Page 55 of Ignited

She knew by now he always made fun when something was sweet and touching. She said, “I think it’s nice.”

He rested his chin on her shoulder. “Yeah?” he said. “Is that a thing you’d want? I thought tigers were loners. No mating for them.”

Karisma couldn’t resist messing with him. “Well, I wasn’t raised with tigers, but they’d have to fuck sometimes, wouldn’t they? Even if it’s in the dark really quick with their eyes shut. Otherwise…”

They said it together. “Where would little baby tigers come from?”

Boomer laughed, his breath tickling her ear and making her feel all shivery inside. “You know what I mean,” he said. “They don’t have true mates, like wolves and bears and stuff. Like those losers out there have.”

He sounded almost envious. Like it was a thing he wanted.

“Do all wolves have true mates?” It didn’t seem like that could be possible, every single wolf with a soulmate. Otherwise, all the guys here would have mates, and only three of them did.

“Nah,” Boomer said. “Lots of people don’t even want one. It’s pretty intense—or so I’m told.”

Karisma wanted to ask if he did want one. The words were on the tip of her tongue, right there in her head, but they wouldn’t come out.

And then the moment passed. “We better get you to bed,” he said. “Before the party adrenalin cuts off and you drop where you stand.” He turned her around and started walking towards the bedroom, keeping one arm around her waist.

“Do you mind if I go for a run?” he asked. “My wolf needs some fresh air.” Because they’d been talking about mates? Was he upset? She couldn’t tell. Boomer was a master at hiding his feelings. “Bro will be here.” He raised his voice slightly. “Right, Bro?”

His brother answered from the door of the workroom. “Yeah.”

Karisma started, as she often did when he spoke—which wasn’t much. She hadn’t even noticed him standing there. He’d been here for the party, lurking in the corner, not really talking to anyone. He was always like that, just… there, on the edges of what was going on, face showing no emotion, like he was in his own little world that just barely touched this one at the edges.

He didn’t even have a bedroom—just slept on a mattress in the workroom floor, or on the porch in wolf form.

The nights that he came home at all.

Karisma was still pretty sure he didn’t like her—and he didn’t like Boomer liking her. But one thing she’d learned in her time here—he’d do anything for Boomer. And if Boomer wanted her protected, he’d protect her.

“Thanks,” she said to him. And to Boomer she said, “I’ll be fine.”

Chapter 23

After the night of the party, Boomer started going wolf and running nearly every night. He hated leaving Karisma alone—even with Bro there—but the darkness kept rising up inside him, and he didn’t know what else to do.

Seeing all the other guys with their mates, there in his cabin where they’d never all been before, did something to him. It gave him a taste of what it would be like, if Karisma stayed, if they were together.

Mates.

The word kept echoing around, deep inside him, and his wolf wanted it. This was the thing he and his brother never talked about, that he’d never admitted to himself, the reason he’d kept looking for Karisma all those years. The reason why he sat by her side day after day and slept beside her night after night, even without having sex.

Just so he could feel her heartbeat and know she was okay.

All those years ago, his wolf had chosen her. But she was a tiger, and tigers walked alone. That’s what she’d said.

She liked Boomer fine. Was grateful to him. Attracted to him, even. But she could never be bound to him with magic, heart and soul, like a wolf could. Like he was to her.

She’d already been imprisoned with a magical bond. Still was, in a way.

Once they got her free, she’d never want that again.

And what did he have to offer her? A shabby cabin, and his fucking feelings? He’d made it through the last couple weeks, sure, but a lifetime of trying to hide his darkness so it wouldn’t poison the person he loved?

He’d never pull that off.

It was worse now, somehow, like his demons fucking knew he had someone he cared about, and were getting ready to make sure he fucked it up.