Page 24 of Hunted Mate
He shakes his head at me, like he’s doing what I told him because he’s playing along, like I’m getting into real trouble here.
“Don’t panic when you see this,” he says. “I’d prefer if you put the gun down. People tend to panic when they see me as a wolf, and you might reflexively shoot me.”
“Trust me,” I say, my lips twisting with amusement. “I’m quite good at controlling my reflexes.”
“That might be true,” he says. “I’ve been impressed by you, Calista. You’ve been very hard to throw off the scent. And if I do what I am about to do, it will change things for both of us forever. You understand that what has been seen, cannot be unseen.”
“I’m aware,” I say. “Now show me.”
“Alright, Callie,” he says, using that diminutive term that makes me feel so small. I let him do it, this time, because we are on the precipice of him showing me some kind of…
He does it.
He actually. Fucking. Does. It.
One moment he is a naked man standing in front of me, and the next there is a wolf larger and more fearsome than I can begin to describe looking at me with piercing blue eyes through black and tan fur.
My eyes well with tears.
It’s real.He’s real.I’m not imagining it. I haven’t spent what feels like a lifetime looking for someone like him for no reason.
I put the gun down beside me, and like a flash he is on me. He leaps, shifts back into his human form, and snatches the weapon away from me in an instant.
I don’t care. I don’t give the slightest fuck.
I am too busy staring at him, and at the place he was standing before. I knew it was real. I knew it. But sometimes, when the whole world tells you something isn’t real, you start to doubt yourself, no matter how certain you are.
I stare up at him now, as he stands over me, looking down at me, still very naked.
“Oh, Callie,” he says. “You’ve been a very bad girl, you know.”
I don’t care if he’s mad. I don’t care what the fuck happens now. I got what I wanted. I got what I needed.
“You’ve really made life difficult for me,” he says, taking the bullets out of the gun and disassembling it more or less instantly. He’s practiced with weapons. Good for him. So am I.
“What do you mean?”
“You can’t tell people about shifters, werewolves, cursed ones, children of the wild, babes of Enkidu, whatever you want to call us. Our existence depends on our ability to stay hidden at all costs. Your need to research, to expose, topublish? That cannot be indulged. If any other wolf were to find out what I showed you tonight, you would be hunted down and killed.”
I am still too busy being thrilled at having finally encountered a shifter that I don’t respond immediately, or even at all. I just keep looking at him as he places the pieces of gun to the side and runs his fingers along my jaw and down my neck.
“We are going to have to have a good long talk about what is to be done with you,” he says.
I melt. There’s tenderness in that touch, a sort of caring that makes me feel as though I am being guarded. I don’t know where the threat is coming from, but I know he will not let it reach me. There is pure possession in those brilliant blue eyes.
“You don’t look worried enough,” he says. “Maybe I should start with the consequences of pulling a gun on me in my own home.”
“You’re a wolf,” I say. “You’re a man who can take the form of an animal. You’re magical. You’re more than human. You’re…”
He moves his thumb to my lips and presses them closed. “We’re not talking about me, or about what I can do. We are talking about you, and your behavior. Do you understand?”
I did it. I really did it. Whatever happens now, it was worth it.
“You don’t like it when I pull a gun on you. I get it.” I giggle. The giggle comes out of nowhere, relief probably. I feel giddy with the discovery. Finally. I’m sane. I’m sane, and I know I am sane, and nobody is ever going to make me feel crazy again.
I’m not imagining what happened to me. It wasn’t a fucking animal attack. A person who could become an animal attacked me. Tried to kill me. And now…
“Callie. Look at me.”
