The Burning Claw (The Grey Wolves #10)(12)

When Drake pulled back, he grabbed the fabric and pulled it over her knee and across her leg to cover the markings as much as possible.
He cleared his throat and then spoke, though the growl remained. “Those markings, they are meant for my eyes only. I do not know if I could keep my wolf under control if another male saw them.” He took a deep breath as if bracing himself for something. “Did anyone see you walking back?”Her brow scrunched together as she frowned at him. “No, Jen promised she would keep the other males away. We didn’t encounter anyone.”
“You will learn that Jen sometimes says what you want to hear, not what she’s necessarily going to do.”
Bethany placed her hand on his bare shoulder and squeezed just as he’d done to her ankle. “No one saw me, Drake—only you.”
Drake let out an audible breath. He knew he was probably freaking her out by his possessiveness, but it wasn’t an instinct he could curb, not even to put Bethany at ease. Her markings were right there, on her beautiful thigh, relatively uncovered. He’d noticed them when the slit in her skirt had separated as she moved, and the sight had caused his wolf to surge forward before Drake could stop him. He shouldn’t have touched her, not in such an intimate way. But his wolf could only think of one thing—mine. Over and over it was a mantra in his mind. She was theirs and the markings that matched his own were just another sign.
“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable when I touched you,” he said quietly, hoping she could feel his sincerity. He wasn’t sorry he’d touched her, but he didn’t want to scare her.
“It didn’t make me uncomfortable in the way you are thinking,” she said bluntly. “It felt nice.”
Drake’s blood began to heat as her words registered in his very male mind. She liked his touch on her bare skin. She said it felt nice. Of course, in his mind he had heard, it felt amazing, I need you, I want you, touch me again. He clenched his jaw together. Get a grip, he growled to himself, making sure there were some boundaries up in his mind so she couldn’t hear his inner dialogue
“Did you have any more questions? Or is there anything you would like to talk about?” Drake asked, attempting to ease the tension in his body.
“Where do you live?”
“I live here, in the mansion. Most of the pack does, though there are a few who have their own dens.”
“Dens?”
“Houses,” he explained. “Sorry, I tend to think of it as my wolf does, as a den. I have a suite here, like all the other members of the pack. We tend to stick together. We thrive on being a family— all connected through the pack bonds.”
“Will I be connected?” Bethany asked
“Once we are bonded,” he answered, looking up at her. “Yes, you will be connected to the pack.”
Drake loved how straightforward she was. For the most part she wasn’t easily embarrassed and that impressed the hell out of him and his wolf. She was strong. She would make a worthy mate and their offspring would be strong as well.
“Do you think you can come out now?” 
Drake’s eyes lowered to her thigh where the markings were and then to the bite mark on her neck where he’d claimed her. She was his. There was no way to dispute it. He searched his wolf’s thoughts to see if these things would appease him until they could complete the bond. Drake found that his wolf was definitely calmer now that they’d seen her markings. Though he had to push his wolf back because all he wanted to do was lick the markings from knee to hip and he was pretty sure Bethany would not be okay with that.
“I think I can. As long as no males come near you. I know it’s—”
Bethany held her hand up and pressed her fingers to his lips to stop him. “It’s alright. I don’t know anything about relationships, Drake. I have nothing to compare this to. It’s new ground for both of us, right?” She smiled at him causing his heart to skip a beat.
“Right.” He nodded and pushed himself to his feet. “Okay. Yes, I’d like to be released and take you to my suite where we’d both be more comfortable. Jen had one of the males leave a phone.” He pointed to the object lying on the ground next to the door. “Could you hand it to me, please?”
Bethany stood up from the chair and her leg slipped enticingly through the slit in the skirt. Nope, that wasn’t going to work. As soon as she was standing next to the cage with her hand held out, offering him the phone, Drake reached through the bars with both hands and grabbed the waistband of the skirt. He turned it until the slit was on the left side of her body. He didn’t like the idea of anyone seeing her bare thigh, let alone the one with the markings, but he realized quickly that if he turned it so the slit was in the back it would nearly show her bottom.
