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“Great,” I said. “We can hit the ground running when we get home.”
“Yes. Which reminds me, I have a present for you,” he said.
“Oh?” I asked as I waded over to the edge of the tub. He sat down on the floor, kicking his legs to the side. He reached into his pocket and fished out a small parcel before handing it to me. It was about four inches long and rectangular, wrapped in black wrapping paper with a silver ribbon tied around it.
I frowned. “Lipstick?” I asked.
“About that size, but no,” he said with a grin.
“Perfume?”
He laughed. “Baby, why don’t you just open it and find out what it is?”
I gave him a skeptical look for a few more seconds before carefully plucking at the silver ribbon. It unfurled with ease, and the paper followed shortly after. When I was done, I was left with a little cardboard box. I opened the box and removed the object.
It was a whistle.
I tilted my head, my frown deepening. “It’s a whistle.”
He nodded. “It is.”
I turned it over, trying to see if there was some kind of cheesy engraving on it or a joke I was missing. When I looked up at Cole again, his smile had grown to something hungry, something with an edge. Was I missing something?
“Uh...why?” I asked.
“As you know, tomorrow is our last full day here in Georgia,” he said.
“Yeah,” I said, still waiting for him to land the plane when it came to this conversation.
“Tomorrow, I have a couple of meetings with some of the pack’s chain of command,” he said. “And I’ll be back at three o’clock sharp.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, still not following.
“And your job, sweet Marley, is to be out of the house by two. I’ll give you one hour to get a head start.”
Gooseflesh broke out on my arms. I swallowed dryly, knowing instinctively what he was priming me for, but almost too eager to allow myself to believe it.
“Why?” I asked. “And why the whistle?”
“The whistle is for you to blow at any point you feel unsafe, scared, or want to stop,” he said. “It’s engineered kind of like a dog whistle. It’s high-pitched enough that you won’t be able to hear it, but it will be piercing enough for my hearing that even if I’m rut-wild, I’ll be able to stop and check in on you.”
I looked down at the whistle in my hand, suddenly struck by how provocative the innocuous object was. Even in the bath, my skin blazed with cold fire, and my heart raced as my thighs clenched.
We were going to do it. Cole was going to claim me. He was going to hunt me down, pursue me, and have his way with me. I was intrigued, I was nervous, I was...God, I wanted it so badly. I wanted it right that second.
He cupped my chin, forcing me to look at him. “You okay?” he asked. “Your heart is hammering away over there.”
I nodded a little stiffly. “I’m just nervous and excited. Are you sure you want me to take a whole hour? I can probably get pretty far in that much time.”
“I’m sure,” he said. “I’m fast, baby. It won’t take me long to scent you in the air, especially once you break a sweat. If you get lost or scared, just use the whistle, and it will help me find you.”
I nodded. “So we’re going to do this, then.”
“If you’re still on board, yes.”
“I am, definitely,” I said. “I’m looking forward to having something between us that will formalize what we are to each other.”
He smiled, his eyes twinkling with affection. “Yeah, me too,” he said. “It will be a good holdover until I can give you the things you really deserve when all the dust and bullshit settles and we can finally breathe easy.”
