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.”
The words barely left my mouth when Emmitt’s body gave a huge lurch. Bones didn’t just move, his shape exploded into his other form. His sudden shift bumped me backwards. He fell to all fours, facing me. He tipped his head back and started yowling. Eyes wide, I listened for barely a moment before the door swung open.
Nana and Jim rushed in. Nana, looking stern and concerned, planted herself in front of Emmitt. Jim picked me up from the couch and dashed down the stairs.
“Control is...”
I only caught those two words. The rest faded as we reached the second floor landing.
“We left the boys outside,” Jim said. “They can probably hear Emmitt.”
He set me on my feet before we reached the door. I wobbled a bit, and he had to steady me. We stood in the shadowed entry. The boys still played on the swing set, though I saw Liam glancing up toward our apartment.
“What happened?” I asked, looking up at Jim.
He chuckled a little. “We’ve talked about your secret and tried to guess what it might be. You’d mentioned Blake a few times. Emmitt thought he was your stepfather until you corrected him. Then he was sure Blake was a controlling boyfriend from your past. Human. Easy to deal with. Finding out one of our own mistreated you, someone we consider rare and special, well, it put him over the edge. He’s still swearing.”
“Swearing?” I couldn’t believe that noise had been swearing. It’d been more like a one-sided dog fight. “Then why did you guys rush up there?”
Jim’s face lost its humor. “After your admission, Nana thought his sudden shift might turn your fear to include us. She wanted to put some distance between the two of you until he calmed down.” His gaze flicked to the steps behind me. I caught his lips twitching before he turned away. “Let’s go check on the boys and give Emmitt a minute to get dressed. Our clothes don’t shift with us.”