“How about we focus on… not that stuff?” my voice squeaked at the end.
He snapped his focus back to my face and nodded once, but I didn’t miss how his jaw clenched under his scruff-covered cheeks, or how his hands curled around his knees as he tightened his fingers, as if trying to stop himself from pouncing toward me.
“Aye,” he grumbled in a voice not entirely human.
“Why are you here? How did you find me?” This all seemed so unbelievable. What were the chances, the odds that I took a trip across the world and spent a week on a boat just to find myself in some tiny little Eastern European village facing off with my fated mate?
I knew there were some who never found their mates. I knew of vampire males spending their entire lives searching for their Coveted Ones only to die alone from an unfulfilled life and with a broken heart.
“I’m here for ye. Only ye.”
Okay, so I doubted I’d get very far when currently he was too immersed in the Linked Mate mentality. Not that I felt the need to run, if I were being wholly honest. I wondered if this was why females of the Otherworld didn’t get the intense drive and obsession when we found our mates like the males did.
Someone had to think rationally and be sane, right?
We were the logical thinkers, the ones who steered the coupling in the right direction. And the males, with their intense and brooding natures were the protectors, ensuring we got to the final destination safely.
“But how did you find me? I’m literally out in the middle of nowhere.”
He didn’t answer for several long seconds, just continued to stare at me. It was as exciting as it was nerve-wracking. But I started to squirm on the boulder, crossing and uncrossing my legs, which probably only made the situation worse and let him scent my arousal even more.
He scrubbed his hand over the back of his neck and glanced away for only a millisecond before returning his focus on me, as if he couldn’t bear to look away. In a sense, I understood. I was just as mesmerized with him as he seemed to be with me. My mind and body, the very essence that made me… me knew who this male was to me and didn't want to be parted in any sense.
“I had business tae attend tae, alliances tae form. It took me across many countries and many lands. I was heading back to the Highlands with two of my soldiers when I felt this pull, instinct telling me which way tae go. It was fate leading me tae you, I know now.”
I just nodded slowly because I didn’t know what else to do or say.
“It was ye watching me last night, wasn’t it?”
I felt my heart rate pick up at his words. I knew exactly which moment in time he was speaking about.
“I felt ye, lass. Gods, I felt ye watching me, and I got so hard because of it.”
Ohhh.
“Yes,” I whispered. I tried to regulate my breathing and clutched my hands in my skirting as if it would stabilize me. “I just felt… I don’t know. Something pulled my attention and then kept it there when I saw you.”
He hummed low in pleasure, and I heard his claws scraping against the leather of his trews. Despite the modern times, this male had to be ancient in age; his whole demeanor, the aura that surrounded him, even his clothing screamed of another place in the world. Another time in history.
“How old are you?” I found myself asking.
“Over two centuries old, darlin’.”
Oh boy. I lifted a hand to my racing heart. Even though species in the Otherworld could live up to a millennium, and in some cases there were those rumored to be older than that, immortal even, Banner was old, like old-old in comparison to me.
His gaze roamed up and down my body despite the fact that I was sitting and he probably couldn’t see much else. I shivered, feeling naked despite being fully dressed. “Ye look young, but even so, ye have this innocence about ye.”
Yeah, I’ll say so. “I’m only 18.”
Surprise covered his face, and his eyes widened before he pulled back, sitting up straighter. “Shite. So damn young.”
I felt my face heat. When he said it like that, in that tone, it made me feel like this whole situation was indecent as hell. I guess it was in a way, but still it bothered me. “I’m an adult.” Gods, did that make me sound like a petulant child?
It wasn’t as if being eighteen in the Otherworld was the same as being that age as a human. Being supernatural meant we aged differently, maturing faster. It was a survival mechanism.
“Then I picked up yer scent. And sweet Jesus, lass, it smelled so fooking good.” The way he said those words, not with a growl lacing his voice, but instead his tone holding a very feline purr despite him being a Lycan, had a soft moan leaving me.