Anger surged and I clenched my fists, battling the urge to hit him. "You want to know why I'd rather fuck a stranger like Kade than you right now? Because he accepts who and what I am. You, on the other hand, want to change a basic part of me."
Anger burned around me, through me, and I wasn't entirely sure if it was mine, his, or a combination of both. But all the frustration that had built up over the months since Quinn had walked away came spewing forth, and I didn't have a hope in hell of stopping it now.
"I don't - "
"Then why do you call all wolves whores? Why even> thinks that when the moon dance, and the celebration of life and love, is a basic part of what we are? We're not human. How dare you even try to judge us by human standards."
"I'm not - "
"Then why call us whores?"
"Isn't fucking someone for money or information a definition of prostitution? Isn't that what you'd be doing?"
"It's a human definition. Werewolves have no such word, because we don't think that way."
"So you'll happily sleep with all and sundry to get information?"
"Happily? No. Will I do it? Yes, because his only sex, and sex is as vital to wolves as blood is to vampires."
"A vampire can die without blood. I doubt a werewolf would die without sex."
"Maybe not." I crossed my arms and continued to meet him glare for glare. "But we can certainly die if we don't meet our soul mate."
He snorted. "I doubt - "
"Don't doubt, just listen. Werewolves believe that true love is not something that happens by chance, but rather, it is something determined by fate itself. We believe that love is as immortal as the soul, and that we are destined to meet the same lover over and over again, right through all of our lifetimes. For wolves, there is only one person on this earth who is destined to be our perfect mate. One person who is our match, heart and soul. And if we do not find that person, our heart and soul suffers. Many do fade away, and many do die."
He didn't answer for a moment, then said, "Could not the connection we share mean there is something worth exploring between us?"
"Definitely. But I have cared deeply for two other men in my life, and loved one. None of those three were my soul mate. The connection between us might have been emotionally and physically deep, but it wasn't soul deep." Something that had been proven when Haden, the wolf I'd loved so much as a teenager, had met his soul mate exactly one year into our relationship. Had we been exclusive, that would never have happened.
"So, where does that leave you and me?" Quinn asked.
"You tell me. I'm not the one trying to place boundaries on our relationship."
He sighed, and looked past me. The anger burning the air seemed to dissipate quickly on the cool breeze. "I'm a vampire. We tend to be very territorial."
I nodded. "Then it is you who has the decision to make, not me. I want to continue exploring what we share, but I will not risk restricting myself to you alone. I cannot. Nor, might I add, do I expect you to restrict yourself to me. I cannot be the only supply of the blood you need to sustain yourself."
He snorted softly. "A small comfort that makes little difference in the scheme of things."
"That's all I can offer right at this moment."
"I don't know if I could handle an open relationship. I'm just not built that way."
I raised an eyebrow. "We weren't exactly exclusive a month ago. I was still with both Talon and Misha then."
"A month ago I thought it was nothing more than a casual dalliance, one that would be easily forgotten once I got home."
"So what changed your mind?"
His look just about liquefied my insides. "The fact that you kept invading my thoughts and my dreams."
He'd invaded my dreams, too. I wondered if, somehow, we'd been reaching out to each other through the link we'd created. "Yet you rebuked just about every attempt I made to see or talk to you. Even when I finally got you to come to dinner, you still stated you weren't interested in continuing any sort of relationship."
He shrugged. "I thought it was for the best. After Eryn, I had no wish for anything permanent."
"I wasn't suggesting anything permanent."