Todd’s neck strained as he swallowed. “I can.”
“Good, Barge and Seamus can help you.” He walked toward the stairs and held out his hand to her and she followed, taking it.
Michael was full of surprises. Why had he wanted them to explain how a pack should work?
* * * *
While Michael showered, Scarlett rummaged through Cole’s drawers until she found some shorts and t-shirts that she thought might fit her magnificent mate. It had to be shorts. There was no way Cole’s pants wouldn’t be high-waters on Michael. Finally, the shower stopped and Michael came out of the bathroom, holding the towel around his waist like he had the night before.
His seemed looser, as if the warm water had helped to calm him down. She held out the clothes. “This was the best I could do. If you want, I could go down and see if any of the others have clothes that might fit you.”
“Not without me you’re not.”
She knew some women might bristle at being told what to do by their mate but not Scarlett. It was a…relief. The truth was, she would go down if he needed her to, but she definitely preferred not to have to.
“Okay.”
He took the clothes from her hands. “Thanks for finding them.”
She nodded, pleased that she’d done it on her own and that he was happy with her. “You’re welcome.”
Michael stepped forward invading her personal space. Heat radiated from his body and warmed her up from the chill of the air-conditioning.
“Scarlett, I could feel your eyes on me through the whole fight. I could smell you. It was hard to concentrate.”
His voice was low, husky, and before she could stop herself with worry, she reached out and stroked his bare chest with her fingers. His hair was soft, his muscles well defined and he shuddered under her hand.
She looked up to meet his eyes. Had she just done that to him?
“You liked it when I was fighting Cole.”
He said it as a statement, not a question. She wasn’t sure how he knew, but it was probably one of those wolf qualities she would never have. He’d heard her heartbeat pick up or smelled her excitement or both. There was no point in denying it.
Her lips trembled when she spoke. “I think I might be a little screwed up.”
He shook his head, his eyes hard. “No, this whole place is awful, like something out of a horror movie. Even my father wouldn’t have tolerated it before he went nuts. Probably not even after.”
She lifted the other hand and ran her fingers down his strong arm. Again, she felt his body shake from her touch.
“Why does my caressing you create that response?”
“I like how it feels.” He leaned down and kissed the top of her hair, not moving his mouth from its spot after he finished. His voice sounded slightly muffled. “It gives me pleasure to feel your fingers on me.”
“Oh.” She swallowed. So far he’d made no move to carry her to the bed and push himself inside of her. “Can I keep doing it?’
“Yes. Please.”
Her hand shook with nerves as she explored Michael’s exposed skin. She had to get on her tiptoes to touch the top of his chest since he was so much taller than she was and she could hardly get her hands around his waist to feel his back. His skin was so smooth; surprising for such a tough man.
He stayed absolutely still except for the occasional shudders she felt when her hands touched him some place new.
Finally after a few minutes, he spoke. His mouth moved off the top of her head slightly and he rested his chin there instead. “I’ve been alone a very long time. Having you do this, it’s such a gift.”
She was confused. The first part she understood but the second confused her. “Having me touch you is a gift? But you haven’t even taken your pleasure from me yet.”
“If you think I’m not taking pleasure from you then you don’t know the meaning of the word.”
He moved slightly forward and she could feel his hard cock pushing through the towel he still held onto.
“Um…”
She needed to be brave. It was important, desperately important that she not lose Michael, that he not change his mind about her. She knew he had told the others that mates were for life, that you didn’t get to pick, you just accepted with gratitude who you were given. Still, it was hard to reconcile that with what she had always known.
Pushing her fear down into her stomach where she knew she’d have to deal with it later—usually by getting sick—she finally spoke. “Do you want to, you know, go to the bed?”
“Only if you happen to be tired.”
Maybe she hadn’t made herself clear. “Don’t you want to…”
“Yes.” He backed up from her a few steps and crossed the room to put on his clothes. “More than you can imagine, but I want to do it when we’re both ready. Not because you think you have to.”
“I want to be your mate.”
He pulled on the shorts over his naked rear end and when he turned around he raised one eyebrow. “That’s good considering that we are, in fact, mates.”
“Michael.” She looked at her feet. “Are you deliberately misunderstanding me?”
He shook his head. “No, here’s the thing.” He sat down on the bed and ran his hands through his hair. His shoulders were curved over like he was tired. “We will have sex when you want to and not a minute before. Even if it takes years.”
She walked over and sat down next to him on the bed. “I don’t know if I’ll ever really want to. It’s really not about the woman.”
“How long ago were you raped?”
“I wasn’t raped.”
Pulling her into his side, he kissed her forehead. “Sure you were.”
“Zack has this rule. He wants all the undesirables dead. He thinks we’re going to pollute the bloodline, but if we volunteer to be the sex partners to one of his wolves then we’re spared. I volunteered in order to stay alive until I could get to Cole.”
“That’s still rape, sweetheart.”
Was it? She hadn’t said no…
“Scarlett, I have a question. Where are all the women? There’s none here but you. Are they all with Zack?”
