Chapter 31

(Santiago’s POV)

Fuck. She looked amazing. I gotta breathe and get as far away as possible.

“You need to get your stubborn ass in there and mate with her,” my wolf says.

“She is not our mate. She is a business arrangement,” I fire back. “We can’t get emotionally or physically involved at all…period. Now, I need to run. If I shift, can you be trusted to run to the forest and not back to Bella in the pack house?”

I all but hear him roll his eyes as he agrees. I shed my clothes and throw them in the hedges, then shift mid-stride. My bones breaking echo in my ears as my skeleton takes my wolf’s shape.

Dirt flies behind my massive ebony-furred paws. The crinkling leaves and twigs that break as I sprint through the trees relieve the knotted muscles between my shoulder blades.

“Run faster,” I say. “I can still pick up her intoxicating lilac scent. Run until we can’t smell it anymore.”

“I hope her scent is burned into the flesh of your nostrils and that you are never able to get far enough away from it to rid yourself of lilac! You should be ashamed leaving Bella in the study like that!”

“It was either get the fuck away from her or…”

“Or fuck her!” he chides. “Everyone involved was aroused, Santiago! You wanted her! Your instinct was to take her!”

“Shut up!” I tell him.

“She was so wet, and her wolf wanted us too! Moon Goddess knows the feeling was mutual for me!” he growled.

“No. we have a contract. That is it.”

“You should listen to your instincts! You should listen to me!” my wolf says with an ear-splitting howl. “She’s our second chance, mate and deep down, Santiago, you know it…you feel it.”

We run until we get to the small section of the forest that isn’t part of any of the pack territories.

We make our way to the river so my wolf can get a drink and then we lay down.

“Why can I still fucking smell her here? It’s like lilac melded to pine.”

“When she was kicked out of her territory, she stayed here,” my wolf retorts.

“How do you know that?”

“Sensed it from her wolf…”

The waning gibbous moon sits low on the horizon tonight. It looks like an orange ball against the midnight sky, reflecting off the water like dancing flames through the ripples.

As I lay there watching the soft movement of seemingly black water with orange luminescence, my mind drifts back to Bella.

She really did look sexy as hell in that dress. Of course, she looks sexy as hell in everything she wears. Everything about her is perfect, from her soft skin, hair and those big brown eyes to her voice.

She’s beautiful, kind, and smart. I can’t deny the feelings I have for her or the way my body responds to her. Everything in me wanted to bed her tonight, to hold her, to be inside her. But I can’t. I don’t want a closer relationship with her.

We have a contract. A business arrangement. That. Is. It.

We rest a bit, then take our time walking home. Starting tomorrow, distance from Isabella will be our friend. I need to catch up on pack business anyway. We’ve spent too much time together. Some distance will reset things.

I mind link Levi at 6:45 a.m. “Meet me in the pack dining hall…now.”

He shows up fifteen minutes later looking like death.

“Fucking took you long enough, Beta,” I say. “What if I had been attacked and needed backup?”

His eyes look like tiny slits that he only has open enough to see where he is going. “Look, Alpha. If you were tucked up in your bed like a normal fucking werewolf, you wouldn’t have been attacked. I’d tell the pack you died well.”

I pour him a cup of coffee and hand it to him. “It’s a good damn thing I love you like a brother,” I scoff, “Otherwise I might rip your head off.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m shaking in my bunny slippers.”

I quirk an eyebrow, and look down at his feet. “Why the fuck are you wearing bunny slippers?”

“My sister gave them to me for my birthday. Did you call me down here to criticize my sleeping attire?”

“No, I called you down here to distract me from Isabella. So, I guess thanks for wearing your bunny slippers.”

“Happy to help, Alpha.” He says with a wink and a grin.

I shift gears and flip back to the Alpha in the room mode. I tell Levi I need him to run all hundred pack reports and get them to me to review in the pack conference room within the hour.

Levi doesn’t miss a step. He slips back to his role as Beta immediately. He stands up and bows his head. “Yes, Alpha.

As he gets to the dining hall door, he turns back to face me with furrowed brows. “Alpha, may I ask one question?

I nod curtly.

“Why the conference room and not your business office or study?”

“I want a change of scenery,” I say, sitting back in my chair.

He chuckles, “Yeah, sure. Is our big bad wolf Alpha scared of the pretty wittle she wolf?”

`I feel my wolf fall over in my mind laughing. “Beta, Levi nailed it,” he says howling in amusement.”

“Shut up.” I roll my eyes. “Both of you, and Levi, change into some real clothes.”

He straightens back up. “Yes, Alpha.”

I work through lunch reviewing the reports. Everything seems in order. Satisfied with these results, I left the documents neatly stacked and arranged for Levi to file away.

I decide to change into sparring clothes and head out to the training field with the Gammas. I’m in the mood to work out. The crisp air hits me in the face once I crest the top of the hill. It's cool on my skin.

I inhale deeply, taking in the smells of earth mixed with redwood, pine, and moss. My chest warms at the sensation, and my pulse slows at the comfort.

After seeing the Gamma’s train and sparring with a few to demonstrate areas of weakness, I observed, I leave them in Levi’s capable hands and decide to visit the pack-related businesses and other affairs I have been neglecting lately.

Suddenly, Layla’s shrill voice penetrates my ears. Inside my head I hear my wolf in what sounds like panic. “Don’t turn around you idiot! Shift, run….get the hell away from that she-wolf!”

I roll my eyes. “You know we can’t do that.”

I stop walking and slowly turn around. I raise an eyebrow as she jogs to me, “Layla?”

She grabs my bicep. Sweat beads across her forehead and runs down both sides of her eyes and to her cheeks.

“Oh Santiago, thank the Moon Goddess that I found you,” she says. “I’m not feeling well. I’m so worried about our baby. Can you please take me to the doctor to get a prenatal check?”

“Bull shit,” says my wolf in my mind.

I look her up and down. She’s dripping with sweat and not wearing any makeup, which is odd for her.

“It’s worth getting her checked out,” I tell him. “I’d rather be safe than sorry.”