After saying that I needed a break from werewolf information, Emmitt and I joined the others in the front yard just in time for sprinkler races. I let the rest run while I sat in the shade, thinking. My mental list of questions wasn’t any shorter than when we’d started. What could I do to stop Blake? Would he pick up traces of my scent and have enough of a broken trail to follow me here? Why did Blake want me to Claim one of his men? And if humans and werewolves didn’t have relationships, why did I feel a pull in my stomach when I looked at Emmitt?
After Emmitt’s explanation of my scent appealing to all werewolves, I really needed Nana Wini to clarify a few things for me. She’d said scent was how werewolves found their Mates but then hinted werewolves and humans didn’t work. So what did that mean for me? And why was biting even necessary?
Since it was too early for lunch, I struggled to come up with an excuse to invite Nana upstairs. But, I needed the distance and closed door to ensure we wouldn’t be overheard. I didn’t want to embarrass myself with my line of questioning.
Perhaps my repeated looks her direction gave me away because she came to sit by me without any manipulation on my part.
“Everything okay?” she asked after a moment. For having run through the sprinkler several times, she didn’t drip any water. In fact, her shirt only sported a few wet marks.
“Could we talk?” I said it quietly, but Emmitt glanced up at me anyway. “In private?” Might as well send up the red flag for everyone.
“Of course. Let’s go inside. I saw you did a load of laundry. I’ll help you fold.”
I nodded, relieved. I hated folding laundry.
With a basket of freshly washed shirts and shorts between us, we sat on the couch in my closed apartment. The humidity and heat hadn’t yet seeped in, but it wouldn’t take long before it drove us back downstairs. Knowing I didn’t have much time, I took a calming breath and prepared myself for the possibility of the werewolf version of “the talk”.
“You and Emmitt mentioned a few things that I don’t really understand. I have an idea, but… what does Claiming really mean?” Her brows rose slightly as I spoke. “Please keep it cliff-noted,” I said desperately.
She laughed and patted my hand. “No details, I promise. I heard Emmitt explain that Claiming for our kind is a bite on the neck.”
My heart thumped heavily in panic and the image from the vision I had starring Emmitt and me resurfaced.
“That bite has a purpose. It establishes a connection between the pair similar to what I have with each individual—”
I opened my mouth to ask for clarification, but she held up a finger in the universal just-a-minute sign.
“—but at a reduced level. A Mated pair will know what each other is feeling if the emotions are strong enough. It can also be a way to sense each other’s location. This is especially important to the pair as separation can cause anxiety.”
So it was more than a simple human engagement. It was a mental tie, an instant tracking device. A shiver of fear traced its way through my middle.
“Mating is the next stage.”
Whoa! That got my attention. I turned crimson and thought about covering my ears. She laughed at my expression and held up her hands.
“As promised, no details. But I do want you to know that the connection the pair has because of the Claiming evolves when Mated. They will be able to send thoughts to each other. Complete silent communication regardless of distance.”
I felt as if she’d slapped me then caught the other cheek on the back swing. “Telepathy?”
“Yes. A Mated pair’s communication is much closer to what I, as an Elder, have with all werewolves.”
“All of them?” Fear clogged my throat. I could feel Blake’s hands around my neck again, and I gasped for air. I’d only wanted to know what scenting had to do with Claiming and how it applied to Blake. I didn’t want to know she communicated with him.
She nodded as she eyed me curiously. Someone knocked on the door just then, and I jumped slightly. Nana continued to watch me. Glancing over my shoulder, I called out in a strangled voice. Emmitt walked in, saw me, and flashed an annoyed look at Nana.
“She’s fine, Emmitt. We’re asking her to take in a lot of information at a frequency that I would imagine makes it hard to assimilate everything.” Nana set her stack of folded clothes back into the basket and rose.
She didn’t understand the reason for my panic. I tried to calm myself.
Just because she had the ability to communicate with all of them, didn’t mean she actually did. Or perhaps she didn’t do so frequently. Maybe the last time she’d communicated with Blake, he hadn’t yet found me. It could explain why they didn’t know about my premonitions. But if he had been hiding me, amassing his fortune, where was his wolfie loyalty Nana mentioned? Shouldn’t he have shared the money with the rest of his kind? Maybe his loyalty only applied to himself. I wanted to believe that hopeful thought but couldn’t ignore the other possibilities.
My hands grew cold and sweaty at the thought of Nana inadvertently communicating my location to every werewolf in existence.
Emmitt stood beside me until she left then sank down on his heels, eye level with me.
“I can smell your fear.”
I didn’t look up. While staring at bare feet that glistened with water droplets, I tried to breathe through the dread that held me tight.
“I don’t know what to do.” The comment popped out without warning. Something about him just made me want to spill everything, to trust that he would keep me safe.
