And That’s It, Period

I sped home as fast as I could so that I’d beat Josh there.

I tried to put my unsettling conversation with Raphael out of my mind so I could be fully present for Sienna when she arrived.

I didn’t even have time to finish changing when the doorbell rang. I felt butterflies flitting around in my stomach.

~Fuck off,~ I thought, trying to calm myself. ~Remember, you’re an alpha~.

I strode toward the door confidently and opened it, letting the chilly wind carry in Sienna’s scent as the woman herself stood on my doorstep, luggage behind her.

Her red hair was windswept, and her beautiful blue eyes were glued to my naked chest.

And just like that, I was Hazed.

Her scent spiked, her Haze responding to mine, and I couldn’t not put my hands on her sexy curves. But when I attempted to grab her, she ducked underneath my arms and went inside.

“You can bring my luggage to the guest room,” she said, her voice a few decibels higher than normal.

~Damn, she’s already playing games.~

I dragged the luggage across the threshold and was about to speak when she said, “Are you going to give me the tour, or do I have to do everything myself?”

Her cheekiness made my cock stand to attention. Ignoring that, I simply grinned. Two could play at this game.

“Oh, you’ve been doing it yourself for far too long,” I said. “It’s time you let someone else help you.”

She rolled her eyes. “I told you—~no sex~. That was part of our agreement.”

I hadn’t forgotten, but my Haze had made no such agreement.

“We agreed we won’t have sex,” I said, scowling. “It doesn’t mean we can’t indulge in other ~activities~.”

I wanted both our Hazes satisfied one way or another, and I would take third base over nothing at all. Even if my cock was bursting at the seams of my pants.

The urge to tell her we were mates was stronger than before, but I didn’t let my resolve slip.

She wanted to save herself for her mate, but she needed to figure it out for herself, not because I was forcing her to.

She didn’t strike me as a hopeless romantic, but there were clearly other things that were holding her back from embracing her feelings, and I needed to let her figure it out.

Hell, I’d rather have blue balls than tell her we were mates at that moment.

“Aiden, I’m serious,” she said, frowning. “I’m not going to sleep with you. We’re not mates, and we’re not lovers either. I need my own room, and that’s non-negotiable.”

She didn’t know it, but her words cut deep, and when our gazes locked, I couldn’t help but think about Aaron and his mate again.

It had been so fucking ~easy~ for them.

But nothing about this was easy. I’d never endured anything more frustrating.

And so, with a growl, I picked up the suitcases, led her to the guest room, and chucked them unceremoniously inside.

Just as I let go of the luggage’s handles, Sienna’s scent became unbearable, her Haze reaching its peak, and mine followed a split second later.

I couldn’t take it. And neither could she, it appeared.

We collided in the middle of the room, our mouths crashing into one another, pulling each other’s hair, grinding our bodies together.

It was such a rush, I could barely even taste her; I just consumed her, my hands grabbing and squeezing every part of her body.

We fell onto the bed, me on top of her, and my eyes drank in her breasts as they nearly spilled out of her dress. It drove me to the edge.

I practically ripped away her dress straps, then started sucking on the mark I gave her.

Her breathing intensified, and I removed her restrictive bra, exposing those beautiful silky mounds that just begged for my bite.

I lightly scraped my teeth against the skin of her nipples, hearing her sharp intake of breath. Her back arched as if she wanted my mouth back on the mark.

But the mark could wait; I wanted more. I wanted as much as I could get.

My mouth roamed south, and her legs wrapped themselves around my neck as if she couldn’t wait for what was to come. As if she needed me more than life itself.

Her grip around me tightened even further, taking me by surprise. She writhed underneath me, almost begging me to fuck her.

She moaned, and I swore it made my cock want to explode.

~Is she finally going to give in?~

As if on cue, I got my answer.

“Stop!” she suddenly yelled. “Get off me! Please. Give me space to think.”

~I knew it was too good to be true.~

And just like that, my balls were indeed blue.

“Sienna, you can’t keep doing this,” I said, exasperated. “It’s a natural craving to want your sexual desires fulfilled.”

But despite my attempt—albeit a weak one—to convince her to just let go, give me just an inch, she shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. “Get out.”

And that just pissed me off to the point any filter I had placed on my mouth was gone.

“This is my house,” I growled. “You’re just a guest here.”

“Am I your guest?” she asked, her voice strained. “Or am I just a prisoner to your fucking alpha will?”

Shit, I’d gone too far.

“Sien—” Before I could get a word out, she was already running to the adjoining bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her, the lock clicking.

This was not how I had envisioned our first day living together, but I should’ve known it would end in disaster.

~That went well, baby bro,~ I swear I could hear Aaron murmuring in my head.

***

After that complete failure of a ~housewarming~, I left Sienna’s room and took another shower. A very ~cold~ one.

I soaped every inch of my body, trying to erase her scent from my skin because just a whiff of it would make me lose my head.

~You’re just a guest here,~ I’d said, and it was so far from the truth. I wanted to bang my head against the wall and knock some sense into it.

Sienna had unlocked this side of me that seemed to have lost all sense. She made my blood boil with her continuous rejection, her teasing of my Haze.

I knew it wasn’t a true rejection. Not really. She felt a connection with me; I was sure of it. But she was fighting it so much, and I didn’t know why.

What had happened to make her so resistant to accepting her desires? Why was she clinging to her virginity like a lifesaver?

It all made me feel like shit, like I was the one doing something wrong. But I just wanted to know how to be there for her, how to make her comfortable.

But how could I do that if she wouldn’t let me in, tell me what was really troubling her?

If she wanted to torture herself by withholding her carnal desires, keeping them under lock and key, that was her choice. But now I’d been dragged into it, and I was being tortured too.

I didn’t even expect sex at this point. I just wanted a taste. I wanted my mouth on her pussy. I wanted to taste her ecstasy as she climaxed.

Hell, I didn’t even care if I got anything in return; I just wanted to give her pleasure, to soak in her scent, knowing she wanted me, that she trusted me…

But how could she when every interaction between us ended with me fucking things up?

Leaving the shower, I went to the living room and sat down on the couch.

Despite scrubbing my skin red, her scent was still everywhere, urging me to seek her out, to get another taste, however short it might be.

And yet she still hadn’t opened the door, still didn’t come out, and my ego couldn’t take another rejection. I knew my limits.

Finding yesterday’s issue of ~The New Wolf Times~, I flipped through the pages, bored, trying to find something to do.

I had the evening off, thanks to a lot of hard work and Josh’s help, and yet here I was, reading the newspaper with a mate who refused me at every turn.

An hour later, I finally heard the bedroom door opening. I turned around, watching as Sienna strode into the living room with a triumphant smirk on her face, and suspicious, I sniffed.

Her scent had changed, there was a sharp smell of blood accompanying it. My wolf immediately growled, and any lingering Haze I might’ve had died down at once.

~She got her fucking period.~

Feeling sorry for myself, I simply looked at her, snarled, “Fuck,” and went back to my room, slamming the door shut.

It wasn’t even the period that bothered me; they were natural, I knew that.

It was that Sienna had yet ~another~ excuse to keep me at bay when all I wanted to do was get closer to her.

Was she always going to keep me at arm’s length?

Would she ever give me a chance?

I’d thought living together would be some kind of proving ground for our relationship, showing Sienna that we could make it work, but the only thing it was proving…was how completely out of my depth I was.