Page 58 of Reign of the Beast

“Good. I’m glad.”

He kissed my hand, then told me, “We’re supposed to be reveling in the moment right now. So, let’s put all this darkness and bullshit off to the side. We’ve got enough doom and gloom coming our way soon enough. Let’s take advantage of the small moments of light and fun that we’ve got, yeah?”

“That sounds perfect.”

“So, what do you want to do now we’re done withlunch?” I moved to speak, but he held up his hand. “It can’t be fucking.”

“But—”

“Getting to know each other, remember? Bonding?”

I thought for a moment.

I wasn’t exactly used to doing things for fun, or just in a leisurely manner. I was all work and no play in the extreme.

Jaxon had already gotten to know that about me, so he waited patiently for me to think of something. He was being sweet, because I knew how hard it was for an Alpha wolf to hold back his dominance and hand the reins over.

Alphawolf?

I had it!

“I want to see your wolf.”

He looked startled. “What?”

“I want to see your wolf,” I repeated.

He hesitated, clearly struggling to grasp my request.

“Jaxon,” I chuckled. “What is it? Is it… too personal? I’m sorry, I don’t know enough about this to—”

“No,” he cut in, smiling. “Nothing’s too personal for you to ask of me. You’re my mate, woman.”

“Oh, does it hurt to shift? I thought after the first time that it was painless.”

“It is. There’s no pain and it’s instant for an Alpha.”

“Okay, then. So, what’s wrong?”

“I thought you were scared shitless of it.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“That day on pack lands when you were recovering from Draco’s attack, you freaked out when I partially shifted, called it abeast.”

Oh. Oh, shit.“Jaxon, no.” I stepped into him and grasped the sides of his leather jacket in my urgency to allay his concerns. “I was scared because I was defenselessin my magically-depleted state, in the home of somebody I didn’t know, this inexplicable overwhelming desire igniting between us, and you’dlost controlof your wolf. I don’t know enough about wolves. You were the first I’d actually encountered. Knowing my father’s intent to keep us apart, that makes sense to me now. I used the wordbeast, because I thought that’s how you referred to it.”

He was quiet for a while as he took in my explanation, processing everything I’d said.

He pulled away from me and my heart sank, thinking he wasn’t good with it.

But then I watched his eyes glowing with that familiar gold.

In the next second, his claws of his right hand dropped. He shrugged off his jacket, letting it fall to the floor, and I looked to see that wolf fur had sprouted along his right arm.

He eyed me warily.

I knew what he needed.

---