“Yes,” I breathed.
“You have a muscle in there that connects to your leg, just above your pelvis. You’re sure it’s not your stomach?”
“I don’t know. You won’t let me skip around the room.”
He gave me a predatory smile. “Can I touch you there?”
Why did those words falling from his lips arouse me like they did? My body warmed in places I hadn’t expected.
“Let me touch you, Ivy. I’m going to press down and you tell me if there is pain.”
His hand spread over my stomach and he pushed around with the tips of his fingers.
“How does that feel?”
I snorted. “Let me poke you in the gut and you tell me how that feels.”
Goodness, his hand on my flesh was like nothing I’d ever known, summoning the woman within me to respond. There were unfamiliar feelings I couldn’t process rising to the surface, so I pushed at his shoulder. “That’s enough.”
Lorenzo sat up and flipped the cover over me without stealing a glance. “I want you to shift again,” he said impassively.
“I just woke up. Please, maybe I can have something to eat and—”
He patted my cheek with the stroke of his hand. “Shift, nashoba.”
***
Lorenzo managed to nod off for a couple of hours after Ivy’s wolf had attacked him. Getting her to shift was simple; keeping her calm proved difficult. Her wolf finally submitted, realizing she had no chance fighting an alpha, but she was confused, injured, and in an unfamiliar place. Once she changed back, he covered her up and stoked the fire, deciding to relocate her to the bed in the morning.
He could still feel her skin beneath his hand as if it had left an imprint. It wasn’t until afterward that he grew hard thinking about the sensuousness of her curves beneath his fingertips. It was a thought he’d pushed away during his examination because a female in distress did not arouse him. He’d taken care not to frighten her or cause her undue stress—something he could see would occur if he had looked upon her naked body. Not an uncommon reaction for an inexperienced woman.
Ivy was fortunate that William hadn’t killed her. If he had left her on the road, she would have died. Shifters weren’t immortal, but they could heal through shifting. Some injuries required more time since the healing magic weakened with each shift. Rest was critical.
It was early evening and Lorenzo decided to make an appearance downstairs, so he slipped on a black tank top and headed out. When he reached the bottom of the stairs and looked to the right, several games of mahjong and dominoes were underway in the family room. He kept game tables against the wall between chairs to encourage the pack to be social with one another.
“Enzo, haven’t seen you in a while,” Thomas remarked.
Lorenzo patted him on the shoulder. Thomas was a stout man who outweighed him twice over. “Why don’t you take some of the men into town and have a few drinks? They seem restless, and I think it will do them good.”
His ruddy cheeks displayed his excitement when he smiled. “Boys!” he shouted, turning around. “Who’s up for a trip to the bar?”
Everyone must have assumed they were still on lockdown since Lorenzo hadn’t officially given the word they could leave the house. He didn’t bother explaining to them that he’d kept them home the previous night because of the full moon. Orders were given and followed without argument.
Slender arms snaked about his waist and he spun around. Rebecca’s dark red curls fell back when she stood on her tiptoes to kiss his chin. Perhaps it was her fiery red hair that had first attracted him to her, but she had grown too possessive for his liking.
Lorenzo pulled back and she narrowed her eyes.
“Why are you avoiding me?”
He challenged her question. “Why are you hunting me?”
Rebecca smoothed her hand over the length of him and stepped closer. “Because I want what’s mine.” She stroked his shaft but couldn’t even summon a twitch.
“You can’t have what isn’t yours. I’m not a man to be had. You should put your sights on William or Caleb.”
“They’re not the leader,” she whispered, still trying to work him over.
In vain.
He seized her wrist and pulled it away. “I have business to attend to.”
“I’ll be waiting when business is over,” she sang.
Lorenzo ignored her and continued down the hall. “William,” he barked out.
“In here.”
William had a small room on the first floor near the kitchen. He traded off his larger room upstairs because he said that space wasn’t a luxury—being close to the fridge after midnight was. William had an appetite like a black hole. It contradicted his physique, but he must have had a hungry wolf.
The door creaked when he pushed it open.