The coffee maker hissed softly as I moved through the cabin with practiced ease. I checked the locks and scanned the tree line through the windows out of habit more than concern.
Everything was quiet. Safe. Still, the weight in my chest didn’t ease.
I poured a mug and brought it back to Elodie, setting it carefully on the nightstand. She smiled up at me and wrapped her hands around the ceramic as if it were something precious. “Thank you.”
My cougar was salivating over the length of her neck, so I nodded and stepped back. “Enjoy, baby. I’m gonna hop in the shower.”
I escaped to the bathroom, groaning when I caught a flash of my cougar in my eyes as I stared at my reflection in the mirror. “Fucking hell.”
I forced him down and hopped into the shower, bracing my hands against the tile while the water pounded against my shoulders.
My thoughts were still in the bedroom with my fated mate. She hadn’t grown up knowing the supernatural world existed.And from the little she had shared about her childhood so far, it seemed like she’d survived her whole life by being cautious, not trusting too much, and expecting nothing from people.
My cougar stirred again, irritated by my train of thought. He didn’t understand that Elodie didn’t know about him yet, so she couldn't choose all of me.
I shut off the water and exhaled slowly.
Telling her could send her running. But not telling her would be worse. I couldn’t put this off much longer.
When I stepped out of the bathroom, my beautiful mate sat up against the headboard with the blankets pooled around her waist. She’d tugged on the shirt I’d worn yesterday, the neckline slipping loosely over one bare shoulder. The urge to mark her burned under my skin, but she deserved the truth before the claim.
Steam wafted from the mug in her hands, and she looked at me over the rim. Her eyes were thoughtful as she murmured, “This might be a strange thing to say, but you moved really fast yesterday. Both times you rescued me, actually. Almost as if you already anticipated exactly where something was going to go wrong.”
My pulse leaped, but I kept my expression neutral.
“And you always seem to know where I am,” she added, her brows drawing together. “Even when I haven’t made any noise. You seem to notice everything.”
Her soft, almost impressed tone felt like an invitation to trust her with my secret. My cougar stirred, wanting to show off for Elodie.
I exhaled slowly, the weight of the moment settling deep into my bones. This was the edge I’d been standing on since I first scented her. “There’s something you need to know about me.”
She set her coffee down and tilted her head to the side. “Okay.”
I didn’t rush it. I stayed where I was, staying next to the doorway and giving her space. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel cornered.
“There are things in this world most people never see,” I began carefully. “Not because they aren’t real, but because knowing about them would change everything.”
Elodie didn’t interrupt. She just watched me with a curious expression, which gave me courage.
“Communities like mine protect those truths.” I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat. “My neighborhood isn’t exactly what it looks like from the outside.”
Her brow furrowed, but she didn’t run screaming from the room.Yet.
Instead, she simply asked, “In what way?”
I took another breath. “Some of us aren’t fully human.”
She blinked once. Then again. “That’s not what I expected you to say. At all.” She bit her bottom lip. “But it kind of also explains some things.”
That startled me. “It does?”
She nodded. “You move too fast. You hear things before they happen. And there have been a couple of times when your eyes looked off for a second.”
I held her gaze. “Because I’m a shifter.”
Silence stretched between us, and I rushed to fill it.
“I can change into a cougar. I was born this way. The animal is part of me, not something that takes over.”
