“Simon,” she whispered. “I don’t destroy so easily.”
True. It was one of the things he most loved about her. She was strong and determined. She ran a successful business in Detroit. And she’d whipped her brother into shape when he’d probably fought her the whole time. She was damned strong, but he couldn’t risk it. He wouldn’t risk her. She was too special to destroy.
“You’re locked in your head, Simon,” she said as she straddled his lap. “You’re seeing only the bad side.”
“Someone has to.”
“Okay. So you saw it. You told me. And your mother was a bitch. But I’m not going to let her weakness destroy us. I’m just not.”
He huffed out a breath. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
“Yeah, I do.” She pressed another kiss to his lips. “I’m asking for you.”
He shook his head. “I can’t, Alyssa. You don’t understand what it means.”
She must have understood the importance of what he said. She must have felt the tension in his body because she stilled. Then she straightened up until she could look directly into his eyes. “We don’t have to decide anything tonight. It’s late. We’re both tired. If all we do is a repeat of yesterday, a coming together—”
He gripped her arms and tried to hold her back. But he didn’t have the strength, so he tried to use words. “It’s not like last night. Then I needed you to bring me back. To show me…” Love. “Tenderness. Gentleness.”
“Yes,” she said. “And—”
“And I don’t need that now. I’m not in that place now.”
She smiled. “That’s good—”
“There’s a thing we do, Alyssa. There’s a thing shifters do sometimes.” He grimaced. He’d never understood it before, but now he felt it. To the depths of his bones, he knew exactly what was going on. And it terrified him.
“You mean besides going furry?”
He looked her in the eyes and said the words. “We lock on to a mate. It’s one-sided, Alyssa, but it’s all consuming. We lock on to a mate and we don’t let go.”
Her lips curved into a soft smile. “That sounds nice.”
“Really? You ready to commit to me for life, Alyssa? Because I’m already half locked on. If we do this now, if I put myself inside you again…” He thrust up against her groin for emphasis. “If I do that, I’ll lock in completely. I won’t let you go no matter what you want. You won’t have a say in the matter, and when it’s bad…” He swallowed, but forced himself to go on. “When it’s really bad, you won’t get a say in anything.”
It took a moment for his words to sink in. He wanted to leave it alone. To let those words be enough. But she had to see where he could go.
“Think of the worst stalker tales you’ve ever heard of. Those were shifters.”
She jerked back from him, and his hands tightened instinctively, keeping her exactly where she was.
“That’s bullshit,” she rasped. “They can’t all have been crazy shifters.”
“True. But enough were. Enough that you need to think very carefully. Do you want to commit to me now? For life? If not, then you better leave right now.”
She blinked at him. “What are you saying?”
He huffed out a breath. “I’m half mated with you right now. It’s the grizzly half, but the human part isn’t far behind. It’s going to see you as mine no matter what you want, how you want it, or anything. You’ll be mine and I won’t give you up. Ever.”
Her eyes narrowed and her cheeks flushed. She was thinking romantically, and yeah, that was definitely there. But there was a darker side. A stalker side.
“You have to be ready to take me forever right now. Or you need to give me distance and I’ll slow this down.” He took a breath and forced his hands to release her. “Decide.”
