Page 68 of Patrick’s Seduction

“But Fallon was able to fight it for a while, after she drank my blood,” Patrick interjected. “So there must be—”

“You let her drink your blood?” Striker shot back, arching an eyebrow.

At the implied reprimand, his jaw tightened. “She needed it; it helped her.”

“Hmm. Well, as long as she didn’t do it during sex.”

His heart stopped for a moment.

“What do you mean by that?” Fallon asked, sounding panicked.

“That’s how werewolves mate,” Striker explained.

“Amaury,” Patrick said, looking at his colleague, “I thought you said that the male werewolf has to bite the female during sex to mate with her.”

Before Amaury could reply, Striker interrupted, “He’s right, in the case when both are werewolves. But when only one partner is a werewolf, no matter if it’s a male or a female, that werewolf’s bite during sex will result in them being mated.”

A gasp escaped from Fallon’s mouth, and Patrick met her gaze. He reached for her hands and felt them trembling.

“I didn’t mean to,” she murmured, tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

He shelved her chin on his fingers and tilted her face up so she had to look at him. “I’m not. I want to be your mate. I would have asked you once all this is over.”

Tears ran down her cheeks, and his heart broke. Did she not want to be his mate? Did she not love him enough?

“But if you don’t want me,” he started, swallowing away the disappointment, “then I’ll—”

“I want you,” she interrupted, sniffling. “But you can’t possibly want this.” She freed her hands from his and made a gesture indicating her body. “I’m a beast. I can’t control this.”

Relief flooded him. Fallon wasn’t rejecting him. “I love you no matter what. We can beat this together.”

She nodded, suppressing the tears, then looked past him. “Is there a way to reverse this?”

“The mating? No.”

“No, not the mating. Me, my condition. Me being a werewolf,” she corrected him.

Striker shrugged, hesitating. “Hmm. Nah… no.”

She walked closer toward Striker. “You hesitated. There is something, isn’t there? There’s a way.”

Striker let out a breath, and Patrick noticed that he was carefully weighing his next words.

“Out with it, Striker,” Patrick demanded. “What are you not telling us?”

Striker raised his hands in a gesture of capitulation. “I’m not gonna give any guarantees, and it’s really just a rumor. There might be nothing to it, so don’t sue me.”

“What is it?” Fallon pleaded. “Please. I need to know.”

“Well, there’s this rumor that a newly minted werewolf can turn back to being human if his or her maker dies before the third night of that new werewolf’s first full moon.”

“This is my first full moon,” Fallon said excitedly, the tears suddenly drying.

“And only the first night is behind us,” Patrick added, feeling the same excitement. Finally, a kernel of hope. “We have two more nights.”

“Hold it,” Striker said, “like I said, it’s just a rumor. I can’t guarantee that it works.”

“We have to try,” Patrick said, meeting Fallon’s eyes.