“I want to see you as a wolf,” she said quietly, her voice almost breaking.
Chapter Six
He looked at her, not really knowing if she was ready to see him in his wolf form.
Soren wanted to shift, because he wanted to prove he wasn’t an animal filled with bloodlust. So far Treasure was only marginally taking the fact he was a werewolf well.
The scent of her fear still perfumed the air around her. And he still hadn’t told her anything about her being his mate, and that after last night, they were irrevocably bonded. Nor how old he actually was.
“Are you sure you want me to shift?” he asked.
Her arms seemed to wrap tighter around her middle. “Yes.”
Soren still wasn’t sure, but he figured it might be better for Treasure if he got this all out in the open at once. With a nod, he stepped back to put some space between them.
He watched her as he willed on the change, calling on the magic deep inside him. She gasped and her eyes widened. He knew what she saw. As he shifted his eyes would glow, his body would shimmer, then blur as he took on his wolf form.
The change complete, he sat on his haunches and looked up at Treasure. Her face had turned white. She stared at him with a look of shock clearly written on her features.
The scent of her fear increased.
He knew he had to convince her he wasn’t some kind of killer she had to be afraid of. If he could only get her to touch him in this form, run her hands through his fur that was just a shade darker blond than his hair, then maybe they would be okay.
Soren got up and tried to take a step closer. She jerked back hard enough to lose her balance and she fell sideways onto the bed. He jumped up beside her and she scrambled away toward the head of the mattress and leapt onto the floor. For a mortal, she could move pretty fast.
“Stay away,” she said, her voice shaking as she spoke. “Just stay the hell away from me.”
Sensing her fear was about to take her over, Soren quickly shifted back to human form, willing his clothes on. “Treasure, calm down. I’m still the same man. I was a werewolf on the day we met, and I’ll always be one.”
“I have to get out of here.”
She tried to walk past him, but he stopped her with a hand on her arm. Treasure shot out of reach as if he’d burned her with fire. “You can’t leave. I haven’t told you the rest.”
The laugh that bubbled out of her had a tinge of hysteria in it. “Don’t bother. I don’t want to hear any more. And I am leaving.”
He stood in front of her, blocking her way out of the room. “You have to stay with me.”
“What are you going to do? Hold me prisoner?”
“No, of course not.” This was going from not too bad to a hot mess in no time at all.
“Then get out of my way.”
Treasure walked around him, and Soren blurted out everything else. “You can’t leave, because you’re my mate. Last night the mate bond formed between us, which means we’re considered married. And with the bond, we won’t be able to stand to be away from each other. The separation will play with our minds, make us think something bad happened, and that it has been months instead of hours that we’ve been together. And once we are reunited, if it’s been a long period of time, all we’ll be able to think about is reaffirming what is between us in the most intimate of ways.”
As he spoke Treasure had come to a standstill. “Bullshit.”
“It isn’t. You had to have felt it during the first time we made love. I know I did. It was a part of my soul reaching out for yours, then the two combined to become one.
You are my mate, Treasure. If you weren’t I wouldn’t love you as I do now.”
She shook her head. “I can’t do this right now. I really can’t. This is too much to accept all at once. You’ll let me leave, because if you don’t, I’ll be on my cell phone so fast, calling 9-1-1, you won’t know what hit you.”
Soren let out a deep growl as she turned and walked out of the room. He followed her and watched her snatch up her purse from the couch on her way to the penthouse door. Shit, he was going to have to let her leave. She was in no condition to think things through.
Treasure undid the deadbolt and opened the door. It slammed behind her. Soren hurried back to his room, donned a clean t-shirt and put on his shoes. He raced to the kitchen at werewolf speed and collected his keys. He might have to let her go, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t follow. After seeing how Kian had gone through the separation anxiety in Niagara Falls, there was no way Soren wanted to experience it. It almost drove his friend nuts.
Out in the hallway, Treasure was nowhere to be seen. Not wanting to take the time to wait for another elevator, Soren headed for the door to the stairs. Werewolves could move faster than any mortal. He took the steps two at a time, moving at a speed that would have him quickly on the ground floor.
Once in the parking garage, he got inside his car and revved the engine before slamming it into reverse. He reached street level just as Treasure’s car turned out of the parking lot.
Soren followed behind her at a discreet distance, making sure her car remained in sight at all times. As long as he could keep her from getting too far ahead of him they’d both be fine. He groaned to himself when she reached her destination. He’d figured she would go back to the yacht. And it didn’t bode well for him.
He hung back a bit as Treasure parked in the marina’s lot, then headed for the docks where the boats were moored. He pulled into a slot a little away from her car.
With his excellent eyesight, it wasn’t too hard for him to watch his mate walk down the dock before stepping onto the yacht’s deck.
He waited until Treasure disappeared below, then Soren got out of his car and walked toward what would soon be the object of his misery. He had no idea if she knew how to captain the yacht, or if she could call someone to do it for her, but Soren didn’t want to take the risk of his mate taking it out on the lake with the hopes of keeping him away. He didn’t think she would do it, but there was a slim, very slim, chance it could happen.
Walking on silent feet, Soren reached the yacht and lightly stepped on board. He looked for a place to duck out of sight. The only place was at the very back of the boat where there was a platform close to the water that could be used by swimmers. This was not going to end well for him.
With a burst of werewolf speed and stealth, he raced past the windows of the main cabin below and onto the platform. He sat with his back against the yacht, facing the water, wanting something solid behind him. He brought his knees to his chest and rested his forehead on them. Soren shut his eyes and concentrated on not getting seasick.
He listened to the seagulls flying around, and the sound of some of the other vessels leaving the marina. Actually the latter part he had to force himself to ignore, since it made him think of what he sat on. He was forced to swallow a few times.
Soren guessed an hour had gone by before he felt his stomach roil with the familiar queasiness. He kept his eyes closed and leaned his head back against the yacht, breathing in and out through his nose. The upside of this was he wasn’t suffering from separation anxiety, which meant neither was Treasure. So what if he upchucked? It was better than being away from her. Without their minds playing tricks on them, he hoped his mate would be able to sort things out and realize he was the one she wanted.
If she couldn’t, it meant he had more hours of seasickness to look forward to, because he planned to go wherever Treasure went to save them both.
Eventually his stomach couldn’t take any more. Soren crawled to the edge of the platform and barfed up his guts. He used some of the lake water to wipe his mouth, and risked taking a quick look around to see if anybody saw him. That would just be the icing on the cake, to have an audience while he was sick.