“Where’d you get these?”
He shrugs and shakes his head.
“A random person,” he tells me.
“I’m glad you’re okay.”
“I don’t know if I am,” he says.
“What do you mean?”
“Meredith, it scared me.”
I get to my feet and I move to him. I wonder if I should hold back and keep my hands to myself, but he’s my mate, and I can’t deny him this. What he needs right now is a way to forget. He needs a way to stop worrying about this, and I can help him. I can help take his mind off things, so that’s what I do.
I press my hands to his chest, and then I hug him tightly.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I’m sorry you were scared, and I’m sorry you were alone.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Your mate should have been with you,” I whisper.
He cocks his head, looking down at me.
“What are you saying?” He raises his eyebrows, waiting for me, and I realize this is it. This is my shot. This is my one chance to prove to him that I care, and that I’m in this for real. This may be the only chance I have to show him that I want him as much as he wants me.
“I was wrong.”
He’s silent, and the sound is deafening.
He heard me, right?
“I’m sorry for what I did,” I tell him. “I was scared. I know that probably doesn’t mean too much, but it’s the truth. I was scared, so I made a bad call. I thought it would be better to push you away than to try, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.”
“Why did you do it?” He asks, choking on his own words, and I realize just how deeply my rejection must have hurt him, especially after he gave me his mating mark.
“I’ve been scared for a long time. Even before I lost my mom, I was scared of everything. Then you came along and you threw me for a loop.”
He chuckles a little.
“A loop, huh?” But he waits, and he lets me articulate how I’m feeling because I know that this moment is so important.
“A loop,” I nod. “I didn’t think when I downloaded Team Shifter that I was going to find anything but a fling. I didn’t think I was going to find anything real.”
“Is that what this is?” He steps a little bit closer. I reach up and touch my scar.
“Feels pretty real to me.”
“I thought you wanted out. The dragon.”
“I was wrong. I don’t want out, Robert. I just want you.”
I push up on my tippy-toes and press my lips to his, for just a moment, I fear that he’s going to push me away and to reject me again. After all, I rejected him first. He has no reason to want to give me a second chance, but...