Page 38 of His Runaway Mate

She smirks and turns away.

“I would not allow this behavior, sir,” he says. “Not from anyone, and certainly not from a mate.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” I say. “Is that all?”

“Yes,” he says. “I will check it in the morning.”

He leaves, closing the door behind him. The room is silent. The sun has set now. The golden rays were falling over my mate’s face as I interrogated her, but now they are gone and the tone of the world has gone cold with them.

I tap the button that closes the electric curtains and hit the lights. A more pleasant lunar glow emerges from the top of the curtain rails.

“That was not nice,” I say, chiding her firmly. “We don’t hurt each other.”

“Says the man who met me and whipped my ass,” she says.

“That is not the same, and you know it.”

I go and sit down in front of her again. I have taken my shirt off in the meantime and put it in the sink to soak. It has a little blood on it from her feral activity.

She is still kneeling, which for her, almost counts as an apology. Then she gives me a real one, which I did not expect from her.

“I didn’t actually mean to hurt you,” she says. “I was going to distract you, but it came out harder than I intended.”

I look down at her silently for a while, thinking. She risks a little glance up from time to time, but otherwise stays kneeling before me, the guilt on her face quite clear.

It did not feel like she regretted the bite in the moment she gave it. It felt like she was relishing every moment of it. I felt the resonance of her snarling, the pure vital energy of her beast.

When we are in our wolf forms, scuffles are common. They are a good way to test strength, build agility, and embrace the beast. But even those moments are more in play than in serious attack.

I have been in some real wolf fights. I have battled for dominance, for territory, for the simple right to survive. It is the latter energy I felt in her snapping jaws. She was fighting for herself.

“Did I frighten you?” I ask the question with some softness, already knowing the answer.

“No,” she lies.

I sigh softly. “I wish you would trust me with the truth. We would both find this a lot easier if you did.”

“I am not here to make this easier for you,” I say. “I am here because I had no choice.”

“Neither of us have a choice in this.”

“You could fuck me and leave me alone. You don’t have to keep trying to… like me.”

I reach for her face again. “If you bite my hand, there will be hell to pay,” I warn her as I cup her chin.

She grins at me, as if she enjoys being treated with a little more respect for her dangerous nature.

“I do like you. I liked you the moment I saw you. That is how this works.”

With the sin of telling her she is liked, she gives me a pouty little look, because all of that biting and nastiness has seen her right back where she started, kneeling in front of me with nothing earned.

“I will keep you here, Nicky. I will make it so you know that you are mine all the way through, I’ve already promised you that. I want to know more about you. I want to understand you.”

“Some things take time,” she says. “And some things never happen.”

“So you wish to remain a feral little mystery to me,” I smile. “I suppose that can be arranged as well. I suppose I could treat you like a vicious little animal. A gag would stop that biting quite nicely, wouldn’t it.”

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