“Nayla, what’s going on?”
Her expression crumpled. “I not allow you to be Gazi like me.”
His stomach contracted. He sensed he was still going to be feeling like shit in a matter of heartbeats, but for a completely different reason.
He hooked his rope back on his hip. “Explain.”
“Th-they upset with you. Because of me.” The words rushed out, so fast and accented he knew she was beyond upset. “I hoped it would lessen, but it only get worse. Lana say you should be k-kicked out. I never allow that to happen to you.” She threw her shoulders back and stood taller. “So, I-I travel separately. Sleep separately. Th-that way I do what Lana want. Malin, too. Keep distant from you. R-remove taint. Then they not focus on what happen and you can stay.”
Ah, hells. No wonder she had the sleeping blanket. She was willingly isolating herself—the very thing she hated most—out of some mixed-up attempt to protect him.
Of course, he should have expected something like this. The social dynamics were all new to her. She had no idea who held the power and what was possible. It didn’t sound as if there was much free speech among pack. If Talg didn’t like something, it led to punishment, isolation, or banishment.
She couldn’t know his team didn’t work that way. Or that it would take a lot more than whining by those unhappy with his choices to get him gone. He, the commander, and Ryker were solid for life. Rescued civilians like Lana had a lot of latitude, but if they didn’t approve of the way the team ran things, they were welcome to leave and seek protection elsewhere. He, and those he’d claimed as his, weren’t going anywhere.
“Nayla, baby, come here, please.” He opened his arms.
All along he’d been telling himself his worry was all about protecting her. That was true. But it was only half the story. Somehow, someway, this female had gotten so deep under his skin there was no going back for him. She was fast becoming the tether to his sanity and his soul. He could not lose her. For his sake as much as hers.
She shook her head. “No. I return at light and stay with females.”
“Not happening.” He bounded over the largest rock between them.
Her eyes went wide. “N-no, I never drag you down with me.”
“I’m a fucking savage Other. I don’t get dragged down, baby. I do the dragging.” He kept coming. “If anyone doesn’t like us together, they can take it up with me personally.”
“But if they make you go?”
“They can’t. They won’t.” His hands closed around her shoulders and his lungs finally started working right. “My position is secure.”
He ran his palms up and down her arms, unnerved all over again at how fragile she felt beneath his grip. “I also want to make something very clear. I’m a big boy. I can take care of myself.”
The lines at the bridge of her nose deepened, but she didn’t speak.
“You don’t want to be physical with me anymore, that’s okay.” He forced the words out. “You don’t want to stay in my tent, that’s fine. But I need you to remain a part of the team and to tell me what you’re thinking, no matter what.”
She placed her hand on his chest, the sudden flare of lust and need in her gaze slicing through him like a laser burst. “I do want to be in your tent.”
Red hot need slammed through him, but he forced the words out anyway. “I don’t want you to think I won’t have your back either way. I will always protect you.”
“I know what I want.” That stubbornness of hers reared its head. “I was just…worried.” Her shoulders sagged. “It all harder than I thought. One moment happy, the next afraid. Everyone new and I never know if I doing right. I feel…lost.” Her gaze lifted to his. “Except with you.”
He hauled her close and pressed his forehead to hers. “I can’t lose you.”
She froze.
“It’s not just you who feels that way, wild thing.” He sucked down a deep breath. “None of this is easy, but it’s worth it.”
“Sometimes hard to me to believe. I…I still hear Talg in head.”
“He’s not here now. It’s just you and me.”
“Yes.” Determination flared in her gaze. Gaze locked with his, she unhooked the rope coiled at his hip and pressed it to his chest. “Shut him out. Make me feel safe, free.”
Blood pounding in his veins, he gripped her hand in his. “Always.”
Taking the rope from her grasp, he unfurled it between them.
“You want a reminder that I’m going to take better care of this body than anyone ever could?”
“Yes.”
He skimmed the braided tip over the flush spreading across the hollows over her collarbone, desire and tenderness a raging storm in his chest. “Guard it like the savage, monstrous Other I am?”
Her breathing hitched.
He waited.
“Yes.” The single word was a low, sweet moan. “Remind me.”
Her arms were behind her back and laced tight in the next instant. He tightened the final knot with a quick snap. She let out a soft sigh. Grif’s balls drew tight. She liked to submit. He liked her surrender.
He stepped back to survey his work. “You’re so damn beautiful.”
She looked up at him with that same mix of doubt and awe that threatened to cut him off at the knees. That made him desperate to do whatever the fuck it took to have her looking at him like that for as long as he could.
“For those few moments when I thought you were leaving me, the monster in me roared so loud, the pain was almost too much to bear.” He sucked down another harsh breath. “I don’t do well with helpless.”
“You the strongest, fiercest male I know—and I am right here.” Rising to her tiptoes, she pressed her lips to his collarbone, his chin, the corner of his mouth, whispering the words against his skin, a healing balm of their own. “To do with as you wish.”
His control broke. His mouth slanted across hers. His palms slid to her ass. He lifted her to him, needing her even closer. “Promise me you’re staying.”
“I promise.” She wrapped her legs around him, accepting him, her need as great as his own. Kissing him back as wildly, her teeth raking down his throat as she marked his skin like she had his soul.
Nothing soothed the beast inside more.
“Come inside me, Grif.”
Except maybe that.
His cock thickened, his blood pounding hot as she writhed against him.
“Soon, baby.” As he spoke, he put her down and grabbed the blanket from where she’d dropped it. After a quick shake, he tossed it over the nearest rock. Her trust, as she simply watched and waited, floored him all over again. “We need to go over a little something first.”
He spun her around, bending her face down over the rock, her gorgeous ass tilted high in the air.
She sucked down a gasp.
He slid his thigh between her legs and, slowly, gently, forced hers to spread wide. The deliberate precision and control drew out the anticipation, until her sweet pussy, already so wet and needy, was exposed to his gaze.
“So pretty.” He leaned over, blanketing her body with his, and whispered in her ear. That’s what I see when I look at you. Pretty inside and out.” He nuzzled her ear before drawing back. “But stubborn, too.” He tapped her ass with the flat of his hand.