Shoot for the Moon (Black River Pack Book 2) by Rochelle Paige

curious looks several times through the night. My best guess was that I wasn’t doing a very good job of pretending that something wasn’t on my mind. I was quieter than usual and barely touched my food as I pondered our situation. By the time we made it to the dance floor, I just wanted to be alone for a little while so I could get some real thinking done. Apparently, Spencer had other ideas about how our night should go from here—ones that included an explanation of what was wrong with me.
    “You’ve barely paid any attention to me tonight,” he grumbled. “And I didn’t even get to stay with you last night because you had Grace over.”
    “It was my responsibility as her bridesmaid to make this day special for her, and part of that was honoring the traditions surrounding weddings,” I explained.
    “Fine,” he sighed. “I get last night, although I still don’t know why you didn’t call me for help with the flowers if you were here in the middle of the night putting them up.”
    “If I’d done that, then I wouldn’t have been able to keep the secret about Grace’s pregnancy and I wanted her to be able to surprise him during the ceremony,” I explained.
    Spencer pulled my body closer to his and held me tight in his arms as we stopped in the middle of the dance floor. His dark gaze was serious as he looked down at me.
    “Everything went perfectly and your duties as a bridesmaid are all done. But you still aren’t really here with me right now. What’s going on in that pretty head of yours, dream girl?”
    I felt like everyone was watching us as we stood still. Glancing around the room, I found several pairs of eyes on us. Some were happy, like his brother’s. Some were exasperated, like the other dancers who were trying to avoid us. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught the flash of jealousy and anger that was quickly masked by another she-wolf before she looked away. Having Spencer in my arms was certainly worthy of envy in the single women here tonight.
    “Not here,” I whispered. “I haven’t really slept in days. Let me get some rest tonight and I promise we’ll talk tomorrow.”
    Disappointment spread across his face. “One of us is running away from the other in this relationship, Eliza. But it isn’t me.”
    I knew he was right, but I needed one quiet night to think about what Grace had said earlier. “But not to get away from you. Never that,” I swore.
    His eyes filled with determination. “Then let me mark you, Eliza. Soon.”
    “We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” I promised again before stepping out of his arms. “After I’ve had a good night’s sleep and can make a rational decision about this.”

Chapter 5
    Spencer
     
    Eliza didn’t need to make a rational decision about my marking her. She needed to trust her heart and our feelings for each other, but her head was so messed up because of those damn dreams that she had convinced herself that I didn’t really want her. Not that I’d helped the situation much with how we’d started. I’d created this mess by feeding into her insecurities, and now, it was my job to convince her that I was in this for the long haul.
    For the last month, I’d tried to balance Grace and Hunter’s advice without coming across too strongly, but I was done with that now. It was time to “man the fuck up,” as Hunter had put it. It had worked to get her to tell me about her dreams, so maybe it would work to get her to finally believe that I would be her mate forever.
    When we had stood at the altar with my brother and Grace for their wedding, the sense of wrongness had overwhelmed me. Six months had passed since the night I’d whispered the mating words to her, and enough was fucking enough. Come hell or high water, by the end of tonight, Eliza would have no question who she belonged to—me.
    Letting myself into her home while she was asleep was probably frowned upon by most people, but did I give a fuck about what anyone else