She looked away, but I could smell the pleasure beneath her embarrassment. My wolf preened.
She grabbed a roll of clean bandages and started wrapping my ribs. I watched her work, memorizing every detail. The way she bit her lip when she concentrated. The small crease between her brows. The freckles across her nose that I wanted to trace with my tongue.
Down,I told the wolf again.She is not ready.
My wolf disagreed. Loudly. It wanted to pin her to the floor, wanted to taste every inch of her skin, wanted to bury itself deep inside her while I marked that pretty neck with my teeth.
I was half-hard just thinking about it. Had been fighting arousal since the moment I woke in this world and smelled her. Five days of watching her through windows, of sleeping outside herdwelling, of staying close enough to feel the bond but too far to touch. It was torture.
She moved to my shoulder, dabbing at the bite wound there. The cloth pressed down and pain lanced through me. I grunted, unable to stop the reaction.
“Sorry,” she said softly. “Almost done.”
I did not want her to be done. Did not want her to step away and take her scent and warmth with her. I wanted her to stay close. Wanted to pull her into my lap and feel her weight against me.
Wanted far more than that.
She finished bandaging my shoulder and stepped back. The loss of her proximity was physical. The bond stretched, unhappy with the distance.
“Why did you stay?” she asked, gathering the bloody cloths. “For five days. In the woods. Why didn’t you just leave?”
“I cannot.”
“What do you mean you can’t?”
“The bond.” I gestured between us. “It pulls at me. Being away from you is...” I searched for words in her language. “Painful. Wrong. My wolf demands I stay close. Demands I protect you, provide for you. Prove my worth as your mate.”
She stared at me. “You’re saying you’re physically unable to leave?”
“I could force myself to go. But it would be agony. And for what purpose? You are here. My mate is here. Why would I wish to be anywhere else?”
“Because people think you’re a rabid dog! Because you’re scaring away my customers! Because you almost murdered someone in my bookstore!” She threw her hands up. “You can’t just lurk outside forever.”
“I will do what I must to stay near you.”
“That’s creepy.”
“That is the bond.”
She paced to the window, looking out at the street below. I watched her, cataloguing every movement. The way she wrapped her arms around herself. The tension in her shoulders. The rapid beat of her heart that I could hear from across the room.
“This is insane,” she muttered. “All of it. You’re insane. I’m insane for letting you in here.”
“Yet here I am.”
She turned back to me, and there was something calculating in her eyes. My wolf perked up, interested.
“Okay,” she said slowly. “Okay. You want to stay near me?”
“Yes.”
“You can’t leave because of this bond thing?”
“Correct.”
“And you’ll do anything to prove you’re a worthy mate or whatever?”
I nodded, unsure where she was leading but willing to follow anywhere. “Anything.”
