have never guessed she’d find pleasure in such a chaste act, but she hadn’t known there were wolves like Darius then, either.

  “I don’t think I told you. I…I like the ones you do with a bunch of colors. Takes you longer.”

  She let his shirt fall back into place and stuffed her hands into the back pockets of his jeans. “You could just ask me to not scurry away so soon when I’m done.”

  “Like I said, I don’t want you to run out of patience with me.”

  “Gods, Darius, don’t worry about that.”

  “Can you blame me?”

  She cringed. No, she really couldn’t blame him. She hoped to quickly disabuse him of the notion that she couldn’t be asked for simple favors, though. His happiness was contagious, so it was in her best interest to make him practice that smile.

  “What did you want from Alpha?”

  “Just reassurance.”

  “About what?”

  “That this pack is what we both need. Before I came here, I had dreams that it might be. The pack is growing. There are no molds for us here, and I think we have to carve out our places while we have a chance.”

  “What did you have in mind?” The last nervous tendrils of his energy dissipated, and she finally let herself take a deep breath.

  “We’ll figure it out together. You don’t have to worry about it, because we’re going to help each other. You’re going to teach me how to be a wolf, and I’m going to keep all of the noise and chaos away from you. That’ll be my job, just like teaching art at the school next semester. How about that?”

  He flashed Stephanie one of those bashful grins and pulled her onto his lap. “So you’re okay with me letting you do all the talking?”

  “As long as you’re not hiding from me.”

  “I’d never hide from you. Not me or my wolf. You make me feel safe.”

  “Me?”

  “Mm-hmm. You feel like home. I haven’t had that in a very long time. I’d be stupid to hide from that.”

  “You’re definitely not stupid.”

  “I don’t know about that. I know I’m lucky, though. I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

  “Probably about as much as I did to deserve you. Since I’m here, why don’t you pull up your homework? I’ll watch the monitors, and you can fix your sentences.”

  “Okay.” He switched one of the screens to a browser display and navigated to his online documents. “I figured out what kind of degree I want to get.”

  “What?” She squinted at moving speck on one of the screens. It turned out to just be a cat walking past the mansion steps. Cute little thing.

  We should get a cat. Something to tangle up Darius’s feet when he walked and make him swear in that hilarious way he did. He was so oddly eloquent in that one way.

  She laughed even thinking it, then kissed his furrowed brow. He probably thought she was nuts, which was a little true, if she was being honest.

  “Uh. Computer science. The pack needs to use technology more efficiently in our jobs. I think I can help with that.”

  And he would probably have less face time with the public. A perfect solution.

  “Just need to run it past Alpha.”

  “He’ll say yes,” she said confidently.

  “How do you know?”

  “I brought him lunch. He owes me a favor.” She winked, and he blushed like a teenaged boy. A shy, gentle, lone wolf.

  Her lone wolf.

  He didn’t need changing, and neither did she.

  The End

  OTHER NORSESTON WOLVES STORIES

  Anton’s story is available now.

  Look for Colt’s story in July 2015.

  Subscribe to Holley’s paranormal romance new release alerts so you don’t miss a Norseton Wolves installment or any of her other sexy shifter books.

  ALSO BY HOLLEY TRENT

  Afótama Legacy

  (Modern Viking Telepaths)

  The Viking Queen’s Men

  The Chieftain’s Daughter

  Hearth Motel

  (Biker Fairies-for-Hire)

  Prince in Leather

  Shrew & Company

  (paranormal private eyes)

  The Problem with Paddy

  Framing Felipe

  Bryan’s Betrayal

  The Shrew & Company 1-3 boxed set

  Following Fabian

  ___

  Sons of Gulielmus

  (reformed sex demons and their shifter friends)

  A Demon in Waiting

  A Demoness Matched (Melt My Heart anthology)

  A Demon in Love

  A Demon Found

  A Demon Bewitched

  An Angel Fallen

  ***Get five Sons of Gulielmus stories in the 99¢ Demons Undone e-book bundle.***

  ABOUT HOLLEY TRENT

  Holley Trent is a Carolina girl gone west. Raised in rural coastal North Carolina, she’s a lady with Southern sensibilities, but in 2011 her adventurous spirit drove her to Colorado for new experiences.

  She writes contemporary and paranormal romances ranging from sensual to erotic that are usually set in her home state. Her humor is sometimes subtle, often ribald, and regularly inappropriate. If any of her stories seem overly serious at first glance–keep reading.

  She’s a winner of the inaugural CIM-RWA Abalone Award (for My Nora) and a three-time Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence finalist (My Nora, Calculated Exposure, and A Demon in Waiting). A Demon in Waiting was a RomCon Readers’ Crown finalist in 2014.

  Want to chat with Holley about her backlist titles or any other thing? Email her at [email protected]. To see her full list of books, holleytrent.com.

  COPYRIGHT AND CREDITS

  LONER

  Copyright © 2015 by Holley Trent

  Cover art credits:

  Couple - © barelko.com (Dollar Photo Club)

  Wolf - © adore (Dollar Photo Club)

  Copy edits by K. Stein, Missed Period Editing

  All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part of this book in any format, except for reviewing purposes, is allowed only with prior consent of the author.

  LONER is a work of fiction. Names, places, entities, and scenarios in this book are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.