“That’s about ten days too long, Elliott.”
Joy erupted in his heart, and he almost started yelling about love. “You’d have wanted me to bite you the moment we met?”
“Yeah. You should’ve yanked me out of my car and clawed off my leggings. Maybe tossed me up on the roof for a little snack.” She ran her nails down his chest, sending hot threads of passion snaking through his body. “Then you could’ve dragged me inside and fucked me—claimedme—on your couch, your table, in the shower, maybe the bed.”
“Fern,” he growled. “Fuck. Those are some seriously aggressive verbs.” It was like she’d been in his dreams that first fitful night when he’d imagined all the ways he could have her.
Leaning in close, she nipped his bottom lip, then whispered, “I like when you’re in control, and I like a little fear.”
“I’ll remember that.” Theperfectwoman, that’s what she was. Gently, but not very discreetly, he reached down to adjust his hard cock. “Can we wait until Sunday, when the wedding is done and the guests are gone?”
“Are you asking me or are you asking yourself?”
He chuckled. “I’m justifying it. It’ll be safer to do the chase without humans around. You’ll need to take off work, too, but I think Ros will be all right with that.”
“She will, she’s already brought it up like twenty times. Oh my god, does she know, too?”
His lips drooped down as his brows went up. “I don’tthinkso, but Ros and Bruce are true mates, so maybe she’s been seeing the signs.”
“What happens after the super compelling? Biting, right?”
“Mhm.” Saliva filled his mouth at the thought of sinking his teeth into her, of claiming her as his. It was animalistic, sure, but he had a literal bear in him, so it was fine. “When we’re ready, you’ll start the chase.”
“I start it? I thought you had to chase me?”
“I do. But you have to run.”
With a quick shuffle of limbs and what had to be some expert yoga moves, Fern spun to face him, once again straddling his thighs. “I can do that. Then what happens? When do I get my animal?”
Elliott sighed, slumping against the rock wall. Swallowing his dread, he said, “After I bite you, the sickness begins.”
Fern’s lip curled like she smelled something bad. “That’s a new detail. Please explain.”
Rubbing slow circles on her back, Elliott took a stab at it. “When a non-shifter enters the bonding—the super compelling—the magic begins, but it’s not too late to back out and continue life as a human. If you move into the claiming because you’ve let me bite you, your body will start its first transition. Basically, it’s the magic settling into you, it’s ananimal either climbing out of your soul or being shoved in by some outside source.”
Her thighs tightened around his waist. “You don’t know which?”
He shook his head.
“Everyone goes through the sickness,” she said, reciting the words like a comforting fact.
He felt bad correcting the misnomer. “Um, no. Only humans who become shifters. Natural shifters are born with animals, but they don’t usually come out until we’re around four.”
“Oh. So whatisthe sickness?”
“It’s like the flu, I’ve heard. Shifters don’t really get sick, or when we do, we don’t stay sick, not until we’re getting old and the magic stops protecting us from illness and injury.”
“That’s so cool. So, I get the flu, but as a prize I get an animal?”
“Mhm. It can take a few days, sweating, fever, the whole nine yards. But when it’s done, your animal should emerge.”
“Should?” Her eyes rounded.
“Will,” he corrected.
“Is there... Can I die during this?”
“My god, no. I don’t think so, at least. I’ve never heard of it killing anyone, and I think there’d be stories.”
