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When I looked up confused, Dale licked his lips. "You haven't been here anywhere near as long, but my pack is already reacting to your pheromones. Howard responded straight away. He was a drug addict in the seventies and is more susceptible to having his buttons pushed. I didn't expect it to hit him so hard. His aggression towards you is because he wants you, but knows you belong to me.
"Bob is my delta. When you kissed him, it took all his strength to resist you, Vera. Even Jeremy has become very protective of you. As my beta, he is the strongest second to me, and yet he still rubbed his scent all over you."
Sitting back, Dale removed his hands from mine. "I can't let you leave, Vera. I'm your mate. You are also a danger to any other pack that finds you. Your presence would turn them into vicious wild animals like it did your old pack. However, you are affecting my pack even when you aren't in the same house. I need to ask you to allow me to mark you. We can go without mating for now. But, for the sake of my pack, I need to mark you as mine and dampen your pheromones, so they only affect me."
Sitting there crying, I heard everything he was telling me, and it made sense. My pack grew more violent over the years. The way the men leered at me and how they touched me if they got me away from Malcolm made sense. I didn't need Dale to convince me what he said was true.
The memory of Jeremy storming into my house yesterday, holding me against the wall played in my mind. Did that happen because he smelled Bob on me? "If we do this, will there be side effects?" I didn't want to see Jeremy and Bob turn into the monsters of my nightmares.
"The dreams of us being intimate may increase."
My cheeks grew hot, and so did my chest. "You know about those?"
Dale smirked. "Yes, Vera. I get them too."
My entire body flamed thinking of how hot those dreams were and the image of Dale having them made me squirm in my seat.
Dale cleared his throat; possibly to rid his mind of those dreams. "Our attraction to each other will become more intense, but I won't act on it until you are ready. Your years of trauma have allowed you to subdue your natural response to being near me. So, you will resist me longer than any other female newly mated."
"You won't turn violent?"
"My scent calms you, and being bound to you will make me more balanced. We are yin and yang, Vera. We will balance each other."
"Soul mates?"
"That is the romanticized idea, yes." Dale's eyes were bright indigo again. He took a deep breath. "Will you allow it?"
"It will help my pain, too, right?" I could barely say no and watch Bob and Jeremy turn into mean bastards. If I got a quick healing solution out of it and I wasn't expected to sleep with him or move into the pack-house...wait! Check that.
"You'll heal after a good long sleep."
"I can stay living here in the cottage. I don't have to move into the pack-house?"
"For now, you need your space and your isolation."
He wanted to keep me away from his pack in case my proximity still set them off. "Will it hurt?"
"Momentarily. I'm told the experience is euphoric for the female after the initial penetration."
Waiting as I bit my lip to think it over, Dale sat watching me. When I finally nodded, Dale stood holding out his hand. "Let's go to your room, so you can be comfortable."
Chapter 11
"You said this would happen on greeting me, correct?" Still holding my hand, Dale nodded. "That would be by the door." Disentangling my hand from his, I moved to the door and turned to face him. "Let's do this how it should have been." Translation: I'm not comfortable lying on my bed with you.
Lips tilting up a little, Dale moved to join me. "Okay." Standing over me, he gave me a reassuring smile. "I'm going to sniff you now."
There was a glint of mischief in his eyes that made me pause. "Hang on. When you sniffed my crutch as Alpha, and then you tried to nuzzle my neck...?"
Dale gave a quiet chuckle. "Guilty."
"I'd smack your face if it wouldn't hurt me so much."
Still chuckling, Dale lowered his face and sniffed my neck. His nose brushed my collarbone, then trailed up my neck behind my ear and into my hair. My breathing hitched. Dale released a soft growl of appreciation.
Dropping my gaze to the floor, I noticed his physical appreciation. Closing my eyes, I allowed Dale to move my face to his neck. "Breathe me in, Vera."
Inhaling, I brushed my nose up his neck as he did to me. Instantly, my body relaxed, and my head became dizzy. Recognizing his scent from the handkerchief and the way it affected me. Tingling broke out across my back and abdomen as Dale wrapped his arm around my left side to support my back. When he moved closer, I hung my head back and to the side as Dale lowered his mouth to my neck.
