Page 43 of Wild

She was strong, and I sure as fuck would keep her warm.

“Isn’t there some hot spring and waterfall here?” Marina asked.

“You know about that?”

“Audrey told me Boyd took her there. Sounded like fun. A secret spot.” She sighed.

“Of course, he did.” I chuckled. It was the perfect place to take a date. In high school, we used to sneak over there at night with girls from the pack. Never when the moon was full, though. We knew better than to fuck around with raging hormones, she-wolves and the full moon. It was a good way to mark a female who wasn’t your mate, and then you’d be saddled with her for the rest of your life.

The full moon was tonight, and in the broad daylight, I could feel the madness creeping in once again. My mind was filled with animalistic visions of tugging Marina off her horse and onto the ground. Settling her beneath me in the soft grass, fucking her mercilessly while I bared my teeth, ready for the mating bite. Came deep in her pussy as she screamed her pleasure, only to mark her neck for the world to see.

Fuck. I might not make it through the full moon without losing my shit.

I wouldn’t be able to go back to base like this, especially after she went back to LA. I’d have to retire. I couldn’t live with moon madness and stay in the military. It was too dangerous.Iwould be too dangerous. If I remained here on the ranch, at least the others would understand. I could shift. Run. Survive.

Maybe if I could keep up with her when she was back in LA, it would keep me from going insane. It was long distance or… death. Which meant we needed to get to know each other better. Out of bed. She’d quizzed me this morning about my life. I needed to do the same. I trotted my horse beside hers.

“So what kind of engineer are you? I never asked.”

“Mechanical.” She shrugged, looking down at her hands holding the reins. “It’s boring. Math and physics. Calculations. That kind of thing.”

“You don’t like it?”

“Honestly?” She glanced my way, sighed. “No.”

“So why study it?”

“My dad is an engineer. Math and science were always things I was good at in school. So, it seemed logical. He pretty much said if I studied engineering, he’d pay for college. I needed his help with tuition, so that’s what I did.”

“And you and Audrey share the same dad?”

“From what we can gather, my dad and her mom got together for a one-night stand. They were eighteen or nineteen. My dad probably forgot her name that night. He met my mom and married her a few years later. They divorced because he found a newer model in his office. He isn’t much of a commitment type. Not for a wife or a kid.”

“Was he glad you went into engineering?”

She shrugged. “I don’t think he really cared. I mean, he pays the tuition. But I thought… I thought we’d have something in common.” Looking my way, she gave me a fake smile. “Silly, right?”

I moved my horse a little closer to hers, so our legs bumped. “Nah. Parents are supposed to give out love unconditionally. It doesn’t sound like your dad was even around. Nothing wrong with wanting to be closer to him.”

“Well, it didn’t pan out.” Vulnerability flickered on her normally bright face, and my chest tightened for her.

Dammit, I wanted to make up for every wound she’d ever received. I wasn’t going to push the fact that her dad sounded like an asshole. If he hadn’t been there for her at all, he didn’t need to ruin our ride.

“Not every man will let you down.” Fuck, I’d always be there for her. Unconditionally. Even if it killed me. Even if it meant pushing her away. That made no fucking sense to anyone but me.

She shot a glance at me through her lashes, then looked away, like she didn’t know how to take that. Fuck, I’d confused the hell out of her.

I’d confused the hell out of myself.

Trying to woo a female without touching her? It was like some kind of Olympian challenge.

But I was going to keep at it.

“If you hadn’t chosen for him, what would you have picked as a major?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Nothing ever called to me.”

“Okay, so forget school.” There was a boulder in the way, and I steered us around it. “If you could do or be anything—you know, like if you had the magic wand or genie in the bottle who could just make it come true—what would you do?”