Page 13 of One True Mate

"Nothing's going on E. I've told you that a million times. Now, go check on her."

I paced Kelsey's office for what seemed like an eternity before the girls came back laughing. They were seriously laughing and acting as though nothing had happened. I was immediately pissed, glaring at the two of them.

"It's nothing, Kyle. She's perfectly fine."

"Perfectly fine? Then why is she bleeding?" I asked Elise before turning to Kelsey. "Tell me what is wrong. I need to know you are okay."

Elise rolled her eyes as she turned to leave.

"He's like a dog with a bone." She jabbed at me. "Just show him Kels, and put him out of his misery." Then she winked at me and left our office space.

"Well?" I demanded.

She shocked the hell out of me when she grabbed my hand and headed for my office.

"Not out here."

Once in my office with the door closed, it took a whole lot of willpower not to just take her right there once and for all. She was mine, and it was all I could think about with her soft, small hand in mine.

"First," she demanded, "how did you know I was bleeding?"

"I smelled it. I told you that."

"No way. Normal humans do not smell blood."

I looked deep into her eyes. "There's nothing normal about me Kelsey, and I know you know that."

The confusion in her eyes took me by surprise. All this time I thought she was ignoring the obvious. She couldn't possibly be so clueless that she had no idea I was a wolf too. Could she?

Before I had a chance to think about that, she sat down and hiked her skirt up. All the way up. I could see her satin red panties, but she didn't seem to care.

"I don't know why I'm showing this, but Elise insisted I should."

I drew my eyes to the large bandage covering the entirety of her right thigh.

"A tattoo? You got a tattoo?"

She grinned happily. "Yes, and Cole nicked a part of my skin graft on the final fill in last night, so it's been bleeding off and on. It's fine, I swear. He has me on antibiotics to ward off any infections, but I'm perfectly fine."

I doubted anything could have shocked me more.

"Cole Anderson did this to you?" All I really heard was Cole Anderson hurt my mate.

She rolled her eyes at what was probably a pretty intense look on my face.

"Look, Kyle," there it was again. Twice in one day she said my name. Two years of waiting and this was the closest to acknowledgment I'd gotten. "Mr. Westin." Kelsey said defiantly.

"Sorry. The smell of blood distracts me, and you, you called me Kyle, twice today." She blushed and shook her head. I squatted next to her and took her hands. "I much prefer it, you know."

Rolling her eyes again at me, she motioned for me to take a seat across from her. Not even bothering to lower her skirt back down.

"Do you want to hear this story or not? Elise already bullied it out of me, but I'd prefer you didn't hear this second hand. You've been really good to me, and I don't want to lose this job."

Her big brown eyes captivated me, and I simply nodded.

She took a deep breath. "When I was little, my parents and I moved around a lot. We finally settled into a small town, not much different than this one, when I was about ten. Two weeks after my twelfth birthday, two wolves attacked us. My parents were killed, and I barely got away. It was bad, Kyle. I was in and out of the hospital for months. It took eight skin grafts to cover the damage the wolf had done."

Fury filled me until I could barely see straight hearing her story, and I fought to control my breathing and not explode into my own wolf, demanding we protect our mate.

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