Sofia narrows her eyes at Ryan before turning back to me and smiling again. “Now, or we can do breakfast?”
I look to Ryan and squeeze his hand before answering. I need to get the full picture, and that doesn’t feel possible with him after all the deception up to this point. Not when my body is so drawn to him that I can’t think straight because all I want is to climb him like a damn tree.
“Thisis what I need. Some outside perspective and space to process.”
“Of course, anything,” Ryan answers immediately. Even though his shoulders have slumped and I can see it’s the last thing he wants, he understands I need some space from him to process. “And I officially give you permission to talk about me in whatever way you need to. I know you’re not supposed to talk about your patients, even after you dump them for being obsessed with you. But I don’t see you as my therapist. That’s just how we met to me.”
I nod once as his words settle over me. I’m so relieved that I can speak openly about him. “Thank you.”
“And please don’t go too far. My wolf—”
“We won’t,” Sofia chimes in, interrupting him before grabbing my hand and pulling me away. Ryan looks crestfallen when I glance back at him, his body hunched forward and his eyebrows scrunched up, but he doesn’t try to stop us. And maybe that’swhat I actually need. For him to prove that he isn’t going to try to control my day-to-day life. I want a Dom when it comes to sex, but I haven’t signed up for a total power exchange dynamic. I need him to trust me to make my own decisions.
“Thank you,” I say to Sofia as we step further into the forest. “I really—”
Sofia silences me by placing a finger over her mouth, her eyes wide with an unspoken urgency. I'm completely bewildered, the sudden gesture jarring against the conversation we were just having. Didn't she just agree to talk to me about this?
“Annnd we’re out of earshot,” she says after walking further away from Ryan. “Didn’t want you to say anything too soon and risk being overheard.”
“Really? They could still hear until now?”
“Of course, if they wanted to use their shifter hearing,” Sofia affirms, cocking an eyebrow at me. “Don’t you do that too? And what are you anyway? I know you aren’t a wolf, but I’m not familiar enough with other species to detect. Ryan has been pretty evasive about you.”
I blow out a huff of breath. She hasn’t a clue how right she is.
“I… I’m a tiger,” I say, and I swear I can feel the beast inside me puffing out its chest in pride with me finally claiming her.
“No shit,” Sofia exclaims, her eyes roving over me. “That is badass!”
She is so blunt and to the point that I can’t help the laugh that bubbles up in my chest. And much like with Ryan, I find myself drawn to her. Not in the same way, but almost like I know I cantrust her. Like she’s family. She reminds me so much of Pippa with her take no shit attitude, and it has me instantly reassured.
“So tell me, badass tiger lady, what’s the deal with you and my brother? You are fated mates, right?”
“I think so, but I’m new to all this. My birth parents left me at a fire station when I was a baby, and then I was adopted and raised by humans. When I first shifted, well, we all panicked. We felt that if anyone learned what I was that they would want to experiment on me, or God knows what. And maybe a wolf can get away with being seen, but a huge tiger is going to stand out a lot more. So I have been suppressing it all for as long as I have known about it.”
“Shit,” Sofia says, stopping in her tracks to stare at me. “That must have been awful. Was your tiger not screaming at you constantly?”
“Yeah, at first,” I reply as we resume our walk through the woods. “But I learned how to drown her out and ignore the voice.”
“Fuck. So you’ve been ignoring your intuition for years?”
“Yeah, some things are harder to ignore than others. Like I need to run, especially on a full moon. I eat alot. And I guess since I met Ryan, that voice inside has been louder. It’s been using words I didn’t fully understand until now, pushing me to claim him, tobitehim.”
My cheeks heat telling Sofia this. She’s his sister; I’m sure the last thing she wants to hear about is me biting her brother. “Sorry, you probably don’t want to hear about things like that.” But the gasp of disgust or quick change of subject one would expect never comes.
“It’s fine.” She shrugs, remaining unnervingly calm, dismissing any sign of awkwardness. “The bite is part of accepting your fated mate, so it’s very normal. And I grew up with Ryan as Alpha. I’ve been hearing pretty much every female wolf in the pack drooling over him since forever. I’m used to it.”
Her words were probably meant to put me at ease, but instead it feels like gasoline thrown on a fire I didn’t even realize was burning. My inner animal pushes against me so hard that it knocks the wind from my lungs. A hot flash of anger surges through me, primal and unbidden, culminating in a growl I can’t hold back. I stop walking forward, standing stock-still instead, clutching my chest as I try to steady myself.
Breathe in for four seconds.
Hold for four seconds.
Out for four seconds.
Hold for four seconds.
And again. And again.
