Page 81 of Feral

“Naw, of course not!”

“But your instincts, you have to defend me, right? It’s not real.”

“Daphne,” he captured my face between his large hands and brushed my tears away with his thumb. I couldn’t help but look him in eye like this and I saw there the sincerity I desperately needed to believe in. “I wouldn’t lie about any of that. It’s not the bite, it’syou. With or without it, I meant every word.”

“But you called me extraordinary,” I whispered. “I know how important family is to you and…Fraser, I’m not all of those things you said. I’m annoying and I talk too much and I lose track of time because I get lost in a book and….”

“You are all those things I said and more. And for the record, I find your talkativeness rather adorable, especially when yer flushed with embarrassment.”

A laugh escaped through my tears and I shook my head.

“You don’t understand what’s it’s like to always feel like you’re a stranger in your own family. Always too opinionated, too weird, too stubborn, too sensitive. Always justtoo muchand also not enough. Not smart enough, or accomplished enough...”

“Och, Daphne,” he wound his arms around me and let me cry on his chest. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could make ya see that yer not too much, it’s all them. They’re too small.”

Something inside of my cracked at that simple statement, and I sobbed against Fraser’s broad chest. Even if it was exactly what I’d always wanted someone to say, that I’d yearned for someone to see me the way Fraser said he did, his wordshurt. Because sincere or not, I wouldn’t be able to keep him. I’d have to give up this man who saw me and thought I was everything I’d always wanted to be.

My chest throbbed with the pain of it and all I could do was cling to him and hope that it went away soon, so he wouldn’t know how much was I was falling for him.

Chapter Seventeen

Fraser

Iwasstillseethingwith anger when we pulled into the garage at home. How could anyone treat a lass as wonderful as Daphne in such a way? And someone from her own family to boot!

I’d held her in the book shop until her tears had abated and it took everything in me not to insist that she sit next to me on the way home. I settled for simply holding her hand but even that wasn’t the same as it had been. There was a wall up around Daphne, and I suspected that it was my own fault.

When she’d kissed me in the Jeep, I had wanted to run into the hills and take her in every way I’d dreamed of since the biting. My mating urges were becoming untenable, and with tomorrow being the first night of the full moon, I worried deeply about how I would control myself around her. Distancing myself from her had been necessary, even if it did turn my insides to know that I’d hurt so.

Daphne trusted me, and that meant I had to remain in control. While she may have liked my true form, it wasn’t the same as being willing to let me rut her like I longed to do. Even if I kept my glamour up there was no guarantee that I’d be able to control the more primal mating urges that were beginning to awaken in me.

No, the distance is good. Even if kills me to do it. Now to see about protecting her through the next three nights.

“I need to talk to Liam,” I said as we got out of the car. “I’ll carry up your books after if that’s alright?”

She gave me a weak smile and nodded.

“Thank you for the shopping trip,” she said. “It was very kind of you.”

Kind of me? When the only real reason I did it was so that I’d have you all to myself just once more? So that I could see that gleam of delight in your eyes and know that I was the one giving it to you, just once?

“It was my pleasure, Daphne,” I whispered.

She nodded again and walked through the door into the house, leaving me with the distinct feeling being punched in the gut. I’d wanted to make her happy, to please my mate and while I had, I had also hurt her.

My mate…no, I can’t think of her like that. I have to try.

I stomped from the garage and through the house, grateful that I didn’t run into anyone until I found Liam’s study at the end of east wing of the house. It was our Grand-dad’s old study and Liam hadn’t changed it much if anything from when it was his. Floor to ceiling shelves were crammed with books, and the precious finds Grand-dad had dug up all over Scotland. Large bay windows were at the far end, with the huge mahogany desk that had been gifted by Robert the Bruce to one of our ancestors in front of it. A large comfy chair with a foot stool was nestled between two book cases, a table next to it with a forgotten tea service. It was here that Liam sat, a heating pad on his back and his face contorted with pain.

My stomach lurched at the sight of my little brother like this. He’d been in near constant pain since it happened, though he refused to tell anyone but me.

If it had to happen to anyone, why not me? I have no desire to leave Scotland. But Liam? He was meant to travel, to explore the world. Just like Daphne.

I cringed. As if I needed one more reason I wasn’t right for her.

“Are you going to lurk there and watch me like a creeper or come inside?” Liam demanded.

I walked in and closed the door, needing a little privacy for this conversation. If anyone else knew that I didn’t want to be with Daphne during the full moon, they’d know our mating wasn’t real.

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