“I had to set you down.”
“Yeah, the fur gave that away.” I waited patiently for a better answer.
“I was taken by surprise, that’s all.” He stood and offered a hand to help me up. I took it but didn’t let go once I stood.
“By what?”
“You were just a little close, and I wasn’t expecting it.”
I stared at him dumbly for a moment. “You picked me up, remember?”
He took another deep breath and looked down at our joined hands. “Michelle, Claiming is pretty serious stuff, equivalent to getting engaged in your world. If a guy would give you a small, velvet box, your first thought would probably be ‘it’s a ring’. Turns out, it’s tickets to a ball game. Guys know girls associate those little boxes with rings, so it’s cruel to use them for anything else, right? Claiming is a quick hard bite to the neck. We grow up knowing a werewolf’s neck is a special area that you don’t go near lightly. It’s the small, velvet jewelry box. Do you understand?”
Claiming...bite...neck. Several pieces of Blake’s speech fell into place. But why would Blake want me to become engaged to one of his men? I couldn’t picture biting any of them.
The vision I had where I bit Emmitt resurfaced, and I blinked at him. Engaged? My stomach did a wild flip, and my heart stuttered in panic. My nearness to his neck had caused the change to burst upon him. He’d had to put me down or drop me.
“But you said you thought of me as a friend.”
“If that’s all you can give me, then I’ll respect that.”
Our gazes held for several long moments as what he said settled inside me. I knew he waited for me to say something.
“Stay away from werewolf necks. Got it. Sorry.”
“No,” he said a bit forcefully then grinned ruefully. “You can get as close as you want to mine. Just avoid anyone else’s.”
His intense gaze pulled another blush from me before I looked away. Clearing my throat, I suggested the next test.
“How strong are you?”
“Strong enough that any display would catch the attention of Liam and Aden.”
Bummer. No proof of that one. Although, proof wasn’t really necessary. I trusted what he said. So far, he hadn’t given me any hope. Nothing I could use to put to rest my fears of Blake.
“So, how do you fight a werewolf?” I wondered absently.
Emmitt chuckled. “With another werewolf.”
I turned away before he could see my despair.
Chapter 11
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 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 where 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.