“Today is vitamin day.” Now that he mentioned it, she was feeling kind of itchy. It was definitely time to get her injection. “They’re with the pack wielder.”
Michael stood up, hands in pockets. “What is vitamin day and what is a pack wielder?”
She swallowed. “He’s the one who can make it so you’re not mated to me anymore.”
And now that he knew just how screwed up she was, that she might never be better, she wouldn’t blame him if he took that route.
Chapter 5
MICHAEL knew he had to find the right words to use to answer Scarlett. At the moment, talking to her was like running through a minefield blind. Every other sentence gave him a new piece of information that might blow up in his face or make him lose a limb.
“He can’t unmate us. He might be able to do something, some sort of weird magic thing, but you would still be my mate. And in the very, very remote chance that he could and he tried, I would kill him.”
And gods knew he would really like to kill someone after having restrained himself twice now. First with the three amigos, who were rapidly increasing in his estimation, and second with Cole who only got to live because he’d sheltered Scarlett from Zack.
“You don’t want to get a new mate?”
“No! And I think I’ve answered that a few times now.” He wasn’t endlessly patient even if he wished he was. “So the next time you ask or hint that you think that might be the case I’m going to get angry.”
Her neck muscles clenched and she glanced down. “What will my punishment be if you get angry? What will you do to me?”
“I won’t do anything to you. Most likely I’ll stomp around and mutter. I might even, I don’t know, swear a little bit or yell. Then, with a little time, like a few hours maybe, I’ll get over it.”
She loo
ked up. Good, they were making progress on that front. More and more she held his eye contact, even if her first instinct were to stare down.
His wolf spoke. That might always be. It might be a Beta wolf thing.
She doesn’t have a wolf and she’s my mate. She doesn’t belong in the whole Alpha/Beta scenario. Lots of Betas make plenty of eye contact with their Alpha halves.
That’s true. His wolf yawned. It had been a long day for him. But you’re not mated yet.
What difference does that make? I want her to be unafraid of me when we have sex.
Michael, his wolf hmphed. I’m not speaking about sex. I’m talking about mating, genius.
With that, his wolf lay down and went to sleep. Evidently, his canine half was done with their conversation. Although he had certainly given Michael plenty to think about. All of this was a problem since no one ever discussed their matings. It was the best-kept secret in a pack where everyone knew almost everything.
“Michael, are you talking to your wolf?”
Jolted, he stared back at Scarlett. He’d been staring straight ahead for a few minutes during his exchange.
“Um…yes…sorry. I guess I’m not used to being around other people. I kind of just talk to him whenever I feel like it. It’s rude. My mother would have yelled at me two hundred years ago.”
“No,” she laughed. It was the first time he heard the sound. Scarlett’s laugh was akin to a bird twittering. Adorable, just like the rest of her. “I’m used to it. I wanted to make sure you weren’t having a seizure.”
He stood up. “A seizure?”
Scarlett scratched at her arm. “You just had a big fight. Maybe you were hurt and you didn’t know it. I read about seizures. People sometimes look like they’re just staring straight ahead.”
“Really?” He’d never heard of that. When he thought of seizures he thought…
His mate’s movements caught his attention. She’d just scratched her arm and now she was itching her neck.
“Are you okay?”
Nodding her head, she stood up next to him. “It’s just time for my vitamin shot.”
His wolf senses went on alert. Something was wrong. The hair on the back of his neck stood up straight as his eyes turned wolf. He stepped forward taking a deep breath. Something was wrong with Scarlett.
He pulled her into his arms and she gasped. “Michael?” Her eyes were huge.
“Not going to hurt you. Would never hurt you.” But he needed to concentrate, needed to figure out what happened.
Her temperature was too high. Not terrible, not so much that she would even notice, but it was at least one degree higher than it had been that morning or since they’d entered the room. He could feel it coming off her skin.
What kind of vitamin shot would do that?
Her heart rate had picked up, but maybe that was just because he had grabbed her abruptly. No, it was her scent that most concerned him. It spoke of pain and he had a taste in his mouth like blood. Scarlett’s pain was becoming his own.
Finally, when he could speak he let the wolf out of his eyes. “This person—this pack wielder—he gives you this shot how often?”
“At my age, I get it once a month. When I was younger it was more frequent. Once a week. But now my body is better able to hold the nutrients.”
This didn’t sound right. Not any of it. He wasn’t a science person; back before life had imploded he’d been a teacher of English and History.
He needed to speak to Azriel immediately. His brother was the go-to guy when it came to this kind of thing. He’d been working on finding a cure for the miscreant wolves for months. The man seemed to know everything.
Letting Scarlett go, he stalked to the other side of the room and picked up the phone he saw there. He’d left his cell phone at the hotel earlier by mistake when he’d been so annoyed at Todd, Barge and Seamus. He supposed he could send one of them to get it, but he didn’t want to encourage whatever this newfound hero-worshiping from them was.
