AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t want you to keep giving me space,” I reminded him. “I’m all in, now.”
He didn’t look convinced, but I knew it would take time for him to get there. I had waited too long and avoided him too much for him to have the kind of confidence in me that I wanted. “We can decide when we get there.”
Yep, there was the uncertainty.
I did have an idea how to combat it, though…
“Some of the other women mentioned visiting spare dens when they wanted to get away,” I remarked. “That could be fun. We could run for a while, and stop for the night somewhere completely new to me.”
“You may not want to run that long after your first shift,” he warned.
I tried not to take it personally that he’d basically shot down my idea.
It would take time for him to see that I was committed; I would prove it as the days went on. Until then, he wasn’t doubting me. He was just trying to give me an out he thought I might want.
“Let’s just decide while we’re out there,” I said.
Amarok dipped his head, and we both continued eating.
Maybe I needed to come up with even more ideas about how to convince him to believe me.
If I couldn’t prove myself to him over the next few days, I decided I’d set another plan in motion.
With that settled, I focused on eating, and then took a quick shower to clean myself off when Amarok took our dishes, shooing me that way.
When I emerged a few minutes later, he was finishing up, and we headed out soon after.
I slippedmy fingers between Amarok’s as we made our way off the pack’s land. We passed a small group of unmated men, and I noticed Valko among them.
Valko lifted a hand in greeting as we passed, and Amarok raised his own hand in response.
I squeezed his hand lightly as we kept walking.
Neither of us spoke as the trees around us changed a bit, their shapes unique and interesting.
Finally, the black and red of the rest of the Woods broke through, and we stepped away from the last green tree.
“So, how do we do this?” I asked Amarok, looking over at him.
He lifted a shoulder. “What did the other women say about it?”
“Riley told me that if I ran, the instinct to shift would take over. That was about it.”
He nodded. “Then I’d say you just run.”
I gave him a dirty look. “That’s not what I was asking about, and you know it.”
His lips curved upward slightly. “When you run from me, the need to chase you will likely reignite my mate run. If it doesn’t, I’ll just follow you.”
My eyebrows shot up. “There’s a chance it won’t start your mate run again?”
He nodded.
“What the hell? What if that happens?”
“It’s unlikely.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. He hadn’t even offered an alternative idea for if his mate run didn’t start again. “This was a bad idea.”