A gentle touch under my chin had me lifting my head and meeting his concerned gaze.
“About what?”
His fingers moved from my chin to feather along my jawline. Sighing, I closed my eyes and words spilled from my mouth again before I decided what I wanted to say.
“I want to tell you. I start thinking I should. Then I learn more, and I can’t.”
“I don’t know what else to do to prove you can trust me. I’ll wait forever if you need me to. There’s nowhere else for me to be, but by you.”
My eyes popped open. “That’s part of what I don’t understand. You talk about my scent. Nana talks about a pull. I see—”
I stopped myself just in time. Divulging that I saw the two of us together would lead to the fact that I had premonitions. I couldn’t say anything about that until I had a better understanding of how Blake played into their lives.
“Well, never mind about what I see. But Nana said that humans and werewolves don’t work, so why are you talking like I’m… that you and I…” I stopped, not sure how far I wanted to spell out my confusion. I already sounded like an idiot.
He tilted his head. Not like he usually did when I puzzled him, but as if he could hear something I couldn’t.
“Do you want Nana to come talk to you some more?” he asked softly after a moment.
Why would she need to come and talk to me again? Realization dawned. A shallow connection. Was that what this really was about? My legs started to shake with my embarrassment. I was wanted too much by one werewolf for the wrong reason and not enough by the other for the right reason.
I looked away, displacing his touch on my face. “No, that’s not necessary. I’m sorry I misunderstood. Like Nana said, it’s a lot to take in.”
He growled low, the sound reverberating deep in his chest. The noise reminded me of Blake, and my gaze flew back to him. He shook his head slowly, and his growl quieted.
“You’re getting me in trouble. Nana is scolding me for growling.”
She should. It had scared me. But how did she know? My eyes flicked to the closed apartment door. Was she just outside, listening?
“And I’m frustrated that we keep misunderstanding each other. May I please explain myself clearly?”
Heart still thumping from his growl, I nodded hesitantly. It couldn’t hurt to listen to more. Everything else I’d learned churned in my thoughts until they turned into mud. What was one more glop of sludge?
His hand slid into my hair, and he closed the distance between us. “I saw you in the diner and felt an instant recognition. When you walked in, you flooded my senses until only one word beat through my mind.” He leaned in until his lips brushed my ear. “Mine.” A slight growl roughened his voice when he said it, and I shivered.
“So, when I say I’ll wait forever to earn your trust, I will. My heart is yours. My loyalty, yours.”
He inhaled deeply near the curve of my neck. My insides heated, and I barely stopped myself from wrapping my arms around him.
“If all you can give is friendship, I’ll take it. For you, I’ll take anything. Do you understand?”
I nodded, but the mud in my head remained.
“Liar,” he whispered pulling me up off the couch. He looked into my eyes. “What don’t you understand?”
“Nana said humans and werewolves…”
Emmitt distracted me. Freeing his hand of my hair, he trailed his fingers down the curve of my neck then traced my collarbone to the base of my throat. Tiny shivers followed their paths.
“You’re different. Special. That rule doesn’t apply to you.” Like a bucket of ice water, his words penetrated the fog his fingers had made.
“Different?” I feared I’d found out their lie, that they already knew.
He continued to trace his fingertips along the collarbone to the other shoulder, and I struggled to stay focused.
“There’s nothing wrong with being different. My mom’s different. Human like you.”
Hope flared. Could she really be like me?
“I’ll make you a deal. You tell me a little bit about your past, whatever you can trust me with, and I’ll tell you about my mom.”
I considered his offer. He politely kept his fingers still so I could think, which told me he knew exactly what he did to me.
“I think my mom was killed. My stepdad, too. If they catch us, they’ll hurt one of my brothers. Bad. To teach me a lesson. Their safety kept me there, a willing prisoner, until I realized the boys were only useful young. Their lives would end like my mother’s and their father’s as soon as they were no longer useful.”
He pulled me into a tight embrace. Comfort radiated from him, and I gave into the urge and wrapped my arms around his waist, burying my face in his chest. I felt safe and protected. I wanted that feeling to last forever. To trust it.
“I have two big secrets.” It came out muffled, but he didn’t let me go. “One will test the sincerity of what you just said, and the other will give you power over me.”
“Then tell me the first one. Test me to see if I’m worthy of the second one,” he said, his breath warming my hair.
“I want to, but what if you’re wrong. You’ll hand me back over—”
“Never,” he growled. His arms trembled against my back.
I looked up in time to catch the bones in his face shifting under the surface of his skin. Eyes closed, he struggled to control it.
“Mine,” he reiterated, tightening his hold.
I couldn’t keep living here, wanting to trust yet unsure where I stood with him, with Nana, with the werewolves in general.
“Blake killed them. My mom, Richard.” I took a breath and whispered the words that I knew would seal my fate.
“He’s one of you.”