Hot tears streamed down my face. I bent my knees up to my chest and buried my head between them. My mind raced, trying to make it all fit.
Maybe it did. All my unfathomed attraction to them, the need, the hunger, theirs and mine. That old connection I couldn’t explain.
And their sizes and strength, their eyes, the way they spoke, their obsession with my smell and details, the bites, and the fucking eyes…
All the clues I’d chosen to ignoreI just happened to be at the club where you celebrated your birthday. I guessed you liked cinnamon tea.I noticed you pressed your thumbnail.
The blackout.
What happened at Damien’s office.
No. It couldn’t be true. How could I wrap my head around this madness?
“How did you get in my apartment, Kayden? How did I get in my apartment?”
“You passed out when you saw my brother’s beast and the bloodsucker’s fangs. I took you home and let us in using your keys.”
“Of course.”
“I’m never going to hurt you, Belle. I’m here to look after you. The pack will look after you.”
I knew that before he’d said it—more proof it was all real. My question was nothing but a useless evasion. I couldn’t run anymore. I had to face my destiny. Whatever that was.
Hesitantly, I rose and cracked open the door. Kayden was standing with his hands braced on either side of the doorframe, his huge body blocking the path out of the bathroom as if making sure I wouldn’t dart past him.
“You’re hurting bad right now. I can feel that pain, can smell the hopelessness and the fear coming off you. And what’s hurting and scaring you isn’t an enemy I can offset. It’s us.” His gaze searched my face through the door’s narrow opening. “But you’re safe, Belle. I would do anything to prove it to you, just name it.”
“I know you won’t hurt me.”
His face lit with a smile. “That’s a good start. Would you please come out? The curious teacher in you wouldn’t just meekly accept what she’d seen. You have all kinds of questions, and I’d be delighted to answer them.”
I swung the door wider and stepped out. He cradled my face in his hands and gave me a hug. He was still shirtless, and I still had hungry wolf venom in my blood. I needed to end this embrace.
It wasn’t an easy task, though. He looked exactly like Alec, equally steamy, and the idea of having sex with twins was a huge turn on for me. I felt his arms and back before I slightly drew away, but he was faster ending the hug.
He cleared his throat as I switched on the lights in the living room. Then he waited for me to sit before he helped himself to my kitchen and returned with a glass of water.
“Here.” He gave it to me and took a seat. “What’s the first thing you need to know?”
“Is it true what Joshua said? That I wouldn’t turn?”
“Most likely. A wolf bite expedites vitalities in the body, causing excessive hunger, body growth, uncontrolled sex drive, anger issues, but a vampire’s does the opposite. It numbs you, slows everything down, preserves you the way you are until you’re literally dead. The two venoms work against each other, neutralizing the effects.”
I loved the scientific explanations, the effort he exerted to make them. He cared enough to ease my mind the only way it could be eased.
“Unless…you complete the process,” he added.
My breath strangled in my throat. “By drinking blood?”
He nodded. “Or killing a human.”
My grip shook around the glass. I let the cold water soothe my dread a little.
Leaning forward, he held my shoulder. “I know what you’re thinking, but I can assure you it’s not so bad to turn into a shifter. The beast can be tamed.”
“The beast, as in the humongous wolf I saw Alec become at the clearing? No, thanks.”
He chuckled. “You won’t be so reluctant when you try knotting.”
