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His lips curved and he motioned to the stool next to him, “Oh, we’re having this conversation so you may as well sit down and order another.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” She remained standing.
“Why? Because of the bond between us that only gets stronger the more time we spend together?”
Maya sucked in quick breath and glanced around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping on their conversation. The bar was mostly full of shifters tonight and though their enhanced hearing meant any single one of them could be listening in, they all generally abided by the unspoken rules of Hyde’s to ignore everything but the music. She was more worried about if any random humans had wandered in and might overhear something they shouldn’t. When she glanced back at Zander he wasn’t smirking anymore.
“What? Surprised I know about that?”
Maya gave in and took the seat beside him, her wolf all but rubbing beneath her skin, trying to get even closer to him, “Maybe a little. I wasn’t sure how much Zoey and Rafe would tell you, or if you’d believe them.”
“Trust me, Zoey told me a lot of shit that I was skeptical about but knowing why I feel so drawn to you isn’t one of them.” Zander turned slightly on his stool, just enough to brush their legs together, and they both shivered at the small contact. He licked his lips and looked back up at her, his voice lower and full of heat. “I thought I was going crazy. I met you one time and I haven’t been able to get you out of my head since. You’re in my dreams, my fantasies. You’re there whenever I close my eyes, even when all I do is blink. All I can think about is touching you, kissing you, fucking you until we’re joined together so deeply you can never be rid of me. I thought you were a witch, a shifter doesn’t seem all that crazy once you’ve accepted that this kind of attraction has to be some sort of magic.”
Maya’s belly twisted as he spoke, the heat of his words, his need, making her shift uncomfortably in her seat as her clit throbbed and her panties grew slick. Her breathing had kicked up a notch and her skin felt itchy. All of that just from the way he looked at her, the way he spoke about wanting her, and one little brush of skin. Her mind threatened to turn off and let the animalistic desire take over, to simply give in and jump him right then and there but she fought off the urge and caged the wilder side of her.
She swallowed past the lump in her throat, “It doesn’t have to be that way.”
“No?” His gaze strayed to her lips. “Because from where I’m sitting it feels like you’ve just been avoiding me to delay the inevitable.”
“I’m not. I haven’t.” She shook her head quickly. “I mean, yeah, I have been avoiding you but only because you’re human. You don’t know our ways. I didn’t want to let the bond strengthen until you had a chance to choose for yourself if this is what you want.”
“You say that like you really believe I have a choice to make.”
“You do.” She pressed on even when he reached out to run a finger down her arm, causing goosebumps to follow in his wake. “You can leave. Right now. Leave this town and never look back. Get as far away as possible before the full moon.”
His finger stopped on a raised scar just above her elbow and he frowned, “I may be new to all of this but Zoey told me enough that I know the bond sparked to life the moment we met. If I leave now, it’ll hurt you.”
“Maybe, but I’ll survive.” Maya looked him square in the eye, “It’s what I do best.”
Zander traced the line of the scar, never breaking eye contact with her, “Somehow I thought that’s what you would say. You’re a survivor. I knew it from the moment we met.”
“Zoey told you that too, huh?” Maya pulled her arm away as some of the old fear trickled back in, blocking the heat he offered. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised she told you about my past.”
Zander shook his head, “She only told me you’d been through a lot but that it was your story to tell, or not to tell.”
“Then you saw the scars and guessed.”
She hated the scars, hated the reminders of what had been done to her. The one along her hairline had been the most obvious back when her hair was short but growing it out had helped cover that one. The ones on her arms were harder to hide and though she tried to think of them as badges of honor, a sign of just how much she had overcome, thinking of anyone else noticing them still made her flinch.
It took a lot to scar a shifter. She had a supernatural ability to heal. Scars only formed from deep and repeated trauma. Luna and Nova didn’t have a single scar from their time as Maddox Clary’s hostages, not on the outside. Maya was the only one he had singled out for that particular brand of torture and seeing the proof of it in the mirror every day would never let her forget it.
“I didn’t need to see the scars to recognize a survivor, Maya.” Zander sighed, moving back enough to lift his shirt and draw her gaze to his lower back. It was a small strip of pale skin but even still, she gasped at what he was showing her. A criss-cross pattern of raised red scars covered the sensitive flesh and her hand shot out instinctively to touch them, her wolf growling as she realized that someone, somewhere, had hurt her mate. Zander let her trace the scars for only a moment before he turned again and dropped his shirt back in place. “Like recognizes like.”
Maya grit her teeth, breathing hard, but it wasn’t the heat threatening to overtake her this time. Her wolf was angry. She was hissing that nobody had a right to touch what was theirs but the human side of Maya was just as angry. She hated that anyone had inflicted that kind of pain onto this man because she knew better than anyone that though scars healed on the outside, they remained forever on the inside.
“Hey, I’m okay.” Zander spoke softly, drawing her back to the moment and out of the red haze of anger. “It happened a long time ago.”
“That doesn’t make it right.” She growled.
Zander’s eyes widened slightly and he studied her face, “Wow.”
“What?”
“Your eyes are gold. Glowing gold.” He didn’t blink, as if he thought looking away for even a second would convince him it was a trick of his imagination. “Incredible.”
Maya snapped her eyes shut and used every ounce of power she had to push her wolf back down. The wolf fought her, struggling to take control. Her wolf wanted to claim this man but not even the bond had drawn her so close to the surface. It was the need to avenge him, to protect him, that had her clawing for control now. Only once Maya had taken a few deep breaths and felt she had herself and her animal back in line did she open her eyes again.
Zander was smiling, “And now they’re normal again. That’s amazing.”
