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“Are we finally talking about it? About you transitioning into a shifter?” he asked. “I was hoping I’d get a little more time before I had to deal with the stress of that.”
“I know,” I said, placing one of my hands over his heart. “But Cole, I’m really tired of these close calls. I’m tired of being at the mercy of my frailty, and I want to know what it feels like to be alongside you. To run with you, instead of watching from the sidelines.”
He brought one of his hands up, grabbing the one I’d put on his chest and squeezing it. “I just...what if the injections go wrong?”
“We can’t live our lives based on what-ifs, Cole,” I pointed out. “If they go wrong, we’ll cross that bridge if we get to it, okay?”
“I know I can’t say no.”
“No, you can’t.”
“But I wish I could. I’m not sure if I can put up with the anxiety of potentially losing you.”
“I know,” I said, my voice soft. “But I promise I won’t leave you stranded in it. We’ll help each other be brave. We’ll help each other get through all the scary parts on both sides.”
He nodded, releasing my hand and gathering me up in his arms, pulling me close to him and squeezing me. “When did you get so strong?” he asked me.
“Hah!” I said. “When I had to convince a bunch of lycan supremacists to listen to me so I could save you and the rest of the people in those warehouses.” I peppered his scruffy jawline with kisses.
“You know, we’ve never really gone over how you put that whole thing together,” he said. “How did you manage to get Curt to help you?”
“Well...honestly? I just appealed to his beliefs about shifters and humans. Told him what I know would piss him off, engage that fiery temper of his, and appeal to his dramatic side.”
“Where did you even find him?”
“Ah, well…Lana and I went to that lycan club you told me about a while back,” I said. “He and his so-called pack were there.”
“They let you in?”
“We, uh, played a part,” I stammered.
He shifted, pulling away enough from me to look down at me with a creased brow. “What do you mean?”
I found myself flushing in spite of myself. Truth be told, I was relieved when Cole hadn’t asked too many questions about what I’d done to save him. I’d hoped I could just let that whole thing go to the grave with me. But I couldn’t in good conscience lie to my husband when he was asking me about it directly.
There was no way to avoid it this time.
“We dressed like...uh, I mean, I wore a tiny dress, high heels...that whole thing,” I mumbled. “Made it look like we were there to, uh...you know...get a little rowdy.”
“You showed up to that psychopath’s party looking like shifter bait?” Cole asked, his voice coming out in a bit of a growl.
“I did what I needed to do to get the help we needed,” I said, taken aback by his sudden protective anger. “And it worked, might I add. We saved you and your grandfather and everyone else.”
“Marley, do you know what could have happened to you, walking into a lion’s den like that, smelling like another shifter? What would have happened if they decided you needed to be made an example of for stepping out on the shifter who claimed you?”
“That was a risk I had to take,” I said. “And it doesn’t matter, anyway, because it didn’t happen.”
“It could have!”
“It didn’t!” I repeated. “Cole, I just told you, you can’t react to all the things that could have happened—”
He grasped my chin, not so hard that it hurt, but hard enough to stop me from speaking. His brow furrowed, and his eyes bored into mine. “I can react when you put yourself in danger because of my own arrogance and complacency,” he said. “I can react when I know you went there, knowing that if you dressed skimpy, they would let you in because they wanted to...wanted to...”
“Fuck me?” I said bluntly. “Is that what you were going to say? That you’re mad because I used my sexuality to get something I needed?”
“That’s an oversimplification, and you know it,” he growled. “This isn’t about being possessive. It’s about you putting yourself in danger for no reason.”
“I had a very good reason, Cole!” I pointed out, my voice a little strained. “I had the leadership of my pack to save. I had a young boy’s father to get back home, and a dear friend’s boyfriend to get back! And I would have done anything I had to do.”
