Xander was sitting in the same spot he’d been before, a smile on his handsome face. As hard as it was to tear her gaze away from his, she couldn’t resist looking down to see if her claws had come out. But her nails were the same.
Disappointed, she opened her mouth to ask why it hadn’t worked and realized that the overhead lights weren’t on anymore. Xander must have turned them off when she had her eyes closed.
The room should have been completely dark, but it wasn’t. She could see everything, from the subtle colors in the rug she was sitting on to the finest features of the hunky guy who seemed to be regarding her with amusement twinkling in his gold eyes.
“I can see,” she breathed in wonder. “How is that possible? I didn’t do anything.”
Xander chuckled, the sound deep and sexy as he leaned back on his hands. “No, you didn’tdoanything. But you didletsomething happen. That’s the key. You can’t make it happen. You have to let it come out naturally. Because that’s what it means to be a werewolf—giving yourself up to the animal inside you and allowing yourself to become what you really are.”
She got up and ran around the dark apartment, laughing like a kid on Christmas. When she found herself in his bedroom, her laugh turned into something lower and more animalistic as the overwhelming scent coming from his big bed told her that Xander Riggs slept in it completely naked. Nothing else would explain how completely his scent blended with the sheets.
Ignoring the urge to bury her nose in their softness, Khaki turned and ran back to the living room before she could think too much about Xander’s naked body, his bed, and what it would be like to get wrapped up in both.
He was still sitting on the floor, grinning.
“Do my eyes look different?” she asked.
He didn’t say anything for so long, she began to wonder if something was wrong. But then he grinned even broader. “Yes, they look different. A green-gold completely unlike any other werewolf’s eyes I’ve ever seen.”
That alarmed her a little. “Do you think they’re okay?”
“Of course they’re okay. They’re just unique—like you. Sit down and I’ll show you how to back out of the process.”
She plopped down in front of him eagerly. Over the next two hours, he taught her how to get her night vision to disappear, then how to bring it back again. Sooner than she ever would have thought possible, she could make her eyes shift in and out of night-vision mode without even thinking about it.
Giddy because she’d learned something like that so quickly, Khaki grabbed Xander’s hand to give it a squeeze. His hand was warm and slightly callused compared to hers, and her breath hitched at the tingle that surged through her. His gold eyes flared brighter for a second, like he’d felt it too. She wanted to hold on longer to see if the tingle might get even stronger, but then reminded herself that he was still her squad leader and that she shouldn’t be holding his hand. But the moment she let go, her hand itched to reach out and touch him again.
“Teach me something else,” she said excitedly.
His mouth twitched. “Okay, but just one more little thing. We don’t want to push it too hard. This stuff can take a lot out of you when you’re new at it.”
She opened her mouth to tell him that she could spend the rest of the night doing this, but realized she was a little tired. It had been one hell of a long day.
“Okay, you’re probably right,” she admitted. “But do you think you can show me how to make my claws come out?”
He frowned. “Claws are a few rungs up the ladder from night vision. They can be tough if you’re tired.”
Khaki tried not to let her disappointment show, but Xander must have seen it because he shook his head with a laugh.
“Okay, we can try it. Just don’t get your hopes up too high.”
She scooted closer to him on the floor, promising that she wouldn’t.
Xander had her close her eyes and imagine running in the forest again, except this time he had her focus on her fingers.
“Dig your fingers into the soil—deep,” he said. “Think of your claws gaining purchase as you push to get up the hill.”
As he continued in that soft, honeyed voice of his, Khaki wondered if part of the reason she’d wanted to continue the lessons was simply so she could keep hearing him talk. He did have a really nice voice, and she’d be lying if she didn’t admit she liked feeling his breath on her skin.
Khaki didn’t know how long she sat there with her eyes closed, but when Xander finally told her to open them, she found herself looking at a set of long claws extending from her fingertips.
“Your claws are a part of you, just like your eyes,” Xander told her. “You can’tmakethem come out any more than you can make your legs longer or your hair turn blue. But if youletthem come out, they’ll be there every time for you. It’s the basic rule for all werewolf abilities. You have to be calm and relaxed and allow your inner wolf to come out. Sometimes, claws and fangs will come out if we’re angry, but then that’s not control. It’s just rage.”
Khaki held her hands up, transfixed by her long claws with their slight curves and sharp tips. She looked closer at the nail beds to see that they weren’t bloody at all. Maybe letting her claws come out naturally was less traumatic on them.
She took a deep breath and imagined her nails the way they always were—oval shaped and just slightly longer than her fingers. She didn’t try to force her claws back into their other shape, but simply saw them that way.
As she watched, the claws slowly retracted. It felt strange, but it wasn’t painful. How could they possibly hide themselves in her slender fingers? What was she thinking? She was a werewolf. None of this was logical.
