Chapter 196: Just a friend

Through the entire drive home, I was lost in my thoughts. All my thoughts revolved around Elena and the shadow of the man she was with. All I could envision was a faceless figure embracing her and touching her in all the places only I could touch.

Another man had his hands on her today, and I didn’t know why that sent me spiraling the way I was right now. Each beat of my heart echoed through my ears, and I couldn’t swallow over the dry lump in my throat.

The city outside blurred into streaks of silver under the pounding rain, but my wolf saw everything, imagined it, felt it. The scent of another man’s skin near hers. The way his hand might have brushed her waist. The thought alone made my jaw clench until I heard the faint crack of my teeth grinding.

When the house appeared through the window, hidden beneath a thick curtain of rain, my vision tunneled.

“Good night, Antonio,” I tossed out, sliding a tip over the center console. Then I shot out of the car and into the downpour.

Rain soaked me as I fumbled with my key to unlock the door. I needed a smoke to calm my nerves, but I was in a rush to get to Elena, with my erratic thoughts burning a hole in my head.

Through the door, I tossed off my coat, not even caring if rainwater dripped onto the rug in the foyer. My laptop surely rattled around in my briefcase when I left it on the floor. I ran my hand through my hair, brushing water away, then took long strides through the first floor of my house.

The scent of home mixed with hers, that soft floral sweetness that always stirred something primal in me  but tonight it was faint, fading, tangled with the smoke of the storm. My wolf bristled beneath my skin.

Elena wasn’t in the kitchen cooking, and the doors to the patio were closed. I grabbed the banister of the stairs and barreled up to the second floor. Soft sounds from the TV greeted me when my feet hit the landing. My home office door in front of me was shut, but when I turned around, there was a crack in the door to the living room.

Taking a deep breath, I tugged at the edges of my suit jacket to bring my head down from the tumultuous cloud above me. Swallowing over my dry tongue and trying to cool my temper, I marched forward.

Pushing open the door, I found Elena curled up on one end of the smoke-grey curved sectional. The lights were off, and the bare light from the three thin floor-to-ceiling windows came through the storm. Under the glow of the TV, Elena’s golden hair was illuminated like a red halo from the scary movie she was cowering under a blanket.

Any other day, I might have found the sight of her hiding her face from the monster on the screen incredibly adorable. But now, I was overcome with jealousy, and it was making me angrier than I truly had any right to be. My wolf stirred, sharp and restless, pacing beneath my skin , territorial, possessive, volatile.

Finally, she noticed me standing in the doorway like a dark apparition that had popped out of the TV. She yelped and scrambled for the remote, quickly flicking the TV off. As soon as the screen went black, darkness blanketed us, the storm outside raging on and blackening the sky.

“Andrey,” she breathed with relief, placing her hand on her chest as she rose from the couch. “Sorry, with the movie I was watching ,  you scared me.”

“What did you do today, Elena?” I couldn’t hold my tongue, and I snapped at her. The sharpness of my own voice surprised me, the growl beneath it dangerously close to breaking through.

She blinked those gorgeous blue eyes in surprise at me and stopped halfway across the living room.

“I had an appointment for my ankle today. You knew that.” Without greeting me like she usually did when I came home, she stayed put and crossed her arms. Perhaps she could sense the tension rolling off me in waves.

“I heard your day was a little more exciting than that. That you were with a man today. A man that you let embrace you. Hold you in his arms.” I felt my hands rising and my fingers curling into fists. My claws ached to come through. I looked down at them, wishing my hands were around the man’s neck.

“What?” Elena audibly gasped, and the sound caused my eyes to whip back up to her shocked open mouth. “No, Andrey. It wasn’t like you’re making it sound.”

“We are exclusive right now, remember? You’re mine, Elena. And only me. I don’t share what belongs to me!” Without noticing it, I took another step into the room, closing the gap between us that felt like a gaping chasm.

“I know. It wasn’t like that. He is just a friend.” Her arms uncrossed and her delicate hands curled up in front of her chest. It was an obvious defensive move, but all it did was push me further up the wall — and I couldn’t climb down.

Closing the distance between us, my hand shot out for her. Elena flinched when my hand cupped her face. It should have made me feel bad, part of me did  but I couldn’t stop the path I was on. My chest heaved, and I hissed between my teeth.

“Did he touch you, Elena?”

“Did he make you feel good?”

Shooting out, her palms landed against my chest. It was a barrier I could easily get past. My eyes riveted on her mouth when her lower lip trembled.

“What’s gotten into you, Andrey?” She took a step back, but my hand curled around the back of her neck. The move forced her to remain in place and keep her gaze locked on me towering over her.

I wanted to be the only thing she could see. The only man in her eyes. I was terrible and selfish, but those were the desires driving me , the ones I could no longer keep separate from the beast inside.

“I can’t bear the thought of another man touching you. It’s driving me up the fucking wall thinking that you were out there with a random motherfucker. The thought of him touching you, kissing you, being with you enrages me.”

Her breath hitched and her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. The fear in her eyes was replaced by clarity as if she realized how I truly felt more than I did. Elena didn’t move as my hands wandered down her shoulders and her arms. Her body trembled at the hint of my touch along the sides of her long-sleeved grey dress.

“That didn’t happen. He is just a friend from ballet,” she protested.

She knew it. I was going to punish her.

My wolf rumbled deep in my chest, a sound no human ear could have caught a dark, warning growl that spoke of jealousy and primal need. The storm outside echoed it, thunder rolling across the sky like fury made sound.

And yet, even through that storm, all I could smell was her , rain, fear, and the soft sweetness that called to everything savage in me.