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“Um, okay? I thought wewere supposed to meet at the clearing?”
“I don’t shift, remember?But I can walk through the woods, and I want to. With you. Unlessyou want me to take you to Kinley, which I would happily do. Well,not happily, but I’d do it all the same.”
“You want to hang out withme?”
“Bella,” he said, cuppingher cheek. “Don’t you know what it means that I used my fae powerto cast a truemate spell and felt drawn here, to you?”
She sucked in a sharp breath and herwolf rumbled in her chest again. She rubbed the space over herheart.
“You can’t want me,Kash.”
His wolf let out a deep,harsh snarl. “I can and I do, Bella. Do you care that I can’tshift?”
“No.”
“Then why would I care thatyou can’t?”
“Because you’re half wolf,half fairy. I’m all wolf and my wolf is too damned scared to comeout. I’m broken, like my wolf won’t cooperate. You can’t shift, butmy wolf simply won’t come out. It’s why you shouldn’t want to tieyourself to me. What if I never shift and pass on my weirdnon-shifting-wolf to our future kids?”
She threw up her hands,like she’d made a good argument why he should walk away. Hecouldn’t believe he’d met her literally minutes earlier and theywere already getting philosophical and talking about the future andkids.
He grabbed her hand and pressed it tohis chest over his beating heart. “Bella Sullivan, it doesn’tmatter one damn bit to me that you can’t shift. Frankly, I wouldn’tcare if you were human or some other type of supernatural creature.All that matters is that I felt drawn here to you. I know I haven’tasked you to be my mate, but I know what you are, and I believe youknow what I am.”
She looked at their joinedhands. He knew she could feel his heart beating beneath her palm.When she lifted her gaze to his a moment later, her eyes glistenedwith unshed tears. She sniffled and then gave him a wry smile. “Ididn’t really believe in fate before I came here.”
“Now?”
She stared up at him, her irisesflickering with speckles of amber. “I feel like it was destiny thatKinley invited me here and why I felt compelled to walk toward thestreet to get my hoodie at the exact moment you’d come into theyard.”
“Well, since I magicallycast a spell to bring us together, I’m definitely a fan of destiny.But that other stuff? About the future and kids and whether you’llever claim your wolf? It doesn’t matter.” He moved a little closer,inhaling her sweet scent. “Let’s go for that walk and get to knoweach other, okay?”
“I’d like that.”
* * *
Bella hadn’t told anyoneoutside her family the entire story of that night in the woods withher grandma that had freaked out her wolf so much she refused tocome out. She’d told some of the story to Kinley, but not all ofit. It was simply too painful.
But Kash? She wanted to tell himeverything.
And not just because he was brutallyhot and made her whole body light up, but because, for the firsttime in ten years, she actually felt safe. Safe in the woods eventhough she wasn’t familiar with them, safe with a male she didn’treally know but also at the same time felt like she’d known himforever.
They walked seeminglyaimlessly, holding hands. In the distance she heard the pack howlas they prepared to shift and hunt. Her heart ached sharply,because she hadn’t spent the full moon communing with her own packin months.
Stopping, she turned toface him. She looked up at him, letting her gaze drink in all thesubtle things she could see. The line of his jaw, the way themoonlight hit his dark blond hair and made it seem golden, theflecks of silver in his irises. He was larger than her petiteframe, stacked with muscles, and made her feel safe and protectedeven though he hadn’t done anything but spend time withher.
Her heart was soaring. She’d walkedinto Allen hoping for something different, and found her truemate.And holy crap had she found the most appealing male on theplanet.
She exhaled softly androlled her lips before beginning. “When I couldn’t shift at all inmy sixteenth year, my parents had the pack healer examine me. Hedidn’t see anything wrong with me and thought my wolf was justimmature and would certainly show up the next year. I mean, hell,imagine having to give the bad news to the alpha, that his onlydaughter won’t shift? I think the reality is that once I turnedseventeen and hadn’t even sprouted fangs and claws, the healerdidn’t think I’d ever shift, but refused to be the bearer of badnews.” She let the past roll through her. The full moons spentstanding naked in the woods while the pack cavorted in their furryforms around her, some taunting and some encouraging. The nightsalways ended the same: her in tears never having shifted and herparents slowly coming to terms with her never joining them in hershift. “For a few years, my dad was vehement that I always showedup for the full moon and stripped just in case my wolf decided toshow up. It was so demoralizing.”
“I’msorry, cheril,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze.
“What does thatmean?”
“It’s fae forsweetheart.”
She smiled up at him. Hewas so freaking sexy. His eyes were silver-gray, and theyoccasionally seemed to glow amber around the edges of his irises.He was broad shouldered and muscular, and she couldn’t get over howsafe he made her feel and they’d only been together for anhour.
“Tell me about yourfamily,” he said.
