Iron: Blue Collar Wolves #1 (Mating Season Collection) by Ronin Winters, Mating Season Collection Page B

this, because there was no moving forward if he didn’t speak the words. So she asked what needed to be asked. “What happened?”
    His eyelids lowered, and sorrow descended over the planes of his features. His voice was a hollow shell as he spoke. “He claimed her against her will. Back then, it was acceptable, or at least tolerated, to take a mate that way. It’s only been recent where that’s changed. My kind is almost extinct, and pack tended to turn a blind eye if it meant another generation. Our pack now would never tolerate that, but…” He trailed off, turning his face from her, his jaw clenching hard as he jerked away, keeping a physical distance.
    Her memories of Iron’s mother were hazy. The woman died in a car accident not long after they all met in first-grade, and it was only later that Bella was old enough to piece together the fact the woman was drunk driving, and that maybe it wasn’t as much of an accident as some would have wished. Bella only had a few remembrances of the woman – her jerking back when her son reached for her, arms always wrapped around her waist, a never-smiling face, and a degree on the wall with a woman’s name on it. That same degree had been the catalyst to Bella’s own dream of getting into medicine, had proven to her she could do it. If Iron’s mom could do it, she could too.
    I’m going to be a doctor.
    After Bella made the announcement, she had looked at Iron, because his was the only reaction she cared about. On his face was the biggest smile she had ever seen from him, and when she took a step towards him, he took a step back.
    “Iron.” And now, she reached for him again. Reached to put her hands on his face, caress her thumb over the thick line of his eyebrow and down the smooth glide of his cheek. “We aren’t them.”
    “I know, I’ve already been told. You’re not like my mom.”
    “No.” She pulled him closer, brought him down so she could smell him, take comfort in him. “You aren’t your dad.”
    His eyes snapped open, twice their usual size as his mouth opened, little jerks as it formed words never to be said.
    Digging her nails into the back of his neck, she pressed her forehead against his. “ You aren’t your dad. You could not force your will on me. You never have. You’ve always been my biggest supporter. You’ve always stood by me when even my own family would have turned away. And for twenty years, you have denied yourself your mate because you didn’t think a life with you was what was best for me. So let me repeat this – you are not your dad.”
    His breath was choppy as it hit her face, little gasps coming from his mouth, and on his face was war, the battle he’d been fighting his entire life playing out before her.
    It was victory and surrender when he broke down, gathering her in his arms as his chest jerked and his breathing became choppy. He held her close, not allowing her to look at him. “I loved him.” The confession was torn from him in a voice that sounded as if it had gargled broken glass. “He was my dad. God forgive me, I loved him more than I loved my mom.”
    Bella snuggled her cheek against his, ignoring the moisture that now coated her own. “Of course you did. No father could have cared for a son more than he cared for you, and your mom, well, no matter how you might understand, it doesn’t change the hurt that she wasn’t there for you.”
    He nodded, burrowing deeper into her neck, wrapping his arms around her waist to pull her against him hard enough to leave indents where her buttons met his chest. He stood, rocking her, holding her, little puffs of breath, little sobs against her skin, and all the while she was so tight against him she doubted God above could make him let her go.
    Time lost meaning as she stroked him, spoke small, loving words that were more for the sound of her voice than any information imparted. Time was useless, and he took all that he needed, staying in her arms until every