Page 68 of Nearly Dead

I latch on to my feelings for him, letting them calm the beast.They flow through me, helping me to return to my human form.I cry out as my bones snap.The pain is intense but short-lived.When it’s over, I’m crouched completely naked on the ground.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that,” I say with a deflective laugh.He says nothing as I stand.I nervously come within a few paces of him.Crossing my hands over my breasts, I glance around the empty yard.“You’re still here.”

“Did you think I wouldn’t be?”His voice is carefully neutral.

I shrug, wincing slightly at the pull of sore muscles.I think about saying I didn’t think about it, but that would be a lie, and I don’t want lies between us.I’d agonized over it while I ran with the pack, wondering if he could sense what I was doing through our bond, if he was worried, or perhaps angry that I was embracing my wolf side.

“You ran with them.”Not a question.He’d be able to smell the forest on me, and the lingering scent of the pack.

“Yes.”I lift my chin slightly, ready for judgment or possessiveness.

Instead, he just nods.“Did it help?”

The simple question catches me off guard.“I think so.It was...”

He waits for me to finish.I sense more than see the struggle in him as he tries to control his jealousy.

“It was freeing,” I finish.

A tight smile crosses his lips.“Good.”

I study him in the growing light, noticing the tension in his jaw.His hands clasp behind his back as if he doesn’t trust himself not to touch me.

The threat of daylight causes my skin to prickle in warning and I look to the threat of the horizon.

“We need to get inside,” he states.“You need blood.”

“You’re not angry?”I study him wishing he’d talk about the fleeting emotions I’m picking up through our bond.

“Would it change anything if I were?”He echoes his own words from our conversation in the library.

“No,” I admit.“But I still want to know.”

He considers this, his eyes never leaving mine.“I watched you leave with him.”

My breath catches.“You followed me?”

“Only to the edge of the property.I sensed him here and wanted to make sure you were safe.”His expression shifts, revealing a glimpse of the struggle beneath his composed exterior.“I wanted to follow further.”

“But you didn’t.”

He shakes his head.“You asked for freedom.For trust.I’m trying to give you both.”

The admission touches something in me.I know what it costs him.He’s a master vampire accustomed to control, to possessing what he considers his.

I’m his.

The possessive thought doesn’t upset me as it once did.

The connection vibrates between us, warm and alive.It’s a seduction of my senses, a lure calling me to him, but he’s not using it to influence me.He’s fighting against its very nature.

“Did you…?”He stops himself.

“Ask,” I urge.The sun is so close.I can feel it threatening to burn me.The dawn causes my skin to itch.

“Did he touch you?”His tone cuts deeper than it should.I know he’s fighting the vampire instinct to claim.

I think of the battle, of the surge of adrenaline.It could easily mimic sexual attraction.

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