I pushed my luck and sat first, then pulled her into my lap.
She landed awkwardly and although she moved away a little, she stayed with her legs draped across my thighs. I was grateful for the contact.
“Now look. I don’t want to give you a thousand compliments, because you won’t believe me yet. But what I will say, is that you are beyond beautiful. Your body is magic and your smile makes me want to drop to my knees and worship you.”
She looked down at her hands, but I could see the small smile playing on her lips.
“But there’s so much more to you than that, I know. You’re a doctor, so you are incredibly intelligent, hardworking and driven. Which will hold you in good stead with our pack, and the women at the Alpha’s right hand. They are strong women.”
She nodded and joined the conversation again. “I can imagine.”
I squeezed her thigh. “And if you’re designed for three of us, then you’ll be twice as strong, twice as courageous. I can see your fire, your temper, your passion. You are an incredible woman, Claire, and I honestly cannot wait to see what the future brings for us.”
She glanced down again and twirled her fingers together. “But I don’t know anything about you. How can I trust you? How can I possibly stay here and get to know you when I have a job… a life to get back to?”
Relief winged through my heart as she prepared to bargain with me. I could hear it in her tone, see it in the way she looked at me. She was listening to me… she wanted to believe me.
Time. We just needed time. To prove to her that we could love her in a way that would make her happy.
“Give us two days. We’ll show you our pack, you can meet the elders. Spend time with us. I promise you won’t regret it, and then at the end of the allocated time, if you want to return to the city—we’ll take you.”
I held my breath against the pain such a statement brought. Take her back?
Never!
Dexter and Taylor would kill me for even offering her the option. But we couldn’t force her to stay. That wasn’t healthy for anyone. She’d grow to hate us all.
“Ah… I do have the next few days off work. I was planning on catching up on some sleep and seeing my parents.”
Yes! Thank you!
“Well, you can definitely sleep and relax here. You can take my bedroom—I’ll sleep on the couch. Honestly, we’d do anything to make you happy. You need to see that to believe it, I know.”
She looked at me with a sceptical expression. I knew that staying with us was the last thing she wanted to do.
“Please, Claire. Stay with us. Don’t ignore this opportunity that Fate has presented.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Jay, I don’t believe in Fate. No rational human does.”
I smiled at her. “You’ve never seen a patient pull through, when all logic says he shouldn’t have? Or, perhaps a perfectly healthy patient just passes away in his sleep? You’ve honestly never seen anything that couldn’t be explained away?”
Her lips twisted up and she glanced down at her hands. “Well… yeah, I suppose so. There are always things that happen that can’t be totally explained…”
She stopped.
I grinned at her. “Trust me when I say that you need to throw everything you thought you knew, out the window.”
She stared at her hands for a minute longer then finally looked up at me again, tears shimmering in her blue eyes.
I reached up and caressed her cheek, wiping away the moisture on her face.
“Why are you crying? Is your medical mind blown apart by everything you’ve seen and heard today?”
She nodded and hiccupped. “Yeah, pretty much. I suppose if people can turn into wolves at will, then anything’s possible.”
“Yes. It is.”