Bethany gasped at his quick movements but didn’t step away. “Better?” she asked.
His lips lifted slightly as he took the offered phone. “Better. Not great, but better.”
She smiled at him and continued to watch him as he dialed a number and waited for the voice on the other end.
“What,” Jen snapped.
“I’m ready to be released,” Drake said coolly.
“Yeah, well there’s a man in hell who wants ice water, so get in line.”
Drake heard a low growl and then the sound of Decebel’s voice. “Let me talk to him.”
Jen growled back at her mate. “Fine, but Peri has to be the one to open the cage and she’s a little busy with, you know, trying to save my best friend and her fleabag, so it could be a little while. And if she does release him, he might go all Planet of the Apes on our asses.”
“Planet of the Apes?” Decebel asked.
Jen groans. “Yes, because the apes went crazy and started killing the humans. Good grief, man, what do you do in your spare time? Say it with me Dec…Netflix is my friend.”
Decebel said something that Drake couldn’t understand and then Jen was gone, replaced by his Alpha on the phone.
“Drake.”
“I’ve seen my markings on her flesh. She bares my bite. It is enough for now, Alpha. As long as no males approach her,” Drake explained.
“I’m going to have you moved to a suite on the west side of the mansion. That side of the mansion is relatively empty, so there is less chance of encountering any of the males. Give me a few minutes.”
“It will only be a few minutes until you can get the high fae?” Drake asked.
Decebel cleared his throat. “My mate likes to stir up trouble. When she’s stressed, then she wants everyone else stressed.”
“Damn right I do.” Drake heard in the background.
Decebel continued as if his he hadn’t heard her. “Peri set the magic for your cage, and normally she would have to be the one to open it. But I’ve just returned from checking on the condition of Fane and Jacque. While I was there, Peri asked about Bethany. The fae transferred to me the ability to open the cage. She wanted to make sure that you could be freed if something happens to her. She’s eccentric, but she isn’t cruel.”“Yes, she is.” He heard Jen’s voice again. “She’s cruel and she will chop you up and serve you for dinner if you hurt one hair on any of my wolves.”
Choosing once again to ignore his mate, Decebel said into the phone, “I’ll be in touch soon. You and your mate get ready for a change of scenery.”
The call ended and Drake tossed the phone back through the bars where it landed on a pile of sweatpants.
“We’re leaving?” Bethany asked him sounding hopeful. Drake felt like crap that she’d had to endure being confined in a room on the concrete floor because he couldn’t stand to be away from her.
“Yes,” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Decebel is going to give us a suite on the west side of the mansion. It’s a little more secluded than the rest.”
“West side?” Her eyebrows rose. “How big is this place?”
His lips twitched. “Big enough for a pack of werewolves.”
She snorted out a laugh.
Drake’s smiled slipped away as he watched her. “Beth, are you alright?”
She looked up at him through the bars that kept him from holding her. “I don’t know, Drake. But I think I will be.”
“Okay,” he nodded. “That will have to be good enough for now.”
Jen sat at one of the intricately carved tables in the archive room as Wadim tapped away on a keyboard while staring at his fifty computer screens. Okay so maybe there weren’t fifty, but crap, how many computer screens does one werewolf historian really need?
“Finding anything of use, history boy?” Jen asked absently as she flipped through one of the large old books he’d stacked on the table for her.
“Honestly, Alpha chick, I don’t even know where to start.”
Jen tapped her lips with her forefinger as she considered his answer. “Okay, how about enemies? Who are the enemies of the werewolves, or yet” —she held up a hand— “even more specific, who are the enemies of our packs, the Serbia and Romania packs?”
“Vampires,” Wadim said dryly.
“Do we really think the vampires could have taken her right out from under all of our noses without anyone noticing?”
“Wasn’t there a battle going on?” Wadim asked.