Smashed (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #8.5)(10)

“What’s really going on with you, pup?” I leaned against the kitchen counter, pinning him with a fierce stare. I didn’t have to use power on him. He would talk.

“I just want to see Alexa. I’m tired of arguing with you about it. Tired of waiting for her to come home.”

“And?” I prompted.

Shaz paused. He wanted to tell me. I could feel it. He fought with himself until it finally spilled out. “I’m starting to feel like I need it again. The bite. Alexa’s bite.” Those dazzling wolf eyes gleamed with intrigue as he looked me over. “Or yours.”

Just as I’d suspected. “I thought you kicked that shit.”

“I did. It’s not like this with anyone else. It’s just Alexa. And you. You both feel the same.” Shaz was unapologetic. “This is the last thing I want to be saying to you right now. But it’s starting to get inside my head. Help me out here, Arys.”

There had been a time when I would have loved to hear him say that. The last time he’d come to me like this, I’d accepted the offer of his potent shifter blood. It had upset Alexa who’d made me promise I wouldn’t do it again without her being present.

“Shaz, you know I can’t help you with this. I made a promise to Alexa.”

“Yeah, well, she isn’t here. We don’t need her permission. God knows she doesn’t seem to need ours to do whatever it is she’s doing right now.” Anger emanated from him, a delicious scent that taunted me.

The sense of victory that filled me was wrong in all ways. That didn’t stop me from enjoying it though. Shaz had made me out to be his enemy many times in the past. Yet here he was standing in my house asking me to bleed him. Yeah, I was definitely enjoying that.

“You’re drunk. You don’t know what you’re asking for.” I nodded to the coffee can he’d abandoned on the counter. “Make some of that shit and come back down to earth.”

“I don’t want any,” he refused. “I know what I’m asking for. And I know that you’ve got to be trying pretty hard not to gloat in my face right now. So go right ahead. But don’t make me beg. Because that I will not f*cking do.”

For a moment I half expected him to throw a punch at me. He’d done it before. But he just stood there staring at me with a challenge written all over his face.

I was faced with a decision. I could give Shaz what he asked for and bleed him with great joy. Or I could refuse. Refusal would mean forcing him to make a decision as well. Suffer or seek out relief in a place like The Wicked Kiss.

It was obvious to me which would cause greater upset to Alexa should she find out. Shaz’s dalliances at The Wicked Kiss had caused serious damage to their relationship. It was unlikely they would survive a repeat of that scenario.

“Fuck.” I slammed a fist down on the counter. “You’re forcing me into a pretty tough position here, you know.”

Shaz held his hands up and shrugged. “Too damn bad. Consider it payback. I’m sure I owe you. I’ve been put in some pretty tough positions because of you.”

I couldn’t argue there. The wolf pup had suffered much throughout the past year. Learning of my twin flame bond with Alexa had caused him undeserved pain. I was sure that it contributed in many ways to the recent changes in Shaz.

“You should never have let Alexa start feeding from you after you came back to town,” I said, accepting defeat.

“Probably not,” Shaz agreed. “But if we all did the things we should do and avoided those we shouldn’t, we wouldn’t be here right now. Would we?”

“Touché.” As an afterthought I added, “You really piss me off, you know that?”

He continued to stare at me with intense wolf eyes. All it did was remind me of Alexa, and I knew that’s what this was really about. Shaz and I reminded each other of her. It was only natural that we’d seek out comfort in one another. Tasting Shaz’s blood would be bittersweet. No doubt it would flash me back to the night I wished I could forget. I was going to do it anyway. It wasn’t in me to refuse such an offer.

Turning my back on Shaz, I entered the living room and took a seat at the end of the couch. The anticipation that gripped me as I watched him come to me was greater than any I’d experienced all night so far. His approach was slow, calculated. He might have been the one to ask for it, but he knew how this worked. Rushing it wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable for either of us.

Wearing an expression that was somehow both cocky and nervous, Shaz sat on the opposite end of the couch.

“Let’s not make this any weirder than it has to be,” he said, facing me with expectation.

I suppressed the urge to laugh but just barely. I did, however, grace him with a broad, fang-revealing grin. “So no hand job?”

His pulse quickened ever so slightly. I could hear the pace of his heart, and if I concentrated, even the rush of blood through his veins. “Don’t even f*cking joke about that.” A blush colored his cheeks, and he tensed. “I’m trusting you not to take advantage of me.”

“Settle down, pup. I didn’t say who would be giving the hand job. I’m sure we can work something out.” With a wink and a snicker, I moved fast, pasting him up against the arm of the couch.

It brought me great amusement to make Shaz squirm. It was so easy. His sudden apprehension tickled my appetite. The random strangers from earlier tonight had failed to arouse my bloodlust quite like the young werewolf did. Having a personal history with him made it that much more enticing.