Dialing Az’s number, he decided he didn’t care about making long distance phone calls on Cole’s line. Paying for it could be part of Cole’s punishment.
After two rings someone answered, but it wasn’t the voice he’d expected to hear. It was Theo, not Az.
“Theo, why are you picking up Az’s phone?”
Usually Az was buried in a below ground lab away from any other shifters. “Good to speak to you too, Michael.” Theo paused. “Whose number is this?”
“It’s the phone of this shifter name Cole. Never mind. I need Az.”
“Yeah…that’s going to prove to be a problem.”
Michael didn’t like the sound of that. He put his hand on the wall in front of him. “Why not?”
“Az is unconscious.”
“What?”
Realizing he yelled, he tried to cool down his nerves. Behind him, he heard Scarlett move closer to the door. Great, he’d raised his voice and now she contemplated escape. He really had to find a way to keep it together.
“He took on Dad all by himself.” He could hear the awe in Theo’s voice.
“Azriel did?” Az was Mister Brains, not Mister Brawn.
“To protect his mate. Actually, he saved all of us. Tristan is in an uproar because the pack didn’t allow him, as Alpha, join in the fight. Az was practically dead before we got there, but it looks as if he’s going to survive thanks to his mate’s powers. Anyway, it’s a long story. We could have used you, my brother.”
Michael closed his eyes around the lump that had formed in his throat. That was pretty standard. He was always letting his family down when it counted the most. Opening them, he tried for nonchalance. “Sorry, I’m here on Tristan’s orders looking for Angel. Didn’t find her, but I found my beautiful mate instead.”
“Really? That’s great. When are you bringing her home?”
“Soon. I just have a few things to finish up here first.”
Like finding out what they’d given her to make her itchy and feverish and killing the bastard who had raped her. Then he’d bring her home and keep her in his room until she was sure of him. Or something like that. He’d figure it out when he got there.
“What did you need Az for?”
No point in telling Theo and getting him worked up. “I’ll handle it on my own. When he wakes up tell him good work on holding off Dad.”
Damn, Michael needed to get home and fast.
“It’s just a temporary fix, big brother. Some other things have happened. I can explain when you get here, but we’ve had a bit of an inside look into Dad’s operation through Dad’s own brain—”
Michael interrupted. “Theo, what?”
“I know it sounds odd. I promise to give you the rundown when you get here, but right now it looks like even if we can get control of the magic situation, find ourselves a witch who will work against Dad, and get someone to tell us what Dad is planning, we’re still going to lose.”
That was a blunt statement from his younger brother. In all their years fighting their father no one had ever said that. Not ever.
“Why do you say that?”
Things must really be dire. Michael tapped his foot on the floor, nervous energy pressing on his insides. He wanted to go, needed to go, and couldn’t.
“Because Dad has hundreds of wolves, maybe more. Just from sheer power of numbers there is very little chance we can ever win this. We may have to make some kind of arrangement.”
“What do you mean?” Michael could hardly get the words out.
Theo was silent for a few seconds. “We might have to split up, hide our mates, leave here.”
“Tell Tristan I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
There really wasn’t anymore to say. He hung up the phone. When he turned around, he was shocked to see Scarlett standing right behind him. He’d been so preoccupied with his conversation he hadn’t even heard her approach.
“What happened?”
That was right. She couldn’t hear the o
ther half of the conversation. She wasn’t enhanced in her hearing.
“I just got some really bad news from my brother.” He ran a hand through his hair, suddenly exhausted. “I was hoping one of my other brothers could help me figure out what is in the vitamin concoction they’re giving you, but he’s out of commission for a while.”
Scarlett wrapped her arms around her body in a protective gesture. “Is he okay?”
He nodded. “He’ll be fine. He got into a one-on-one battle with my father, not something he should have done. Somehow he survived. That’s really an accomplishment.”
“I’m glad to hear it, that he’ll be fine, not that he had the fight.”
“Thank you.”
She was pretty. He reached out to run his hand down her perky nose. She smiled, but her eyes looked wary.
“I’m sorry I yelled while I was on the phone. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
She shrugged. “It’s okay. Do you think there is something in the vitamins making me sick or something?”
As if to illustrate his worry, she scratched her arm.
“Maybe.”
“What do you think it is?”
He shook his head. “The only way to find out is to go see your pack wielder—a term I have never heard before in two hundred years—and take a look at it.”
“He’s very secretive.”
“Is he a wolf?”
“No.” She coughed. “But he’s magical.”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, he’ll tell us what we want to know.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“In this arena, I’m completely confident in my ability to get the job done.” In other ways, he was not and that she needed to hear about.
He continued. “Scarlett…”
“Yes?”
“Here’s the deal. My brother just told me we are likely to lose the war against my father. If that happens we will either have to hide or,” it was so hard to say the words. “Or I may die and the truth of our mating is that you will feel compelled to follow me to the other side.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Oh.”
“So if you want to get out of our mating—and this wielder person can do that—I wouldn’t blame you for running away.”