Page 50 of Sparks Flying

I loved this playful side of him. It was certainly better than the brooding scowls I was getting before his head trauma.

“Now tell me, why does Patrick think we have some sort of virus? I went along with it since it seemed highly probable that I’d get to spend the day with you, but I have no idea what I walked in on.”

“It’s all your fault.”

“What did I do?”

We had walked outside and down the street. He was at the door to the freaking clinic before I realized where we were. It wasn’t open yet, so we stood out front talking while we waited.

“You can’t be serious.”

“A promise is a promise. Besides, there’s a good chance he’ll check to make sure we saw the doctor.”

I groaned.

“But why?”

I hid my face in my hands and shook my head.

He pried my hands away, one finger at a time.

“Bailey?”

“I told him about you getting disoriented and running into a tree.”

“Because my raven chose that moment to claim you as our mate, and I was a little shocked.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why?”

“I’ve known since the first moment we met. Why didn’t you?”

I knew there was pain laced in my question.

“Maybe I did, in a way. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I dreamed about you. Hell, I blew off dates because it felt like my raven was going to peck my brains out if I even thought of looking at another woman. So maybe he was trying to tell me, but all it did was make me feel like a creep and pissed off that I couldn’t stop obsessing over you. I even contemplated asking Patrick if it was possible for a person to inherit other shiftertraits when spending too much time together because I could smell you, and that’s not a raven trait. I thought I was going insane.”

“I guess that explains all the glares and scowls. But when did it all change?”

“I’m not sure what it’s like for your kind, but for ravens, our birds, or I guess animals, have to meet before he confirms a mating bond. So maybe there were other signs, but not anything I would know about, at least not until I was flying and saw you in your wolf form.”

“And that distracted you enough to fly headfirst into a tree?”

“Hell yes.”

I snorted.

“Scent is one of a wolf’s first indicators,” I confessed. “My wolf alerted me to your presence when I first caught your scent, but you definitely didn’t seem happy about it.”

“I’m sorry. I was just confused and had no idea what was going on.”

“It’s okay. I’m glad I didn’t leave Ravenden.”

“What?”

“I considered it. I was going to quit the internship program and go home to see if maybe the ARC would take me this semester, even though the semester is almost halfway over.”

He growled.

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