Series: Werewolves of Wall Street Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
The man I thought wasn’t sure about me just made the grandest gesture possible while I was licking my wounds at home believing he’d decided I wasn’t worth the trouble.
“So…I am his mate?” I don’t know why, but I just need someone to say it out loud. Billy won’t.
“He may not have marked you, but he’s clearly yours. He’s slaying your dragons, even when you’re not together. He’s trying to make your dreams come true.”
God, I’m crying like a baby. I cover my mouth to hide the ugly sob.
Why did I doubt him?
Billy is broken, that’s for sure. But it doesn’t mean we can’t work. He may not be willing to admit yet I’m his fated mate, but I can admit he’s mine.
It’s time for me to fix this.
If he’s not willing to claim me, I’ll go over there and claim him.
I swipe at the tears under my eyes and lift my chest. “Take me to your place.”
Chapter Thirty
Billy
I sprawl on my couch and attempt to get drunk while I stare at the grey flower study spanning my wall. It’s bold and brilliant and begging for color.
Aubrey did that on purpose.
She did that to me.
She walked into my life, showed me texture and beauty, and pointed out how colorless I am. How soulless. How empty and flat and grey.
Until I met Aubrey, I thought I was satisfied. I clawed my way out of my childhood, and fate delivered me to the side of the most powerful alpha in the country. I wasn’t the biggest or strongest wolf in his pack, but I was the most vicious. The most paranoid, calculating, and conniving. I won every challenge for dominance and made myself indispensable to Brick when his life imploded. I helped him hold his pack together when the Adalwulfs nearly took them. Helped him more than replace the wealth that was ripped from his pack.
I had my life in complete control. I was wealthy, successful, and stood at the side of the most powerful pack in New York.
Then she waltzed in and set everything on fire.
Fuck.
I chug from a bottle of gin. I’ve downed almost the entire container, but with my shifter metabolism, the buzz is hard to maintain.
Someone opens my door without knocking. My teeth bare in a snarl as I tear to my feet to eviscerate whoever it is.
“Honey, I’m home.”
I go still.
She’s here.
Mate, my wolf howls.
I know.
I froze when she asked me.
Froze when my alpha asked me.
But as soon as she ended things, it became crystal clear: I’ve known Aubrey was my mate since the first time we met at La Résistance. I resisted fate because on some level, my subconscious registered her as a threat.
Love isn’t clean or simple. It isn’t orderly. I can’t control it.
The abused child in me feared for her life as well as my own because he was frozen in time, not knowing I’m all grown up now.
All grown up, and my tormenter’s dead.
No one will ever threaten my mate again.
If I can make her my mate.
But I’m frozen again now. At a loss for the right words to say to the female who means everything to me.
Mate, my wolf snarls.
Yes, I know.
I need to move. Need to say something.
Aubrey’s taking in the liquor bottle in my hand. The mess on the coffee table in my usually immaculate living room. I must look the way I feel–like I took a dive into Hell and stayed there. She struts over to me.
I have to speak. I am the man who brokers billion dollar deals. I can make my lips move.
“You’re my mate.” The words sound wooden and rusty.
Aubrey freezes her advance, staring at me.
I clear my throat. “I’m sorry I didn’t answer you at the wedding, but yes, you’re my mate. I would do anything for you, my Silver. My perfect poison. My Kryptonite. I…I need you in my life. I won’t make it without you.”
She runs to me, clomping over in her Doc Martens and taking a flying leap.
I catch her in the air, and she straddles my waist. “I love you, Billy White, the third.”
“I love you, Aubrey Cook, the first.”
“I’m here to claim you and mark you as mine, however the fuck I do that,” Aubrey declares.
The smile that forms on my face nearly breaks my cheeks. A strange sound comes from my lips. I don’t recognize it at first, then I realize it’s a laugh. “I can’t wait to see what you come up with.”
She licks my ear, then bites it. I slowly rotate us, savoring the feel of her in my arms. The incredible lightness that suddenly takes over my being. This female broke my heart and then waltzed back into my life like nothing happened.
“I’ll figure something out,” she promises. “A tattoo on your ass, maybe?”
Another laugh spills from me. “You want to tattoo my ass?”