Wild Invitation

storm, sweetheart. It’ll have made a mess of things. I’ll stay tomorrow night.”
    Blinking, she stared at him for a long time, and he could almost see the wheels turning in her head. “You’re always out in the dark, have far more night shifts than you should, and it’s clear you don’t get enough sleep. Why?”
    His wolf paced, looking for a way out and finding only closed doors. “I take the shifts no one else wants.” He shrugged and got up, then realized there was nowhere to go in this tiny space. “Just being a good lieutenant.”
    “That’s not how a pack works.” Grace got out of bed, the sheet wrapped around her like a toga, and pushed the door fully shut with a quiet
snick
. “We have to talk about this.”
    He turned with a snarl, going on the defensive. “Jesus, Grace, you’re not that needy. I’m sure you can spend a few hours alone without breaking.”

Chapter 14
    EVEN A FEW weeks ago, those angry words delivered by a Cooper whose eyes were tinged wolf yellow, would’ve made Grace stumble back, lower her head and her eyes. That was before he’d played with her, courted her, taught her he’d never ever hurt her. “That’s not the point,” she argued, refusing to let this go any longer. Maybe she didn’t like to push, to demand in the normal scheme of things, but she discovered her wolf was quite willing to do so when it was Cooper’s happiness on the line. “I want to know why you avoid sleeping.”
    “I’ve told you,” he snarled, quiet but adamant, his eyes slamming into hers, the fury in them a wild thing. “Just leave it.” His dominance shoved at her.
    If it had held the force of a command, she would’ve backed down, their relationship in splinters, her heart an agony of pain. But furious as he was, Cooper wasn’t pulling rank. No, he was simply a pissed-off man who wasn’t acting at all like the tough, strong, honest Cooper she knew and loved. “No,” she said, holding that powerful gaze. “I won’t leave it when I know something’s hurting you deep inside.”
    When he would’ve opened his mouth to respond, she kept speaking, her words a taut whisper as she fought the urge to yell. “You think I don’t know how sleep deprived you are? That I don’t feel your wolf’s exhaustion? I know you, and I know you’re in pain, so you
will
talk to me.”
    He bared his teeth, went toe-to-toe with her. “Act like a damn submissive.”
    Tears pricked her eyes at those bad-tempered words, but they weren’t tears of pain or of hurt. “I am. I’m acting like
your
submissive.” The one who knew he’d die before he’d crush her spirit, no matter if such an act would win him the argument.
    Growling deep in his chest, he picked her up and pressed her to the back of the door, the sheet falling to the floor as she grabbed reflexively at his shoulders, her legs going around his hips again. She found herself face-to-face with the wolf, his eyes pure feral yellow, his body pressed to the delicate, unprotected core of her, naked against the abrasive denim of his jeans.
    Rather than flinching or pulling away, she touched her fingers to his face, stroking. “I see you,” she whispered, her own wolf rising to the surface. “I see you, Cooper.”
    The affectionate whisper, that pale gold gaze devoid of fear, it destroyed him. Turning his face into her touch while never breaking the beauty of the eye contact, he reached down her body to stroke her, drank her sigh in a kiss. She didn’t refuse him when he undid his jeans, taking him with a gasp of welcome, her lips seeking his in a delicate kiss that was inexpressibly feminine.
    Shuddering, he let her take control, walking backward until the backs of his knees hit the bed. He sat down, his woman on his lap, and surrendered to her loving. Until he felt adored in the most tender of ways. Until he knew that if she ever left him, he’d break forever.
    Later, after the pleasure, and knowing she would fight him again if need be, this woman with a spirit strong as steel, he admitted the horror that stalked him. “I don’t want you to see me, hear me, like that, and it infuriates me that I can’t escape it. I’m not that scared boy any longer, haven’t been for a long time.”
    Grace brushed her hand over his scalp, understanding why he’d fought so bitterly against telling her. For a dominant to confess to such a weakness would feel like an unmanning—and he’d already been emotionally raw after last night. Even now, she