All Chapters of Bound by Blood: Last Ruby Wolf and Her Fated Mate: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

After a quick lunch and an afternoon full of meetings about land, Alphas, and other government shit, I drove Hazel back to our place. She was talking about colors—for our walls, and furniture and stuff, and kept showing me pictures to ask what I thought.Most of what she showed me, I liked just fine… when I didn't look at the price tags.But Hazel made enough to buy whatever the hell she wanted, so I forced myself not to worry about the cost and just focus on making us a place my mate would feel comfortable in. Our den needed to feel homey for her too, and I could get used to the expensive furniture and insane number of zeros in her bank account.I'd learn how to move past my manly pride eventually. If that's what it took to keep Hazel, I'd figure it out."You don't seem really invested in this." Hazel gestured to her phone. "What if I get us a really big TV?"Well, that caught my attention. "How big?""As big as we can fit on our living room wall. If we're going to get really into Ca

I fell asleep cradled against Merrick's chest on the way back to his den, only cracking my eyes open when he carried me inside.I wrestled my eyelids open when I heard the shower start, followed by the sound of the sink turning on and off. When he didn't come to bed, I sat up and slid out from under the blankets. Between the healing, the food, and the little sleep I'd gotten in Merrick's arms, I was feeling a lot better, but not one hundred percent."Grizzly?" I pushed the bathroom door open, peeking inside. I found Merrick sitting on the floor of his shower, his arms on his knees as his head was lifted toward the ceiling. He turned to look at me when I stepped inside, my arms wrapping around my middle as I leaned up against the sink. I still had on the comfortable spare clothes from earlier. "Why aren't you in bed with me?""I wasn't sure if you wanted me there." Merrick's voice was rough, his expression grim.I sniffed the air, but the water hid the smell of whatever he was feeling.

The next few days passed quickly, with most of our furniture piled in the center of our living room so we could paint the walls and kitchen cabinets without issue. We finished getting everything ready by the day of Noah's first trial. Rather than spending the evening in our newly-put-together home, we joined Hazel's family and family friends in the up-and-coming wolf part of the city.Part of Hazel’s “unite the city” plan was to get rid of the dividing lines between groups of shifters, but first they were building a wolf area before tackling that. The houses were going up insanely fast, with about a dozen finished less than a week after they started. Money and government connections could make miracles happen, I guess.It was a wolf tradition to throw big parties on the nights of the trials, according to Hazel's parents, so we showed up early enough to help set up the first trial's rager in the park area of the neighborhood they were building.As Roman and I set up chairs, he introduc

Merrick studied me, his back against one side of the shower while mine rested against the other. It was a walk-in shower so we weren't squished together, and we had left the water running to avoid anyone listening in on our conversation.My eyes lifted to the ceiling, because I knew full and well that if I kept looking at him all naked and sexy like that, I'd start wanting him.Other than a few hot make-out sessions, we hadn't done anything sexual in the time since we'd started fixing our house. He had yet to plan sex day, for reasons he wouldn’t tell me. And while it was nice to get to know each other without that delicious distraction, I was starting to understand why Merrick had been so against not having sex.Partially, because I was getting really damn horny.But mostly because without it, it felt like there was something missing in our relationship. Like we were in it together, but not all in. Something about sex had made me feel closer to Merrick. Not just physically, but emoti

I opened my mouth and then closed it. I wanted, badly, to run, to escape. But I couldn't. The people looking at me were counting on me, relying on me.So I swallowed my discomfort and spoke."I hope this transition is a little easier on all of you than it's been on me." I managed the tiniest of forced smiles. That one earned me not even one chuckle—and yeah, humor had never been one of my best qualities. "Like me, werewolves are still trying to find our place in Shifter City. Their traditions are different from ours, and their expectations are different too. But we'll figure this out; we'll make it work, and we'll make it great. I need to get going, but I hope the rest of the party is pleasant." I jerked my head in an awkward nod before striding in the direction Merrick had gone."Why?" someone yelled, their voice louder than the other murmurs and variety of emotional scents clouding the air. "Why bother making it work?"I turned to face the person, scanning the crowd for the source o