She pulled back her shoulders and lifted her chin. Stiffened her spine to brace against the coming battle. His dark eyes were pools she could fall into, but that way led to madness and regret. “I have to deny it. I can’t be mates with the man who killed my brother.”
Chapter Five
Evan’s ears rang with her accusation. “What?”
There was no mistaking Amy’s full-out conviction in the verbal grenade she’d tossed. Only she didn’t go on to explain the impossible statement. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest again and looked around warily.
The list of what Evan wanted was pretty basic. He wanted to take his mate, find out what she was talking about and make things right. He needed her to look at him with something other than an ice-cold glare.
He needed to touch her. To hold her. To make her his, but none of those things could happen until they’d put this insanity behind them.
And he doubted they could figure it out here and now. Not in the middle of the woods. This wasn’t a conversation he wanted interrupted, and it really wasn’t something he wanted to get into while naked.
“Amy. Look at me.”
She twitched but glanced his way.
“We need to talk.”
“Right now talking is the last thing on my agenda. Kicking your spleen through your back would make me happier.” Every muscle in her body had gone taut.
A body that was exactly the kind he wanted to lick and explore until she screamed in ecstasy. There was no way to avoid admiring her nakedness as his wolf’s mating urge flashed to maximum, but he forced his human side to the foreground, shoving all baser instincts aside. “You’ve had a shock. So have I. I had no idea my contact in the Canyon pack was my mate.”
“You poor thing.” Bitter laughter escaped, and she paced away, her hips swaying as she stomped across the forest floor. She lifted her hands, fisted palms pressed to her temples. “My God, my brain is going to explode. And my heart.”
One hand dropped to her chest, utter agony on her face as she half curled into a ball.
Evan was going to break in two if they didn’t do something soon. “I can’t make it better until you tell me what’s wrong.”
“Maybe you can never make it better.” Amy whirled on him. “Damn you. And damn you, fate. This isn’t some cosmic joke, because I’m not laughing.”
Her last words were shouted heavenward, her fists clenched tight at her sides.
“Calm down.” Evan pushed out the words accompanied by a nonverbal command. Hysterics weren’t the solution, and while the last thing he wanted was to overpower his mate with the mystical side of his wolf, using some of his power seemed his only choice.
What he got was an instant backlash. She lunged at him, an undersized ball of fury and energy. Evan ducked her swing but still ended up on his ass on the ground, Amy looming over him like an avenging vigilante. “Don’t you dare try that on me.” Her words a whisper of fury.
The power of her wolf side had literally knocked his feet from under him. “Holy shit.”
She backed away, light on her feet, hands rising to a defensive position. “Did you expect your mate would be some wimpy, quiet woman who’d roll over when you told her to?”
To be honest, he hadn’t really thought it through that hard, but she was right.
And more than that, if he actually turned on his brain instead of allowing shock to rule his actions, he knew what she needed, crazy as it seemed.
They needed to talk, but first she had to get her rage under control. Evan rocked to a standing position and looked her over. Testing her signals, reading her body language. There was too much aggression and fury to deal with in any other way than the good old wolf one. “You want to hit me? Go on. Try—”
Her foot made contact with his chest before he’d finished speaking, the powerful blow rocking him backwards as he worked to remain on his feet. She retreated so quickly his grasping fingers slicked over her skin.
Amy watched cautiously from a few feet away, circling to one side. Intoxicating power rolled off her, and his wolf all but howled with excitement.
She was so strong, his mate. Together, they’d have the ability to do so much for the pack. But here and now, it wasn’t about the others. It was about her, and him, and somehow getting past the enormous roadblock she’d thrown between them.
Evan held back as she darted forward, taking the blow to his torso. She growled. Struck him again, this time knuckles rasping hard against his jaw, snapping his head. He raised a block between them, but refused to actually hit her.
“Stop pulling your punches,” she demanded, the command whipping him with enough compulsion his head lifted. “You think you can tame me? You’re not worth tak—”
The move felt so wrong, but he did it anyway because it seemed his only option. He pivoted and slapped a hand downward as she aimed a blow at his kidneys. Wrapped his fingers around her fist and pulled, twisting her off balance and tumbling them both off their feet. He made sure he brought her over him, preventing her from smacking hard against the ground.
Instead every inch connected, naked skin to naked skin. Amy’s face hung over his, and those enormous eyes of hers were wolf-wild and needy. She might be fighting their mating, but her wolf was on board. Sexual tension ensnared them in a tight embrace the second before she tore her hands free and slammed rock-solid fists against his chest.
Evan rolled, pinning her to the grassy ground. A second later his hands held her wrists firmly on either side of her head, his legs locking her lower body in one spot.
A low rumble escaped her throat as his hips settled over hers. “Get off me,” she commanded.
“No.” He lowered his head, and with his nose tight against her throat, took a deep, deep breath.
An entire evening spent getting inebriated was nothing compared to taking a single shot, one hundred proof, of his mate. She filled his senses and made his body ache with unanswered need. He stayed there for a good minute, forcing her to breathe him in. Her squirming protests died away. Every attempt she made to buck him off just rubbed them together intimately, and she stopped, a shiver rolling over her from top to bottom.
“Damn you, Evan,” she repeated, but this time it wasn’t so much a curse as a cry. Aching and raw, and he pressed up on his arms, separating their torsos far enough he could stare into her eyes.
All that was there was hopelessness and fear.
“I’ll make it right,” he promised. The words were softly spoken but clear as they cut though the quiet of the wilderness. “I swear I will. I don’t understand yet, but I swear I’ll find a way to prove I’m worthy to be your mate. Give me that chance.”
A single tear trickled from the corner of her eye. “I’ve hated you for so long. And I hate myself for how easily my body wants to accept you as my mate.”
“Don’t hate yourself. It’s your wolf. She knows we belong together, and that we can do this. She senses it, even if your human side is hurting too much to hear.”
“I kind of hate her right now as well,” Amy whispered, her eyes focused on his so intensely he was in danger of burning up.
Evan released her right hand and stroked her face with his knuckles, wiping away the streak of moisture that had trickled down her cheek. “No matter how long it takes for us to figure things out, we’ll take it. I won’t let you go.”
She closed her eyes, body shaking under him. He matched her breathing, synchronizing their motions. Silently stroking her with the affection of his other side while holding the wolf at bay.