“Whoa,” Kian said as his golden eyes widened.“Your skin actually shimmered, like on a bonded male before he shifts.”Kian looked back at the door and then to Callon.“Is she, that’s,” he pointed at said door.“You’ve chosen a mate?You?Her?What–”
“Could you stop sounding like a toddler who’s just learned to speak?”Callon snapped.
Kian rubbed the back of his head as he looked back and forth between Callon and the door that led to Lola.The woman who was driving him out of his mind and she didn’t even know it.“How do you expect me to react?”Kian asked.“You’ve always made it pretty damn clear that you wouldn’t take a human as a mate.Of course we all took bets on how many centuries you’d last.”He ran his fingers across his chin as he looked at Callon.“I gotta admit.I lost.I thought you’d go at the very least an entire century.”
Callon bared his teeth as he clenched his hands into fists.He could feel deep claws stabbing into his palms.He paced the small back room of the tattoo shop as he considered his options.“You were going to put your hands on her,” he growled, his voice nearly on subvocal levels.
“I’m a tattoo artist,” Kian pointed out.“It would be hard to tattoo someone if I didn’t touch them.”
Callon sliced his hand through the air wishing it held a blade.“I don’t want your excuses.You don’t touchher.No one touches her.”
“Then maybe you should go snarl and hiss at Jaxine, because she’s currently getting intimate with the flesh over your female's heart.”Kian’s tone was dry, but the wariness in his body was obvious as he took subtle steps away every time Callon paced close to him.He knew he wasn’t dealing with just a comrade, or friend.Callon was his Commander and the son of the Prime.He wasn’t just any Damarian.He was royalty with powerful magic in his lineage.Of course, that power was limited until he had a mate.
“Why should we need a mate in order to shift?”he asked, though he wasn’t really speaking to Kian.Mostly he just needed to vent before he tore any more holes in the walls, or broke anymore of Jaxine’s things.As it was the arachnid who was going to be web-spinning mad over the destruction he’d caused.
“Um, was that, like, a question you actually wanted me to answer?”
“No.”
“Good.Got it.”
Callon cursed under his breath.“She’s just so damn chatty, and curious, and–”
“Unique and beautiful,” Kian added, almost absently.
Callon stopped pacing and folded his arms across his broad chest.“So you’ve picked out your tombstone then?”
The panther shifter threw his arms up.“I’m an artist, Callon.I notice skin.Her’s is unique because of the pigmentation, but it’s beautiful.She doesn’t think so.And she doesn’t think others think it is.”
Callon mentally counted to ten as he reminded himself that as the future leader of their kingdom he couldn’t go around killing pride members just because they called his female beautiful.It was the truth.
“Have you even talked to her?”the other male asked.
Callon looked away, his jaw tense as he thought about how he’d stalked her like the cat he was to know everything about her.“Not exactly,” he mumbled.
“So that’s a no,” Kian sighed.“Not that I’m surprised.It’s not like you even talk to people you know.I’d say people youlikebut I don't think there are any of those around, anywhere.”
Callon turned back to the man and dropped his arms.“I’m not good with people.”
“No way?”Kian frowned.“I would have never guessed.”
“I need to talk to her,” Callon continued, ignoring the male's sarcasm.
“Yes, you do.”
He blew out a sharp breath and then brushed some of his wild hair out of his face.“If I don’t, then another shifter could win her heart, and then I’d have to kill him and that would probably make her angry.”
“Pissed,” Kian argued.“That would make her pissed.And probably homicidal.”
Callon tilted his head back and looked at the ceiling as if the answers he sought were up there, then dropped it back down.“And then I’d have to kill something for her as a peace offering.”
“Nope,” Kian shook his head.“That wouldn’t do it.”
“And even then,” Callon huffed, “she’d still probably make me pine after her for a few months just to make her point.”
“A few months?Make her point,” Kian said slowly, “that she loathes you for all eternity for killing her one true love?”
Callon pinched the bridge of his nose.“Who knows how long it would take before she’d even let me near her, let alone bond with her.”
