But in this moment, right now as she stared at me, I was the one who made her afraid.
I held up my hands in surrender and shook my head slowly. Her gaze darted to my hands, fear spiking even more.
God, they probably looked so big and intimidating.
“I have nothing else. No money, no drugs. Nothing.” She pressed her back more firmly against the wall and I growled low, not to frighten her further, which unfortunately was the result, but angry that my mate was upset and afraid.
I wanted to kill the motherfucker who had made her feel this way.
“I won’t hurt you.” I dropped my hands to my sides and tried to take a more nonthreatening approach to this. I took a step back, wanting to do the opposite, wanting to just pull her into my arms and hold her, tell her everything was okay. I also wanted to shift into my bear form, to h
unt down the guy who had frightened her. Fuck, I wanted to tear his limbs from his body. I wanted to punish him for even looking at my mate.
“Your eyes.” She whispered those two words and I internally cursed, realizing that my bear was a little too close to the surface, my eyes probably glowing, flashing yellow.
I closed them and took a deep breath in, exhaling slowly. I pushed the fucker down, told him to be patient, that frightening her would only have her drawing away from us even more. And when I felt him retreat, understanding, submitting in this one moment, it was then that I opened my eyes and looked at her again.
“I’m sorry,” I said even softer this time, calling out the gentlest part of me, but my voice was hoarse from the strong feelings bombarding me.
Love, lust, protectiveness, possessiveness.
It was all this whirlwind of feeling moving inside of me like a tornado, making a path of distraction, telling me that it wouldn’t subside until I made her mine.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated. “It’s just an unavoidable side effect of my inner animal.” Shifters weren’t some dark secret hidden away in a closet. We weren’t keeping to the shadows. We were known, feared and misunderstood the majority of the time. But right now, all I wanted her to do was love me, desire me like no other.
I wanted her to feel the same way for me as I did for her.
And although I could see that she recognized me in some form, a mate seeing a mate for the first time, she was far too afraid to acknowledge how deep our bond ran.
“I won’t hurt you,” I said in a softer voice, showing her that I was not a threat. Never to her. I looked around the trashed van, wanting to ask her exactly what had happened so I could hunt down the motherfucker who had done this, had made her scared.
I stared at her, looked into her blue eyes, her long blond hair that was a tangled mess around her head, the ponytail she’d once had hanging off to the side.
God, I hated she’d been hurt. I curled my hands into tight fists at my sides, forcing myself to appear … human. I didn’t want to frighten her more with the fact that I was now mated to her, that I would protect her at all costs.
I was possessive … obsessed with her.
She was mine, irrevocably, and I would never let her go.
“I—I know you won’t hurt me.” She knitted her brows. “Although I don’t know how I know that.” She smoothed her hands over her face, exhaustion filling her expression.
I wanted to hear her voice, wanted her to speak more.
“Who are you?” she said in a mere whisper. It took a hell of a lot of self-restraint not to go to her, touch her hair, smell her.
I wanted to bury my nose in the crook of her neck, get lost in her scent … mark her.
“Have we met before?”
Her fear started to lessen and that pleased me. But I wanted it to be completely gone, especially when she was with me.
Everything in me was so tight, so possessive right now. I wanted to shelter her from the world.
“No, we haven’t met before,” I said, but not telling her what we were to each other was hard as fuck.
The air was thick, the scent of her fear dissipating, replaced with confusion and curiosity. It filled my head.
She knew me but didn’t in the same breath. And that in itself scared her. But underneath all of that was her soul knowing mine, her body and mind recognizing me as hers the same way as she was mine.