“You picked up my scent?” He grinned. “What do I smell like?”
“What you smell like isn’t important right now,” she snapped, dropping her spoon into her bowl and refusing to even think about the subject. “What’s important is that I smelled you everywhere but I never saw you. I thought I was losing my frigging mind, you jerk, that you were another shadow sent to drive me insane.”
Rachel was hyperventilating by the time she finished. One moment, she was simply upset, and the next, it was like she was in one of her darkest dreams as she remembered what it had been like for her in LA when she’d been surrounded by all the scents and visions she hadn’t been able to understand.
Then the darkness that had been her near-constant companion for months once again threatened to overwhelm her. She gripped the edge of the table as her fangs and claws came out, the tips of the latter digging into the wood.
She needed to get out of here before she completely lost it and began screaming in terror right there at the kitchen table.
Before she could get her feet under her, two large hands covered hers. Just like that, her claws unclenched.
“Relax, Rachel. Just breathe,” Knox said softly.
That advice didn’t do crap for her. The problem wasn’t lack of air—it was an excess of it. But the warm hands on hers combined with his gentle voice helped more than she could have ever imagined. A calmness enveloped her that was unlike anything she’d ever experienced, and she felt her breathing and heart rate slowing down and returning to normal. As fast as they’d extended, her fangs and claws retracted completely.
She wasn’t sure how much time passed, but when she finally lifted her head, it was to see Knox eyeing her in concern. It was a disconcerting expression to see on his face, especially when she was trying so hard to convince herself that he couldn’t be trusted.
“You okay?” he asked.
Rachel slowly pulled her hands out from under his, thankful he didn’t do anything freaky like try to hold on to them. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. “I’m good. I had a moment there, but I’m good now.”
He regarded her thoughtfully. “What happened? Your eyes went bright neon green, and then it seemed like you weren’t here anymore.”
She opened her mouth to lie—something she’d gotten extremely good at doing lately—but when the words came out, they were a whole lot closer to the truth than she’d intended.
“Sometimes I have dreams about the night that clown attacked me and I became a werewolf.” She dropped her gaze, staring unseeingly at the empty bowl in front of her. “When I was out in LA, I experienced some flashbacks related to that. Talking to you about what happened out there brought everything rushing back.”
An uncomfortable silence filled the kitchen, and Rachel felt her face heat, shocked she’d been so forthcoming. She wasn’t sure what the hell had come over her. She wasn’t sure how her mental health—or lack thereof—had become the focus of the conversation, but she definitely didn’t like it.
She cleared her throat. “What do you say we move this to the living room, so I can start teaching you how to be a werewolf?”
Knox took their bowls to the sink without being asked. Heck, he even rinsed them out and put them in the dishwasher. Not the right way, but it was the thought that counted, right?
Opening the fridge, she took out two bottles of craft beer from a local Dallas brewery she loved, handed him one, then led the way to the living room. She curled up on the love seat, tucking her feet under her as she sipped the smooth beer.
“I wasn’t stalking you back in LA,” Knox said quietly from the other couch. “I only wanted to talk to you. I tried to approach you a few times, but Zane or Diego were always with you—sometimes both.” He took a swallow of beer. “If you want to label someone a stalker, they fit the bill. They never left your side for a second.”
Rachel didn’t want to mention her pack mates had been so obsessive about sticking close to her because they weren’t sure if she could be trusted. “We were out there searching for hunters. None of us liked any of the others to be on their own.”
“Hey, I get it. It makes complete sense,” he said, even though he didn’t look like he was buying the lie at all. “Regardless, I was still trying to figure out how to get close to you when you guys attacked the vampire nest. The last thing I wanted to do was go back to that place, but once I knew that’s where you were going, I tried to help any way I could, as much as I could.”
Rachel thought back to the morning she and her pack mates assaulted the nest. They hadn’t been sure what they were up against and even less sure if any of them would make it out alive. It had been pure insanity in that dimly lit labyrinth of corridors and rooms, flames roaring across the ceilings as the whole place went up. Even with the acrid smoke filling the air, she remembered picking up that oh-so-familiar scent combination of leather and gun oil. She’d been too busy fighting for her life to pay any attention to it, but now that she knew Knox had been there, it took on a whole new meaning.
“Do I need to ask which side you were fighting for?” she asked.
“Yours, of course,” he snapped. “I didn’t go to all the trouble of taking a bullet for you in Dallas only to have some bloodsucker do you in. I covered your cute ass the whole time you were in there, then followed you back to Dallas when you left.”
Hercuteass? Normally she would have ripped him a new one for even going there, but for some reason, she decided she’d let it slip this once. There was something she couldn’t let him wiggle free on, though.
“Why do all this?” she asked. “Taking a bullet for me. Staying to fight in that coven nest when you could have easily have gotten killed. Following me halfway across the country. Moving to a city just to be near me. Why would you do all that? You don’t even know me.”
Knox gazed at her for so long she wasn’t sure he was going to answer. And from the expression on his face, it was like she’d just asked him to do a complicated math problem in his head. She held her breath, bracing herself, afraid that when he did reply, he’d confirm her worst fear.
“To be honest, I’m not sure,” he finally admitted. “Like I said, lately it seems like my life is a series of one impulsive decision after the next. I can’t even tell you what I was thinking right before I took that bullet for you. And if you’re looking for why I stayed in LA instead of leaving when I had the chance, I’ve got nothing for you. I’m not even clear on what I expected when I followed you back here. Yeah, I’d hoped to get your help figuring out this werewolf thing, but I don’t know why I thought you’d be the best one to ask.”
There were werewolves in the Pack who were walking, talking, growling lie detectors. Unfortunately, Rachel wasn’t one of them. Yet somehow, she instinctively knew Knox was telling the truth.
“Are we going to talk about me the whole night?” he asked. “Don’t get me wrong. I usually love talking about myself, but I thought I was here tonight to learn about how to be a werewolf. At least, that’s what you said.”
