Page 6 of Unclaimed

“Gone. Well, my mom is. I never knew my dad. My guess is she didn’t either. I was raised by my great-aunt. She passed away when I was in med school.”

“How did you end up with your aunt?” He knew he was prying, but Frost was his.

“My mom was the drug-addicted daughter of my aunt’s drug-addicted niece. My grandmother OD’d when my mom was twelve. Then my great-aunt took custody of me when my mom went to prison for drug trafficking when I was eight, where she killed herself while on the inside. Needless to say, I was pretty damn determined to not be like them.”

Damn. That was a lot. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Tell me about your family.”

Gemini tried while skating the line of honesty. He couldn’t tell him the whole truth yet. “My parents are separated. They have been my whole life. My mom lives in Bhutan. My dad lives back home in Nepal.” He laughed and pointed at his hair, mimicking Frost earlier in the day. “I know. Blond. How did that happen?”

“It’s like we were meant to meet.”

It was exactly like that. “I feel like I’ve been waiting forever for you to come into my life.” Gemini couldn’t keep the longing from his voice. He cleared his throat before he scared Frost. “Do you like your new job?”

Frost didn’t answer right away.

Gemini glanced his way.

Frost stared at him, as if still trying to decipher Gemini’s earlier tone. “It’s slower,” he finally answered, easing the tightness in Gemini’s chest. “It just occurred to me I still don’t know what you do. For whatever reason, it feels so much like we’ve known each other forever. I forgot to ask all the get-to-know-you questions.” A nervous chuckle escaped him. “I guess I sound crazy. You can take me home the moment I make you uncomfortable. I hear myself being weird.”

His home was with Gemini. “Nah. I know what you mean. As soon as I saw you this morning, it was like we had met before.”

“Exactly. So what do you do for a living?”

“I’m a forest ranger.”

“Oh.”

Gemini had no idea what that “oh” was about. Thankfully, Frost didn’t keep him guessing.

“I started to say I wouldn’t have guessed that, but now that I think about it, it fits.”

Gemini pulled into his long driveway. When the trees cleared, his headlights swept across his small clapboard house and his work vehicle parked out front.

Frost laughed. “I guess if I had waited five minutes, your truck would’ve answered my question. Honestly, I’m still surprised they let you keep your hair long, though. Between that and your tattoos, I’d think you’d be all the way out of their dress code.”

Gemini shrugged. He didn’t really need to work. Gemini could choose to live as an animal full time, or live off his hefty bank account, but he liked keeping busy. He got bored. Still, he would never let a job dictate his looks. But for Frost’s sake, he put the truck in park and found a hair tie in the console. He quickly pulled his hair back, showing how fast he could go from shaggy to clean cut. “No law enforcement agencies care about tattoos any longer.”

Frost’s gaze moved over Gemini. “You’re beautiful.” The words were quiet. If Gemini didn’t have preternatural hearing, he might have missed Frost’s compliment. With the dark engulfing them and the silence growing as they stared at each other, a peace fell over Gemini. Then the heat hit. It wasn’t a slow build. The wildcat inside demanded his rights. His teeth itched. He had to mark his mate.

“I need you to kiss me.” It was the quietest plea.

Before Gemini could decide what he would do, he was across the seat. Even with his ability to hear Frost’s thoughts, Gemini hadn’t expected the submissive desperation. Their kiss bordered on violent. He couldn’t get enough of Frost’s tongue and the way he kept biting Gemini’s bottom lip. When his fangs couldn’t be held back any longer, Gemini kissed a path to Frost’s throat. The instinct to bite was crippling him. His heart knew he didn’t want to claim Frost like this, but his nature didn’t give a fuck.

Please. Please. Please.

The begging chant in Frost’s mind that kept bombarding his brain nearly broke him. He knew Frost didn’t understand what he begged for, and Gemini didn’t want Frost to hate him. But Gemini didn’t know how much longer he could hold back biting or shifting, and he really wanted to do both.

Then everything went cold—like someone threw a bucket of ice water on Frost. He felt his mate’s mind immediately withdraw. “Someone just walked past the truck.”

Gemini shot up in an instant. The instinct to protect his other half had him on full alert. He reached beneath the seat and grabbed his service weapon from a hidden holster. While Gemini didn’t need it, he didn’t want to terrify Frost and send him scrambling by shifting into his true form.

“Stay here. Lock the doors behind me.” Gemini slipped from the truck. He didn’t move away until he heard the doors lock. His eyes were built for hunting at night. A certain scent filled the air.He turned his head, following the smell. A moose ran into the woods.

Gemini stuffed his gun into the back of his jeans and knocked on the window. When he heard the doors unlock, he opened the door. “Just a moose.”

Frost shook his head. “I would’ve bet fifty bucks it was a man.”

---