“Get a grip on yourself, Kian,” Soren said. “Your eyes are giving you away. Rein the wolf back.”
Jorja swallowed. Soren really believed Kian was a werewolf?
Chapter Six
Kian closed his eyes and took deep breaths to calm himself. He should have known Brad would do something like this. The prick loved to get digs in with him, Soren and Atticus whenever he possibly could. Kian could kick himself for ever letting Jorja serve the bastard. Of course Brad would have been able to tell from her scent she was a claimed mate, and who had been the male to claim her. But he wouldn’t have known Jorja knew nothing about their kind.
“Can somebody tell me what is going on, and what Brad meant?” He heard the strain in Jorja’s voice.
Kian opened his eyes to find Soren giving him a look of sympathy before he said quietly, “Sorry, my man, it looks as if you’re going to have to have that chat with Jorja sooner than you would have liked.”
Soren stepped away and Kian saw his mate looking between the two of them as if they had both lost their minds. He got off the barstool and stood in front of her. “I’ll explain everything.”
“What was with your eyes?” she whispered.
“Not here,” he said. “Up in my room. Right now.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. My shift isn’t over.”
“Tell them you suddenly don’t feel well. I need to talk to you now before Brad comes back and decides to cause more crap between us.”
Jorja searched his gaze, then nodded. “Okay, but I’m going to lose out on a lot of tips. And since money is kind of tight, it’ll hurt.”
“Forget about the damn money,” he said, a little shorter than he’d wanted. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. I just want to get you out of here.”
She seemed to hesitate before she went off to tell whoever she needed to that she was leaving. Kian spotted her talking to a man at a door that led to an employee-only section of the casino. He rubbed a hand over his face, dreading what was to come next.
“Do you want me to stay with you when you tell Jorja?” Soren asked.
“Actually, yeah, I do. Maybe if the two of us explain it we can get her to accept it easier.”
“Hopefully that shithead Brad didn’t fuck things up too much.”
Jorja returned, carrying her purse. “My supervisor let me go, since I’ve never left early like this before, so he believed me when I said I wasn’t feeling well. If I don’t want him to think I lied, I need to get out of sight before he comes back into the casino.”
All three of them hurried over to the bank of elevators and were soon on their way up to their floor. At Kian’s door, he used his keycard to open it and pushed it open for Jorja to step in first. He followed with Soren bringing up the rear.
Jorja only waited until the door shut behind them before she asked, “Why did your eyes glow like that? And don’t tell me it’s because you’re a werewolf. That’s utter bullshit.”
Kian looked at Soren before he turned back to Jorja. Yup, this was not going to be easy. “Take a seat, Jorja, then Soren and I will do our best to explain.”
She sat on the leather couch in the conversation area and looked up at them, waiting. Kian paced back and forth in front of her as he tried to get the words straight in his mind. He thought it best just to stick with the straight facts.
“Okay,” he said. “The reason why my eyes glowed was because I was pissed off at Brad.”
“Because of the things he said?”
“Yes.”
“So he pissed you off when he said I was your mate and that you were a werewolf? Please tell me it made you mad because he fed me a line of crap.”
Kian stared at her, wishing this part was over and done with. “Yes, I was pissed with what he told you. Jorja, what he said was the truth. He made me angry because I hadn’t had the chance to tell you those things myself.”
“In other words, you believe you’re a werewolf and I’m your mate? You can’t expect me to accept that as the truth. I don’t know what world you live in, but in mine they don’t exist.”
Kian sighed. “In my world they do. My kind keep what we truly are well hidden from the mortals around us.”
“Do you know how crazy you sound? No one in their right mind would believe it.”
He squatted in front of Jorja and took her hands in his. They were cold to the touch. “I know this is hard for you to accept. But you have to. You are my mate. I claimed you the first time we made love. Now that the mating bond is in place, we need to stay together. If we don’t we’ll go through separation anxiety. You’ve already felt what it’s like.”
“Last night, when I thought I would lose my mind if I didn’t come back to you?”
“Yes. It’s worse in the beginning of a mating. After a year or so, mates can stand to be apart a lot longer without suffering from it.”
Jorja held his gaze and he saw in her eyes that she didn’t want to believe what he’d told her.
“I’m trying here, I really am,” she said. “I’ll admit I felt this separation anxiety, but the rest, I don’t know, Kian. It’s all so farfetched. And why did Brad keep referring to me as a mortal?”
Kian squeezed her hands. “Because to us, to werewolves, you are. We’re not exactly immortal, but are extremely long-lived compared to your kind. We can live to be up to three thousand years old. I’ve already seen nine hundred years, the same with Soren.”
Jorja’s gaze shot to Soren. “You’re a werewolf too?”
His friend nodded. “Yes, and so was that asshole Brad. We’re all from the same pack.”
Jorja’s gaze landed back on him. “This just seems to get weirder and weirder. Let me get this straight. I’m supposed to believe you’re a werewolf who is nine hundred years old, who could live to be three thousand and I’m mated to you, for life?”
Kian nodded. “Yes, it’s for life.”
“Whose lifetime? Yours or mine? Because if you live as long as you say, I won’t be around for even half of it.”
“Our friend, Atticus, has a mortal mate as well. He’s decided to have the same lifespan as her. Just as I’ll choose yours.” He gazed into her eyes. “I love you, Jorja. Where you go, I go.”
Jorja surged to her feet, almost knocking Kian on his butt as she brushed past him to stand a little way away from him and Soren. “Too much, too much, too much. And here I had been worried about you leaving tomorrow and not wanting anything more to do with me,” she said shrilly.
Kian rose to his feet. “I know this is a lot, but there is no going back. We’re mates. There is no breaking the mating bond.”
“So basically we’re married. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“That would be the mortal way of describing it, I guess. Only there is no divorce.”
“And you said this mating bond formed the first time we made love. You knew it would happen yet you did it anyway, taking my choice away from me.”
Kian groaned inside. Now he’d have to tell Jorja he fucked up. “I was drunk. I wasn’t thinking straight. I just acted on instinct.”
“So in other words, I was a mistake.”
“No, never. Jorja, if you weren’t the one meant for me, my mating urge wouldn’t have been set off the instant I saw you. Being drunk, I sort of lost control of my wolf side and acted on what instinct demanded I do. I’m sorry I took your choice away, but I don’t regret doing it.” He tried to take a step toward her, but Jorja backed up. He stopped in place.