Page 264 of His Hungry Wolf

I laughed. “Yeah, too bad he’s taken.”

Nero smiled. “I guess you’ll have to settle for whoever’s left.”

“Bummer,” I said teasingly.

“Bummer.”

Staring into his eyes I recognized this moment. I might not have had any experience with guys or relationships, but standing in front of my dorm’s front door I knew that this was when the guy went in for the kiss. I wanted him to. But as soon as he leaned towards me, I stepped away and offered him my hand.

“Anyway, thanks for giving me a glimpse into your world. It was…”

“Life-changing?” Nero asked quickly shaking off whatever disappointment my gesture created.

“Yes, life-changing,” I conceded. If I wasn’t going to kiss him, the least I could do was make him feel good about himself.

“Thought so,” he said cockily. He stretched out his arms. “Hug?”

I hesitated, but only for a moment. Slipping my arms around him, I held him tightly. When he did the same, I didn’t want him to let me go. Even after he loosened his grip, it took me a moment to reciprocate. I was losing my resistance toward Nero and falling for him hard. The only question remaining was what I was going to do about it.

Chapter 6

Nero

From the moment I released Kendall from my arms, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I had learned something while playing with him watching me. It was that I could release my wolf without him taking control.

It was like he was standing next to me instead of being shoved down. I liked it. And the intensity it brought followed me into my next practice.

“Keep up the hard work, Roman,” Coach said as I puked in a bucket after wind sprints.

“Thanks, Coach.”

Getting his acknowledgment felt good, but not as good as receiving one of Kendall’s texts. I was trying not to text him too much. I didn’t have much experience with this but my gut told me I should play it cool. But what the hell did I know other than it was crazy that I was choosing to go through this alone.

A year ago, my brother had met the love of his life. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t talked to him about how I felt about Kendall. Though, being a wolf shifter, there was no way he didn’t already know I was head-over-heels for him.

‘Could you drive Quin up this weekend? We have a house we want you to take a look at,’ Cage texted.

I stared at the text not sure how to respond. I was happy to drive Quin up and it would give me an excuse to see Mama. That wasn’t the problem. It was the part about the house.

Their plan made sense. There was no use in Quin paying to stay at Dr. Sonya’s bed and breakfast if he could buy something as easily. And, lord knows it would be good to have a little privacy when I came to visit. You couldn’t fart in the old place without everyone knowing about it.

But, they were looking for a place within Dr. Tom’s protective barrier that robbed wolves of their sense of smell. More than that, as run down as it was, the old place was home. It was mine.

Actually, it wasn’t. We paid too much to rent the shit hole. But — I don’t know — it was my home. It was somewhere no one could take from me — except the landlord who had threatened to kick us out a lot over the years.

I didn’t know why I gave a shit about that crap hole at all. But, I did. And the thought of losing it made me feel uneasy.

It’s not that I didn’t trust Quin’s hospitality. Hell, at this point, Quin felt as much like family as Cage did. I have never been a part of a pack but what the three of us had was feeling close to it.

So, I guess what made me hesitate was being that dependent on someone else. I had had to take care of myself for a long time. When you only have yourself to rely on, there’s only one person who could let you down.

Sitting on my bed in my dorm, the door opened.

“Hey, Cage said he texted you. Did you get it?” Titus asked before tossing his backpack to the foot of his bed.

“I got it. I’ve been busy. I haven’t gotten the chance to reply.”

I could feel Titus staring at me as I stared at the ceiling lost in thought.