Chapter 26

Hunter

I woke after a fitful night, the image of Kara’s body in my mind.

And the taste of her.

It hadn’t been like her to instruct me. To push me down.

To delay my pleasure.

To focus on her own.

But I’d liked it. The taste of her was still in my mouth, and I started to get hard again thinking about it.

Then I remember the night. The way Kara had been looking at Adrian. Him catching her when she nearly fell off the stage. Maya’s confusion and upset. Her clinginess. Being annoyed at her for making her reliance on me obvious, but annoyed at myself for my reaction. The way my anger at Kara had turned to lust. Sex between us that was not at all like it usually was. Adrian and his comment about the Alpha Council.

At that thought, I threw the sheets off the bed and started to pace the small suite.

After all my work, how had my cousin advanced so much further than I had? I’d been waiting to be tapped for the Alpha Council for years.

I was doing everything right.

Except for having a fated mate as a Luna. A public rather than a secret marriage.

But Adrian didn’t have that either.

Though maybe that’s what he was looking for, sniffing around Kara. He’d rejected her once, but things could change. She had become much more competent and powerful in the years since. Though I was pretty sure his issue had been her background and her shitty family. And that would never change.

I tried to ignore the jealousy I felt, and the anger that he’d reject her then come back.

Her body popped into my head again. Her full breasts heaving as I looked up at them from between her legs.

Her body seemed different lately, though I couldn’t put my finger on why.

Though maybe it was just whatever had changed in how she was carrying herself. Whatever made her act so different with me last night.

Or maybe she was getting different sex somewhere else, and it was changing what she wanted from me.

My nostrils flared and the blood jumped in my neck. I started pacing again.

Adrian? Had they been in touch before last night? Maybe they’d been sneaking around for a while.

Or could it be Leo? I wouldn’t like to think he’d do that to me, but I’d been surprised by his actions before. Maybe that day they were walking in the garden was the start or something. Or maybe I’d been right to be out of my mind with jealousy—

I paused in my walking, breathing heavily.

No.

I knew her well enough to know that it couldn’t be that. She wasn’t cheating on me. Whatever else was going on with her, I knew I could be certain of her loyalty.

The curve of her naked hipbone flitted across my mind’s eye.

What was making her act so differently? It almost seemed like she was jealous of Maya, but I didn’t see why she should be. Maya was my fated mate, and Kara and I had always been together for practical reasons.

She was in it for the money—always had been.

Which was fine. I respected her for it, and respected her good work and attitude, and enjoyed that we satisfied each other in the bedroom.

When had it gotten so much more complicated?

And why was I feeling so off-kilter about her and her reactions?

There was a soft knock at the door.

I took in a breath of air and straightened my posture. I imagined Kara’s short red shorts, and wondered if she was still wearing them. I let myself hope, just for a moment, that it would be her standing outside the door.

I opened it to find Maya. I sighed, slightly disappointed for a reason I couldn’t quite understand. I shouldn’t have felt anything other than excitement to see her here.

She smiled, holding a covered plate of food and cradling a coffee mug between her forearm and her body precariously.

“I brought you breakfast,” she said sweetly, walking slowly into the room. She stopped at the desk, brow furrowing slightly.

“Could you grab the coffee cup?” She asked. “I’m afraid I’ll drop it if I set the tray down.

I took it, fingertips brushing the underside of her full breasts as I did so. She wasn’t wearing a bra.

My pulse quickened.

I was having arousal whiplash, thinking about Kara, then being close to Maya, still trying to wait until she was a little older and more mature before being with her in any real sense.

Perhaps I’d been a little hard on Kara about Adrian. Maybe.

She set the plate on the desk and stepped into my arms. Her head only came to much chest, and she nestled into my embrace.

“I’m so glad to be here, with just you,” she started. “I felt so out of place last night. I’ve never been to an event like that, and I needed you, though I knew I shouldn’t be too clingy but I couldn’t stay too far away from you, and—”

She trailed off and her mouth twisted like she was considering something that she didn’t like.

“And I was so confused about Adrian and Kara. And you seemed so preoccupied by what was going on with them. Who is he? Why did he seem so important? And what’s Kara to him? Are they—?”

She spoke quickly, like she needed to get all her thoughts out before she lost her nerves. She blinked up at me.

Her eyes sparkled, pleading.

I opened my mouth, wanting to give her the reassurance I could see she needed. I wasn’t sure what to say.

All my descriptions of Adrian’s importance were connected with my stalled career, which wasn’t what I wanted to think about. Not until I could do something about it. And Kara was another mystery.

More to the point, I didn’t like the idea of thinking about Kara while I was with Maya any more than I had to.

It was starting to feel inappropriate to have them in the same space in my brain.

Being with Kara last night had felt much more like cheating than made any sense.

She was my wife, after all. But something about it felt wrong.

I was tongue tied.

I cleared my throat.

“I have to go, actually,” I said briskly. “Thanks for the breakfast.”

“Oh,” she said sadly. “Okay, I’ll just—”

She walked toward the door, looking back over her shoulder, probably hoping I’d tell her to wait. I couldn’t.

There was something I needed to do.

I waited just a few minutes before going downstairs myself, taking the stairwell rather than the elevator and slipping out the back door.

I needed to approach the Alpha Council directly, I thought, as I ran into the woods behind the hotel.

I phased as soon as I was under cover of trees. I felt my blood glimmer under my skin as my body lengthened, becoming more powerful. My eyesight sharpened; I pitched forward onto my front paws and began running, sinews straining against my new form.

As was customary, I would approach council headquarters in my wolf form.

And I wouldn’t take no for an answer.