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“But I don’t!” Iris’s scream echoed through the room. He didn’t want to ruin their introduction by forcing customs on her, but they weren’t just habits. They were inherent to their very biology. It wasn’t just fate making these decisions for them. It was their souls.
“Okay,” Derek said. “I’m sorry. We don’t have to discuss that right now.”
“Good.”
“But there is something we still need to talk about, and that’s your safety.”
She scoffed at this. “I’m sorry. My safety? Are you seriously threatening me right now?”
Derek shook his head.
“No. But have you considered the people who are trying to kill me?”
“They made themselves pretty damn hard to ignore.”
His head began to swim. The concoction was making him drowsy as it guided him toward recovery. He didn’t want to question its magic or Iris’s power, but now was not the time for sleep.
“Then consider this. If you know you’re bound to me, and I know you’re bound to me, what about my enemies? What are they going to do when they find you?”
Iris pursed her lips in frustration.
“Fine,” Iris admitted. “I guess I’m open to suggestions. What ideas do you have?”
“Maybe you’re not open to the mating bond right now, and you don’t want to throw yourself into a pack, and that’s fine. But please let me stay by your side so I can protect you. I’m not going to leave you while I know you’re in danger.”
“No offense,” Iris said. “But I don’t think you’re very capable of protecting me right now.”
Derek threw his head back on the pillow, laughing angrily as he stared up at the ceiling.
“Iris, if they came in here right now, I’d rip them apart regardless of the pain,” he said. “These are temporary injuries. Don’t ever think they make me weak.”
Another hush overtook the room, and then Iris spoke quietly. “But you barely know me.”
“And you barely know me,” Derek admitted. “Yet, still, when I was dying on your doorstep, you dropped everything to help me. Tell me you’d do that for anybody else, and maybe I’ll leave you alone.”
Iris said nothing.
He was drifting off to sleep as he stared up at the ceiling, but he had to resist a little longer.
“I have faith in us,” Derek said. “Maybe you don’t. That’s fine. But there’s a sadistic asshole trying to claw power back however he can. And I know that he’d tear the pack apart and kill everybody I love to get it. Please. Even if you don’t believe in this bond or in a pack connection, help me fight him.”
Derek was worried that Iris had left the room entirely, but he hadn’t heard her footsteps or the sounds of doors opening and closing in the distance.
“Okay,” Iris said.
And Derek, now satisfied that their argument had reached a natural end, drifted off to sleep.
THREE
IRIS
“Please. Even if you don’t believe in this bond or in a pack connection, help me fight him.”
“Okay.”
The conversation still played in her mind. She had watched Derek hold his own despite his weakened state. He was determined to get her to agree to the bond.
She wanted nothing to do with the man, but as he fell asleep after the lengthy argument, Iris found herself almost admiring him. His ripped shirt barely contained the bulging muscles that he’d cultivated through rigor and discipline. His chest heaved as he lay unconscious, fighting an injury that would have killed most wolf shifters.
