Creed scrubbed his hands down his face and muttered, “Fuck.”
As he approached, Easton’s eyes reflected eerily in the glow from the fire in the brick pit—proof that his animal was never far from the surface. His gray shirt clung to his hard physique, and the top two buttons were open, exposing the line between his pec muscles. His legs were long and powerful with every stride he took, and despite the limp, he was graceful. He’d learned that gate with his time in the wilderness, fending for himself. She’d watched the slow change from clumsy boy to graceful animal in the years that broke him.
“Hi,” she whispered past her tightening vocal cords.
He shifted his weight from foot to foot, just on the edge of the firelight. Even in his human form, he looked like a wild animal who found safety in the shadows. “You’re here.”
“For a reason,” Willa said.
Easton frowned and ghosted a glance at the red-headed woman, then back to Aviana. “Why?”
Aviana looked to Creed. He was king here, and she was wary of him snapping if she didn’t behave right.
“Go ahead,” the alpha said in a defeated tone, leaning back in his chair and resting his hand on the swell of his mate’s stomach.
“I want to court you.”
Easton shrugged a shoulder up to his ear and shook his head. “I don’t know what that means.”
“I want to date you, and if you find you like me well enough…” She swallowed the lump in her throat, but the rest of the words wouldn’t come out. Not with him staring at her so directly like this.
“If I like you well enough…what?”
“Maybe don’t look at me while I tell you.”
“All right,” he said, sounding baffled. He turned around and gave her his back.
She exhaled a long, shaky breath. “Maybe if you like me well enough, you’ll pick me for a mate.”
Easton’s back went rigid. With each silent second that dragged on, the anticipation clogged her throat, making it harder and harder to breathe. She opened her mouth to apologize for intruding and excuse herself, but Easton murmured, “You’re scared of me.”
“I’ll work on not being scared of you.”
“Then okay.”
“Okay?” Her voice came out a hopeful squeak.
“Easton, I forbid you to Turn her,” Creed said, powerful voice sending electric currents into the air.
Easton looked to Willa over his shoulder and shook his head. “I learned my lesson. I won’t Turn Ana.” He spun slowly on his heel and looked at Aviana over the firelight. “I won’t be any good at this.” There was warning in his tone, but his eyes softened. “But we can try. Alpha, I want your blessing.” He turned his inhuman, green gaze on Creed. “Please.”
A muscle twitched in Creed’s clenched jaw. With a sigh, he leveled Aviana with a glare. “Before you answer the question I’m about to ask you, know that we can all hear a lie.”
Steeling herself, Aviana nodded.
“Why do you want to be with Easton?”
That question held the easiest answer in the world. “Because I don’t fit anywhere else.”
Softly, Willa murmured, “She sounds like a Gray Back to me.”
A slow smile spread across Creed’s face in the flickering firelight. “Then a courtship between you and Easton has my blessing.”
A giggle bubbled up her throat, and she sagged heavily against the brick as Easton stood frozen across the fire, looking stunned. Willa stood and reached her first, then hugged her so hard her lungs hurt. Gia and Georgia followed, and the boys smiled and nodded at her as she walked around the fire pit toward Easton—her Easton.
“I won’t hurt you,” he said, promise in his voice.
She stood on her tiptoes and hugged his neck, inhaling the wild scent of his skin. Fur and earth and pine. “I know you won’t. I trust you.”
His hands slipped around her waist slowly, gently, as if he were forcing himself to be careful with her. “When you get to know me, you’ll leave.”
She eased back and smiled up at him, trying her best to hold his feral gaze. She pressed her palm against his chest. Her hand rattled with the soft vibration of his pounding heart. “I already know you.”
Confusion rippled over his face like a wave, there and gone in a moment. “Do you want to see my den?”
“I want to see your den,” Jason piped up.
“No,” Easton gritted out.
“How do you like that?” he asked Georgia. “I’m his best friend, and he still won’t let me see the inside of his trailer.”
“Nobody’s seen it,” Matt said. “Hey!” he called as Aviana and Easton walked toward the tree line. “I’ll give you five bucks to tell us what it looks like inside.”