Page 11 of Animal Instincts

But he saw the way her eyes had widened after he spoke, and the way she had felt that he had gone too far and too fast with her.

The scent of fear, anxiety, and inner conflict had slammed into him like a sledgehammer.

“What in the hell was that about?” Tyler asked. He ran a hand over his head and breathed out. His friend was clearly out of his element right now. “Danika has never acted like that, and you think someone did that to her lip?”

Damien hadn’t told Tyler what Danika was to him. He had meant to tonight, but then this weird situation had gone down, and right now it seemed inappropriate. “I don’t think she’ll say what really happened until she’s ready.”

Of course he’d scented the truth when he’d asked her who’d touched her. The truth had been there, right at the surface, but her emotions had been so raw and open that he knew she had been on the verge of breaking down.

That was the only reason he hadn’t pressed her on the issue.

“I’m going to go.” Truth was he felt like a bastard, because he was planning to follow Danika and get some answers.

She was his mate, and seeing her after four years of keeping himself in check had been the hardest thing his lion and human side had ever tried to suppress.

Tyler didn’t respond, and the scent of his worry over Danika, and the fact that he was looking like a stressed-out father filled Damien’s nose.

“She’ll be okay, Tyler. Don’t worry.” And Damien would make sure of it, because he’d find out who the fuck had touched her, and he’d beat their ass for hurting his woman.

7

She slammed her front door, pissed about a lot of things. Yes, storming out of there and not letting her father help her had been childish.

But she’d been working on emotion, and leaving had seemed like the best thing to do at the moment. She went into the kitchen and placed her hands on the counter.

Closing her eyes and breathing out, she thought about how her dad had watched her with concern, and how pissed Damien had been. She remembered the way her father had thought she had hurt herself by accident, but then how Damien had gone almost territorial of her.

But then again he was a shifter, could’ve smelled the truth of it all. That didn’t explain why he’d seemed like he wanted to know exactly who had hurt her so he could hurt them.

It had all been too much, and she had only been there for less than half an hour.

“God, what is happening to me?” she said to herself, not exactly sure what she meant by that question, or how to solve it. Then the sound of someone beating on her front door had her spinning around.

She moved toward the door, looked through the peephole, and her heart stopped when she saw that it was Damien. Taking a step back, Danika looked at the floor, then glanced at the door handle. She gripped it, turned the brass, and pulled the door open.

There he stood, looking fierce enough that she saw the way his lion flashed across his face. Danika swallowed, didn’t know why she felt this heat fill her, consume every inch of her, or why she wanted to give herself to this man she didn’t even know.

He was so close all she would have to do was lean in and she could kiss him, taste him, and experience this wild, primitive side of him.

He kept making these low, growly noises, and the sound went straight to her pussy, causing the inner muscles to clench on their own.

This is crazy. You are crazy for wanting this, Danika. You don’t know him, don’t know anything about him aside from what your father told you.

But he didn’t move from the entrance of her door. The rain had started up, and the strands of his hair became soaked, water dripping down his face and saturating his clothes.

It became a powerful storm outside within seconds, and she moved aside to allow him in.

“How did you know where I live?” This situation was becoming even stranger, more heated, and having her even more aroused than she had ever been in her entire life.

“I followed you.”

“And my dad didn’t think that was weird at all?” she said in a

low voice, her hands shaking uncontrollably. He didn’t answer right away, but did take a step inside and shut the door behind him, sealing them inside. He took another step, closer to her, and her breath stalled.

“Your father trusts me, knows I would never hurt anyone he cared about.” The water continued to run down his temples, and his white shirt became soaked and transparent. “But he doesn’t know I followed you, obviously. I don’t think your dad would much like it, especially since I didn’t explain everything tonight.”

She looked at his chest that was revealed, at the tattoos under the material, and the way his hard muscles flexed and clenched, as if he were trying to hold off from just attacking her.

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