“Have you lost your mind?”
I spin around at the female voice on my right.
Kat stands under a tree, eyeing the shirt I ripped off myself.
I struggle to believe she’s here. “What are you doing?”
“I was waving my family off, and then you sprinted past me, flashing the entire world when?—”
She grunts when I drag her into my arms, holding her far tighter than I should. “You stayed.”
“Yes, I stayed.” She pulls back and narrows her eyes at me. “Now I see where Leo gets this habit of getting naked wherever he wants from.You.”
She grunts again when I crush her in another hug. “Aren. What is wrong with you?”
“I thought you'd left me.”
“So you were just going to chase after that car until you caught me?”
“Yes.”
She stares at me. “ToNebraska?”
“If I had to.”
She laughs, but her amusement quickly fades. “You’re serious.”
“I can’t let you go, Kat. I told myself you need your family, and I should give you what you need and what you want, but you’re mine. And I…”
She blinks up at me. “You what?”
“I need you. Nothing is the same when you’re not here.”
“But you have your pack,” she whispers.
“It’s not enough. Once it was, now it’s not. You’re the thing—except you’re not a thing—that makes me and my wolf happy. And laugh. And crazy. I don’t want to keep howling at the sky when you’re here, and?—”
She shoves her face against my chest. Fast. But not nearly fast enough.
She’s shaking and I know exactly why.
I grin down at her. “Are you laughing?”
“No,” she chokes out.
“I made you laugh,” I say, ridiculously pleased.
That hadn’t been what I’d been trying to do, but a happy mate makesmehappy. If I can make her laugh, it proves I’m doing something right. Once, I hadn’t believed I could make her smile. And I just did.
I stroke her back, hugging her until she’s got her laughter under control. “What did your parents say when you told them you were staying?”
“My dad wasn’t happy. He hates you.”
“Thought as much.”
“My mom said I was stubborn, and so was Dad, and having them around was likely to create more arguments than less.”
I smile. “I like your mom.”
