Page 16 of August

Not that she cared about access codes, necessarily, but the fully mated part was what was sticking out.

She wanted to mate August. She wanted to find out just how muscular he was under his clothes and what it would feel like to make love to him. But she was scared to pieces to actually mate him. To let her fangs out and sink them into his neck to bind them as mates, and however gorillas mated their females too.

Probably fangs.

She shivered as she thought about how it would feel to belong to him and know that he belonged to her too.

But she couldn’t mate August. She wouldn’t. Not fully, not with her fangs.

That would make him a target. She didn’t think her grandfather would ever forget about her or leave her be. Now that she’d figured out why he was going to keep coming after her, she couldn’t risk August’s life or the lives of her future children.

Although it warred with everything inside her, she knew she had to leave.

She felt safe in the park and with August, but how the hell long could that actually last? Eventually her grandfather would find her, she was sure of it. He was tenacious and crazy.

If she and August were mated, then her grandfather could and would use him to get to her, and his blood would be on her hands.

She didn’t want him hurt.

“Ginny?”

She stopped and realized she was nearly at the end of the hallway. She turned around and saw that she’d overshot the door for the private living area by several feet.

“Sorry,” she said, catching up to him as he stood at the open door.

“You were lost in thought; I called you a couple times.” She walked into the private living area, with the walls painted to look like the jungle and the houses on top of steel trees like treehouses.

“Just thinking about everything.”

She followed him up a retractable set of stairs to his house, a two-bedroom with a kitchen and family room. He walked into the master bedroom, with a mahogany sleigh bed and flat-screen TV on the long dresser, and set the bag on the dresser.

Turning to face her, he folded his arms and gave her a long, quiet look.

Hell, she felt like he could read her thoughts.

“Tell me what’s going on in that beautiful head of yours.”

What could she say? The moment I can, I’m running so that my grandfather won’t try to take you out to get to me.

He’d just tell her she was safe there, with him, and she might start to believe it. But there wasn’t safety for her. Maybe she’d have to go to Canada or Mexico, leave the country entirely.

What if she let her guard down and August was hurt?

She couldn’t bear it.

So instead of telling him exactly what she was thinking, she said, “l miss my family. You’re so sweet and amazing, and everyone here is so kind.” She moved to him, inhaling his dark, sweet scent and staring into his deep brown eyes. “In the shop I was thinking that no one’s been that kind to me since my parents died. My brother and I were close, but it wasn’t the same. I felt alone a lot, even with him around.” Her eyes stung and she leaned against him.

He put his arms around her, and she closed her eyes.

It was monstrously unfair that she was being hunted. She wouldn’t ask him to leave with her because he had friends who needed him. Somehow, she’d figure out how to get away and keep August safe.

Maybe someday in the future, she’d be able to come back to him.

Until then, though, she’d be watching for any chance she had to flee. The only way to keep August and the other shifters in the park safe was to get as far away from them as soon as possible.

The afternoon disappeared quickly as August and Ginny spent time together, talking and hanging out. He discovered her love of animated movies and shows, and they watched one of her all-time favorite movies about a little mouse and his mouse family trying to save their home from destruction.

They’d eaten dinner in the marketplace, and she’d picked out some face wash and shampoo from the makeup shop in the market.

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