His jaw flexed as he chose words carefully. “Everything; nothing specific. Just—more. Like the volume on every instinct gets turned up.” He glanced at her sideways. “It’s fine, it’s not like I get out of control.”
“I never thought you would.”
He looked at her then, properly, for the first time since they’d started walking. His eyes were darker than usual, the brown of them deeper, warmer, and something in them not entirely human. The last of the gold light caught in them and made them look lit from within. The pull to him nearly made her face-plant on the ground.
“It’s harder to be still,” he said finally, quietly. “Harder to stay human. On nights like this, everything in me wants to move, to run, to—” He stopped. Looked back at the trail, back at her.
It touched her, even more now that she knew how hard it was for him to hold himself together. But there was a puzzle there, too. “We could have come here another day, you know? Or, better, another night. I hate for you to—”
He turned so fast the world blurred. One moment, he was beside her, the next he wasin frontof her, before she registered the movement, and the only reason she didn’t stumble was that his hands were already cupping her face, steadying her. His palms were warmer than usual; his eyes not entirely his. And when he spoke, his voice came from somewhere low and dark. The line between wolf and man frayed, and it absolutely, categorically should not have done what it did to her, mind and body.
“There’s nothing,” he growled, the word dragged out like a vow, warning, and confession, all rolled into one. “NothingI want more than having you here, tonight. The forest, the moon—” his thumbs brushed her cheekbones as he shivered a little, “—they're only complete if you’re in them.”
Zoe was fairly certain breathing was supposed to be happening. It didn’t feel necessary. What felt necessary was staying exactly where she was, close enough to feel his pulse, or maybe that was her own; she genuinely couldn’t tell anymore. It left her confused and a little scared, because things kept piling up inside her toward an explanation she didn’t have quite enough information to finish.
As if he could read her mind—and she was beginning to suspect he could, which would be its own problem—he brushed his thumbs across her lips. Swallowed. Ground his teeth. Nodded. “We’re nearly there. Then things will be clearer.”
Okay, so she must have been half-drunk on the moon too, because she turned her head and kissed the palm of his hand. Which—uh? What was that? “What—” She stopped, cleared her throat. “Where’sthere, exactly, and what’s in it that’s supposed to make anything clearer? Because I’m telling you, man, between being confused and horny, which you can probably already tell so let’s not pretend, I can barely keep my wits together.”
He chuckled. It was strangled and growly, but it was a chuckle. “There’s a clearing, nothing more than that. But we can sit, and I can explain. All of it.”
“Sounds pretty, and not altogether comforting, but okay.”
And it ended up really being pretty.
The clearing appeared as if the forest had opened its hand to gift them with it—a wide circle of new grass washed in the first soft darkness, the sky above it enormous and ready for the stars. Rex unslung his backpack and crouched down, pulling out a blueblanket, absurdly fluffy. He shook it out with a snap and laid it over the grass.
Zoe sat. He sat beside her. The trees stood quietly at the edges.
He didn’t speak right away, and she didn’t push. What he was about to tell her was, obviously, not easy, and she respected his need for time.
Finally, he turned to her and said, “How do you prefer it?”
That stopped her cold. She blinked once. Twice. “See, your question can go in a lot of different directions. It could mean how I want my drink, assuming you packed something, which would make you very organized and extremely attentive. Or it could go in a much,muchdirtier way.”
He straight-out growled. Wiped a hand down his face, his gaze fixing, rather desperately, to the dark trees, then back to her. “The explanation. Do you want the long version, or straight to the point?”
“I feel like I’ve been waiting for answers since the first second I saw you, so put me out of my misery. Straight to the point, and then I’ll ask questions. I’m sure I’ll have plenty.”
He gave a curt nod. Stood. Paced a little. Sat again. Then went completely still and stared at her for a long stretch of seconds, not moving, not even breathing. If he was having some kind of episode, she had absolutely no way of carrying him back to the car. There was barely any reception this deep in the forest, though 911 was supposed to work even without—
“I think you’re my fated mate.”
Oh.
Okay.
Alright.
Soshewas the one who was going to need medical attention after all, which actually made everything easier since he could carry her, no problem. With a body like that, he could carry herall the way to the hospital, where the good doctors could restart her heart.
“Moonbeam?”
The gentleness in his voice pulled her back. And also—Moonbeam?How unbearably sweet was that? He’d said it once before, but now, in that voice, after what he’d just told her... She was supposed to, what, function? “Yeah,” she managed. “I’m, um, processing.”
“I know. Take all the time you need. I’m not used to explaining this, but you can ask me every—”
“Is that why I’m so attracted—no, make that obsessed—with you?”
