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“Why would I want you to do that when I’m wearing a jacket?”
“Ouch,” he said, with a mock wince. “Is that any way for my mate to tease me?”
She stopped walking. He took a few more steps before halting as well.
“Don’t say stuff like that, Jericho.”
“Why not? It’s true. I know you feel it.”
She wanted to lie, but facing not only her mate but her alpha as well, she couldn’t. “I do. I’ve felt it ever since I was a teenager.”
“That’s one of the reasons why I left,” he said dryly.
“Wasn’t until I was eighteen that I found out I couldn’t shift.” She started walking again, and he kept stride next to her. “My parents took me to every shifter specialist out there. All reported the same thing, that I was born with a recessive wolf. I have the instincts, but…”
She trailed off. No need to state the obvious.
“Seems like everyone has an opinion about who should be my mate,” he murmured. “Even you.”
“The mating bond can be broken—”
“That’s bullshit,” he said harshly. “You can’t override the instinct. That’s why we have it. Wolves mate for life, Payton. If you turn me away, then you doom both of us to a miserable existence. A fuck here or there will be meaningless, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of those to last me a lifetime.”
Jealousy at the thought of him with some faceless woman gnawed at her.
“Don’t like that mental image, do you?” he taunted. “I like the thought of you with another man even less. You belong to me, Payton. Like I belong to you. I won’t accept anything less.”
“We don’t even know each other! You have no idea who I am.”
This time, he halted mid-stride, but she didn’t stop. She was done.
“Then who are you?”
That made her pause. She hesitated and turned to face him. “I’m an outcast to this pack,” she replied.
He took a step closer. “Are you? Or are you an outcast toyourself?”
“What does that mean?”
“Have you ever tried to fit in? To listen to anyone? To befriend them? Or did you wallow in self-pity and believe the shit your parents have spewed at you?”
That floored her. “How dare you? I have a disability—”
“No, you don’t,” he said, marching up to her and taking her by the arms. He bent until they were almost nose to nose. She stared at his mouth, suddenly hit with the longing to feel it on hers. “Your inability to shift is a crutch you’re using to push everyone away. I don’t care that you can’t shift, Payton. If you were a full human, I would still crave you.”
“You, ah, you don’t know anything about me,” she whispered, unable to look away from his lips.
“You think I haven’t watched this pack? That I haven’t watchedyou?”
She couldn’t stop herself from touching him. She reached up and brushed her fingertips over his cheek. Down his jaw. “I don’t even know where you’ve been.”
“I was healing from the damn poison.” He took her hand and kissed the knuckles. “I built up my father’s construction company. I wanted to make sure when I came back that I could tear Bennett Warren to fucking shreds for ripping me away from my pack. For killing my father. And for forcing me away from you. You say we don’t know each other, and technically that’s true, but our wolves know each other. My fucking dick knows it wants your pussy. And before long, you will be mine, Payton.”
Chapter Five
His words haunted her.Mine. What did that even mean? On the surface, she knew what it meant, and they were enough to halt her plans of leaving Sheridan. Did she hide behind her inability to shift, keeping everyone at bay to make sure they couldn’t hurt her? Before her eighteenth birthday, she’d been a normal teenage girl. Giggling with her friends. Writing Jericho’s name with hearts all over her notebooks.
The first blow to her plans was when Branson had fallen. Then Jericho fled. What sealed the nail in the coffin, however, came with the diagnosis ofrecessive. Now, try as she might, she couldn’t remember if it had been her friends or herself who had given up on their friendship. All she could remember was her parents sitting her down and explaining she was no longer good enough as a wolf to be a mate, so it was probably best that Jericho had left.
