Thrown to the Wolves (Big Bad Wolf, #3)

by Charlie Adhara

Cooper hugged himself, feeling a little sick. His only question now was how mad were you allowed to get at your boyfriend while he was in mourning.

Or maybe when you hit your eighties you lose your very last fuck to give about pretending to be what you’re not. That was certainly his own retirement plan.

“We’re always wolves, Mr. Dayton. You just choose not to see it when we walk and talk like you.”

And Park had the audacity to tease him for comparing it to the movies. He’d arrived in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and woken up from an unexpected intermission in The Godfather. It was too much.

But if you weren’t with me, would you still—” “If I wasn’t with you, I wouldn’t be with you. And that’s too terrible an idea to linger on, so let’s not.”

“You’re so beautiful,” he said, sincerity arching the vowels, like the word itself was bursting with joy.

He felt like a dog about to be sent back to the pound for piddling on a carpet worth more than his life. He didn’t belong here.

“Do you still trust me enough to know what’s best?” Park said quietly. “Unfortunately, I can’t seem to stop myself. I never could.”

If Cooper were an armchair psychologist, he’d guess the early abandonment Park had experienced by his parents paired with Joe’s extremely conditional love had shaped him into someone who’d do anything, be anyone, for love. That sounded romantic. It wasn’t.

One person can’t love you enough to make up for all the people who don’t, but Cooper wasn’t trying for all the people. Just the one. Just for right now.

He didn’t want to see Park ever cry again, but in a weird way, he wanted to be there every time he did.