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Although, I hope I don’t have to wait too long.
I want it too.
Desperately.
ChapterNine
Tara
Iwake up to a loud vicious growl.
“What was that?” I gasp as I dart up, instantly awake. I hold the blankets over my bare chest as I look around in a panic.
It sounded like there’s a monster in the room.
Leo is sitting on the side of the mattress with his naked back to me. He’s slumped over with his head in his hands. Every muscle in his large back is stretched tight. He looks larger than before. Like he’s swelled up in size if that’s possible.
“Leo?” I whisper as the flickering light from the fire causes shadows to dance on his skin. The wind is roaring outside. “Are you okay?”
“I…” he says in a growly monstrous tone. “I… I didn’t want you to see me like this.”
“Like what?” I ask, trying to keep the shakiness out of my voice. “Tell me what’s happening.”
I put my hand on his back and he flinches.
“It’s okay,” I whisper. “You can trust me. I’m your mate, remember?”
He’s breathing heavily, those big shoulders and that flexed back moving up and down violently. The grunts and growls he’s making are like nothing I’ve ever heard from him before. Something is wrong. I can tell.
“Please don’t keep it from me,” I whisper as I run my hand along his spine. “Please…”
He huffs out an aggressive breath and then slowly turns around.
“Oh,” I gasp when I see his face. It’s not the same face I fell in love with this evening. His forehead is unnaturally large, his jaw longer and distorted. His front canines look monstrous with the way they’re pressing out against his upper lip. I can see the tips of sharp fangs sticking out.
He looks like he’s doubled in size and there are spots on his body that have brown hair sticking out. I don’t remember him being so hairy before.
All of that is shocking, but it’s his eyes that are the most eerie. They’re shining a bright golden color as they pierce me with a possessive look.
It would be natural to be scared, to want to run away, but I don’t. I feel more drawn to him than ever. My heart goes out to him. All I want is to end his pain.
Even looking like this, he’s beautiful to me. He’s gorgeous.
“What is it?” I whisper. “What can I do to help?”
Those golden eyes glance at the tingling spot on my neck. The sensation of being incomplete becomes urgent, demanding. I feel this intense craving to be marked ripping through my body. I… I… I don’t know what’s happening.
“Is it this?” I whisper as I touch the aching spot.
His lips pull back, revealing his fangs. He growls low as his eyes shine.
“Your lips go here,” I say as it starts to click into place. “Don’t they?”
“Yes,” he says in a low inhuman growl.
Something from that shifter article I read years ago returns to my mind. The mark. Bear shifters mark their mates.
That’s why my neck is tingling so much. That’s why it feels like I’m incomplete.
