Page 24 of Claimed By the Goalie Alpha
"Okay."
"But I'm not saying no." That got my wolf’s attention.
"No?"
"I'm saying I need space to think. And lots of explanations."
"Whatever you need."
"Can we untangle the dogs first?"
I looked down at the leashes and couldn't help but smile. "Yeah. We can do that."
We worked together, carefully unwinding each leash. Our hands brushed once, twice, and each time I caught his scent that I'd memorized. I had to resist the urge to grab his hand and pull him closer.
When we finished, Julian gathered his three dogs and I kept my four.
"I'll call you," he said.
"I'll answer."
"I know you will." He hesitated. "The signs were sweet."
"Rita helped with the wording."
That got a small smile from him. "She knows?"
"That I messed up? Yes. That I'm a shifter? No. I told her the wolf reference was a private joke."
"Good. Because if you told Rita, I'd be pissed." The casual comment felt like hope. Maybe this wasn't completely destroyed after all.
Julian walked away with his dogs, and I let him go. My wolf whined, wanting to follow, but I held firm.
He hadn't said no. He needed time.
I could give him that.
TEN
JULIAN
I made it home before the crying started properly.
Not the gentle kind. The ugly, full-body kind that came with hiccupping breaths and a face I wouldn't want anyone to see. I sat on my bathroom floor with my back against the tub and let it happen because I didn't have the energy to stop it.
Four dogs with signs on their collars. This. Wolf. Needs. You.
He'd walked into a dog walking company, signed a liability waiver and paraded through a public park with someone else's animals wearing a message meant only for me. Renard Conley, who could barely string together a sentence in our first three conversations, had done that.
And I'd told him I needed time.
I wiped my face with the heel of my hand. What was I supposed to do with this? The man I'd been falling for could turn into an animal. That was the fact sitting in the centre of everything, and no amount of sweet gestures changed it. I'd watched his body reshape itself. I'd heard the sound he'd made when he was caught between forms, and I couldn't unhear it.
But the signs. The way he'd stood there with four leashes tangled around his legs, looking like a man who'd never held adog in his life, doing it anyway because I wouldn't answer his calls.
I pulled my knees to my chest and pressed my forehead against them.
The next twodays were hard.
