“I also have one. What a coincidence.”
“Oh, I know you have one. A very nice, thick, uncut one.” He licked his lips and kicked up the ever-burning fire in my core. But instead of tending to the flames, he turned and said, “On with the tour.”
I ignored my subtle ache of blue balls andfollowed, exploring the kitchen and the guest rooms and the spa-like bathroom with its rainfall shower and dark stone walls.
It was on the second floor where the tour took a turn, and it wasn’t because I could see the master bedroom directly in front of me.
“What’s that room?” I asked as we walked past a door with a heavy digital lock on the front. It was different from all the other doors and not just because of the lock. It was also made of a different material, painted over with matte-black paint.
Fiberglass?
“That is…” Gabe’s voice trailed off. He abruptly stopped. We were on the landing to the second floor, the smooth wooden railings looking down over the living room and out through the massive walls of glass. The view seemed painted in, a sun-soaked mountain range covered in deep evergreen trees, undulating like a wave coming to crash onto shore. “It’s my were room. On nights when there’s a full moon, I come here and lock myself in there to shift.”
My head tilted forward, and my eyebrows jerked up my forehead in surprise. “Holy shit, really? What the hell happens on full moons?”
“That’s when us shifters involuntarily transform into our were forms. For us, yes, that’s typically what you think of when you hear werewolves. We’re bipedal wolflike men and women. Our heights and builds change; our arms elongate and hands turn to claws. Noses into snouts. It can also be a vulnerable state for us, even with as much power as we have.”
“How so?”
“We tend to lose control to our basic animal instincts in were form. If I’m not locked up, for example, I may end up getting the urge to go find you. Not to hurtyou,” he quickly added, likely going off the look on my face. “But because I’d want to be near you, protecting you. And sometimes, yes, those instincts can turn dangerous. A were wanting to go and settle a fight with an enemy, for example. In those cases, it’s best we all have a safe room that we can lock ourselves in and keep everyone else both safe and unaware of our existence.”
I sucked in a deep breath. I wasn’t sure if his explanation made me feel any better about this.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Mine
GABE
I tried readinghis expression as I explained what happened on full moons, but he remained pretty neutral. If anything, he seemedintrigued. I’d been expecting, at minimum, fear, possible disgust. But curiosity wasn’t something I felt quite ready to process.
My fingers floated over the digital lock pad. “Would you like to see it?”
Eli took a moment to consider it. He looked toward the door, face scrunching in thought. As if this choice would alter the course of things to come, one way or another.
“Yes,” Eli said, and my heart leaped. “I’d like to see. If that’s alright.”
“Absolutely,” I answered without hesitation. This wasn’t something I wanted to hide from him.
Fuck.
I didn’t want to hideanythingfrom him. Ever. I’d done enough hiding. It had become a part of me. I wore this veil of misdirection and falsehoods like the fur coat I’d wear in my wolf form, except it never came off. No matter how uncomfortable it made me. Even if it felt like the weight of my hiddendesires was heavy enough to crush me. I couldn’t shift out of it. Couldn’t run from it.
I’d continued to lie. Continued to hide parts of myself from almost everyone except the very few who were part of my pack.
It was tiring. I was breaking.
And Eli was healing me.
I tapped the sequence of numbers that unlocked the door. The heavy lock slid open, and the door nudged forward. I pulled it open. A blast of cool air hit us.
“Whoa, is it a room or a freezer?”
“I tend to run hot in my were form.”
Eli took one more look at me, considering me, before he stepped inside. I followed him, close enough to hear the small gasp that came out of his mouth. I reached forward and placed a hand on his lower back.
“It’s beautiful in here,” he said.
