Page 32 of Until Forever Comes
“They won’t,” I insisted, shaking my head. “Shifters protect our own. My pack might not understand me, but they won’t hurt me.”
He scoffed but didn’t dispute my words, at least not out loud. “Even if you’re right that they won’t go after you physically, staying here and watching what a pack can do to itself, how they can destroy everything they claim to hold dear…. Watching what can happen to your family—” He shook his head and gulped, deep pain flashing for a moment in his dark eyes. “I won’t let them hurt you. I’ll try to help them, but if they refuse, we’re leaving.”
I couldn’t respond; there was simply too much emotion coursing through me. Fear, sure enough. I was afraid for my kin, afraid for my pack, afraid for myself. But also there was a joy so profound it warmed me to my core. Miguel might write off our pack history and how we were made as an absurd superstition. He might dispute the concept of true mates. But his actions, his feelings, showed me all I needed to know. What I felt for my mate was being reflected right back at me, just as strong, just as sure.
“Ethan?” he said, bringing my attention back to our conversation. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I answered. With as much as I didn’t know in that moment, I understood everything of consequence.
Chapter 14
“IDON’Tlike it,” Miguel said in that tone he had that sounded like a growl, which was surprising from a man who wasn’t part wolf.
My vampire was cuter than a sack full of puppies when he was ornery and protective. I couldn’t keep the grin off my face about that last bit.
“You think this is funny, Ethan? Well, it isn’t. You’ve been gone for several days. And even though we scrubbed you clean, you still smell like me. I don’t understand it but those shifters are bound to notice.”
“’Course I smell like you. We’re mated. You ain’t gonna wash that off. I didn’t realize that was why you were so, uh, thorough in the bath.”
My mate pulled me into his arms and nuzzled my throat. “It wasn’t the only reason I was thorough,” he whispered.
I couldn’t hold back the tremble. That bath had been like no other I’d experienced. Miguel had caressed every inch of my skin, outside and in, his strong hands slick with water and soap. Lord, that had felt good, my mate exploring me deep inside with a finger while he kissed me and milked my erection, not stopping until my knees were weak and I could barely breathe. I moaned at the memory and turned my head, aiming for Miguel’s mouth.
He sucked my bottom lip between his and licked it. I crowded against him, rubbing my swollen prick on his thigh.
“Miguel,” I moaned.
He wrapped his arms around me, cupped my backside, and then, suddenly, he jumped back. “Damn it!” he shouted, panting. “I can’t stop touching you and it’s only making my scent all over you stronger.”
I sighed. “That’s not… the scent isn’t from you touching me. It’s just my scent now that we’re mated. That there’s how it works.” I could tell from his expression that he didn’t understand what I meant. “That’s what happens with true mates. Once we tied, our scents wove together so we smell the same but different.”
“The same, but different?”
“Yes.” I nodded and stepped closer to him, so we were touching again. “My scent is still there, right? So I smell like me but I smell like you too. Your scent changed too. You smell like me now.”
“Shit,” Miguel said as he shook his head in frustration.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. “Is it so bad to share my scent?”
I didn’t realize how naïve and pathetic that question would sound until after I’d already asked it. The things I considered romantic probably struck my four-hundred-year-old mate as silly. Like sharing something as elemental as our scents. Or having him smell of me so nobody could doubt my claim on him.
“No, baby.” That deep voice washed over me, and I looked up, meeting Miguel’s gaze. “I didn’t realize our scents had changed, didn’t know something like that was possible, but I’m not upset about it. Actually….” He turned up one side of his mouth in a wicked grin. “I like the idea that you smell like me, like I’ve marked you so completely. But I can’t let you go onto pack lands now. I’ve seen what shifters do to vampires. It isn’t safe.”
“I’m not a vampire, and I swear, shifters never hurt our own. I’ll be safe. Besides, I don’t have a choice. I need to talk to Crissy, set up a meeting so we can explain about the pack lands being sold.”
“Fine,” Miguel said, agreeing too easily. “Then I’ll go with you.” He took a step toward the woods that made up the edge of Miancarem.
I grasped his arm. “You know you can’t go onto pack lands, Miguel. It’d be considered an act of aggression.”
“A walk in the woods is considered aggression, and youactuallythink shifters aren’t the cause for the violence between our kinds?” he said sarcastically.
I wasn’t going to get into another debate with him about who was at fault for the divide between vampires and shifters. I wasn’t sure either of us had the answer. And, besides, it was a pointless argument.
“Whatever the cause, that’s how things are now,” I said. “But we’re aiming to fix it, right?”
“Fix what? I’m not on some goodwill mission representing vampires, Ethan. Even if I wanted to do that, I can’t speak for anyone but myself. No vampire can. We don’t have packs and Alphas. We have autonomy and personal responsibility and—” He sighed deeply and stopped ranting, probably realizing that line of talking would end in an argument. “Besides, that’s not what I want to do. I just want to make sure you don’t lose your family like….” He trailed off and closed his eyes for a few beats. “I can’t keep you safe if you go onto pack lands without me,” he said softly.
“I’ll go straight to Crissy’s den and back,” I assured him. “It won’t take me but two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”
