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“Yes. It’s not common, but it happens.”
I nodded. “What would you say, if I said I only wanted us to be friends?”
“I would hope for more, over time, but would accept friendship without question if that was all you were willing to give.” After a moment of hesitation, he admitted, “If my packmates and I were willing to accept a life of friendship, we could’ve mated with each other centuries ago to defeat immis. Friendship isn’t what any of us are after, in the long run. But we are old enough to wait a few more centuries for our females to be ready, if we must.”
My throat swelled.
He wanted more than a friend.
It would be awful for me to drag him along on a fraction of hope that I might eventually have more feelings for him.
I wanted love, but I didn’t know how long it would be until I was ready. It would be cruel for me to ask him to wait for me when I wasn’t entirely sure how long I would need. So… I would have to make it clear to him that I wasn’t looking for a mate.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for anything more than friendship, Amarok. I think you should pursue other women, after our bond is broken. Or before, if you can.”
A low growl rumbled his chest, but I’d heard him growl enough times that it didn’t scare me. “A male shifter would never consider another female while he was bound to one in any capacity, Rory.”
Shit.
I opened my mouth to apologize, but before I got the words out, he said, “Even after our bond breaks, I will be yours. Fate has declared it so, and I trust in fate. I will give you as much time as you need to heal, then I will pursue you as a human male would.”
My face flushed. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to fall in bed with you.”
“Of course not. It means I won’t give up until your heart belongs to me, and no one else.”
There was that damn possessiveness again. “What if I wanted a different man?”
The darkness in his eyes grew deeper and thicker. “Then he would die, swiftly.”
Whatever I’d been about to say stuck in my throat like a big lump.
“Eat, Rory. You need your strength,” he warned me.
I no longer had an appetite, but I forced myself to take another bite… if just to keep myself from fighting with him.
There wasn’t a green flag in Evare that could overpower the massive red of his possessiveness.
The Woods weren’t ascold as the Peaks at night, so I managed to sleep on my own with minimal tossing and turning. My skin was coated in a layer of the strange red dirt that covered the ground in the Woods, making me severely uncomfortable, but I’d survive.
I always had before, after all.
When morning came around, my mood was a bit darker. The running we did brightened it, though, and I managed not to let my mind lingertoolong on our conversation the night before. Or the fact that it sounded like I was trapped in a bond with Amarok whether I wanted to be or not.
I gave short answers when he started a conversation that night, and he got the message that I didn’t want to talk, so we went to sleep fairly soon after stopping.
The next night,we finally reached his pack.
The trees changed around us as we approached their land, going from red and black to the typical shades of trees on Earth. The trunks were brown, the leaves were green, and flowers blossomed everywhere.
Some part of me relaxed at the familiarity, even though I wouldn’t have gone back to Earth by choice for anything.
A few wolves joined us as we ran through the brown and green trees, all of them in shades of black, white, and gray.
When he spoke into my mind to let me know we’d reached the center of the pack’s land, we turned a wide corner. In front of us, I found a group of three women, surrounded by a handful of men.
My eyes widened as I took them in.
Amarok slowed to a stop, and I couldn’t help as my grip tightened in his fur. Not because of the women, but because of the men.
