CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Go on in.” I held the door open to my hotel room. “The sun will be up soon, so you can sleep on that extra bed if you don’t want to travel back to your house.”
Wolfe sat down on the only empty space on the bed I had indicated, my clothes scattered all over the comforter. “Go ahead and yell at me if you want. I might deserve it.”
I cocked a haughty eyebrow at him. “Why don’t you explain when you knew I was your mate.” I flopped down on my own designated bed, lying flat with my arms all akimbo. “I’m too tired to yell right now.”
“I’m the one who carried you up those stairs. You shouldn’t be that tired.”
“I never work out, and I sit behind a desk all day long.”
Wolfe grunted quietly. “You could start working out with me if you wanted to.”
“Maybe.” I closed my eyes and yawned. “So when did you know?”
“I’m actually still not certain that you are. We haven’t had sex. That’s the only way for a shifter to be certain.”
I snorted. “Unless a seer comes back to life and just blurts it out. It would have been nice to learn on our time.”
“I thought you were my mate when I first met you. Specifically, when you passed out in my arms. Your scent wafted over me right at the end when I took a breath. You smell like pine needles and sweet dreams. That’s why I thought you were.”
“What does some wacky smell have to do with anything?”
Wolfe’s chuckle was so soft I barely heard it. “No one else smells like that. Humans smell like humans, nothing fancy about it. And your scent is two things I love. Pine needles from a forest after rainfall and when I actually manage to have sweet dreams.”
My eyes were still closed, and my body relaxed down into the mattress. “Do you have a lot of nightmares?”
“The worst. My mother stars in most of them.”
“She’s one of the mates that has darkness, right?”
“She is. And she’s a fucking mess.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked honestly.
I would listen if he wanted to get it off his chest.
“My mother is not a topic I like to speak about,” he answered bluntly. “One day she will die, and I won’t miss her. It is that simple and that complicated.”
I shook my head on the bed, rubbing the back of my head against the plush comforter. It was soothing in an extremely odd way. “Sounds like my dad.”
Wolfe grunted, and then queried, “You’re not upset with me for not telling you immediately?”
“It sounds like you weren’t completely certain, so I understand your caution. I’m not offended or upset. Cassander just surprised the hell out of me by saying that.”
It was quiet for so long I almost fell asleep.
“Would you like to see my wolf?” he asked hesitantly.
“If you’d like to show me.” I rolled onto my side and opened my eyes. The wolf-man had communication issues, but I was beginning to understand when a topic was deep in his heart, not only in his mind. “Is your fur soft or coarse?”
“I’ve been told it’s soft.” His smile was full of pride, his features dazzling to the eye. “But tell me if you think it’s not.”
“All right. I promise.”
He stood and walked on silent feet to the bathroom.
A minute later a magnificent gray wolf walked back into the room, shaking his body, and making his fur fluff up around his muscular frame. Gray on the top, white on the bottom. And golden eyes full of mischief. I ignored the sharp teeth that could tear flesh from bone.
