Carnal Secrets

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

While the males loaded the vehicles early the next morning, Shaya pulled Taryn aside in the front yard and told her all about Nick’s cognitive functions degenerating. She’d wanted to do this since last night but hadn’t been able to get her alone while the house was so crowded.

“Jesus.” Wide-eyed¸ Taryn blew out a long breath. “Well, that sure explains a hell of a lot. And now I certainly no longer feel like strapping him to a bed and smashing his ankles with a sledgehammer like Kathy Bates in Misery.” She sighed, her expression sympathetic. “You want to know if I can heal him.”

“Yes. Amber’s powerful, but so are you.” Seeing reluctance on Taryn’s face, Shaya quickly added, “All I’m asking is that you try.”

Taryn dragged a hand through her hair. “It’s not that I don’t want to heal him—it’s that I’ll hate myself if it doesn’t work and I’ve let you down this badly.”

Shaya hugged her reassuringly. “I would never see it as you letting me down.” She pulled back and held her best friend’s gaze. “Not ever, I promise. Will you please try?”

Exhaling heavily, Taryn nodded. “Let’s get back home first. Then I’ll try, okay?”

“Thank you.” Seeing that Nick was approaching wearing an exasperated expression, Shaya smiled. Her wolf practically melted—she was so pathetic. Once he was up close, he pulled her against him. “You look totally pissed off.”

“Of course I’m pissed off.” He gestured to the vehicle behind him. “My motor home is full of a number of wolves, and I’ll have to deal with them for the next five hours.” Dominic, Greta, Kathy, Amber, Kent, Jesse, Bracken, and Zander had all decided they would prefer to travel in the luxury of the motor home rather than any of the other vehicles. “Thank God I’ll have you to keep me calm. You have to sit up front with me or I’ll lose it.”

“How did you cope with being an Alpha for so long when you don’t like having lots of people around you?” asked Taryn, genuinely flabbergasted.

“Like I told Shaya, I’d killed the pack’s old Alpha, and no one wanted the position. I did what was fair to them.” He looked at Shaya then. “And now that I’ve finally got free of that life, I have Derren doing his best to make me form a pack. Oh, don’t think I hadn’t noticed what he’s been doing by deferring to me and involving Jesse, Bracken, and Zander more.”

Shaya gently ran her nails down his chest, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a smile. “In Derren’s defense, those guys follow you like you’re a guiding light anyway.”

At Taryn’s chuckle, he growled. “I’m glad you find this so amusing.”

A passing Greta, who had clearly picked up on Nick’s frustration with Taryn, patted his arm consolingly. “Don’t pay any attention to Tiny Tim.” She tossed Taryn a scowl and then carried on walking.

Taryn snorted, trailing after the woman. “At least I’m not so old that my birth certificate has expired.”

A laugh burst out of Shaya, making Nick’s own burst free. When her laugh abruptly died and her smile faded, Nick followed her gaze to find Amber staring at her from across the yard. The female flashed him a smile, but not before he’d seen the contempt for Shaya in her eyes. It made his wolf snarl.

Dismissing Amber with a look, Nick cupped Shaya’s chin. “Whatever she said to upset you, ignore it.” He’d offer to deal with Amber for her, but he had come to learn that—dominant or submissive, human or shifter—females liked to deal with shit that involved other females.

“Did you know that dominant/submissive pairs have difficulties with fully bonding?”

Nick released a heavy breath. “Yes. But we won’t have that difficulty.”

To her surprise, he looked and sounded absolutely positive. “What makes you so sure?”

He dropped his forehead to hers and swept the pad of his thumb over his claiming mark, liking her answering shudder. “If we can get past our other issues, we can get past this too.”

She supposed he had a good point, but she wasn’t sure if that made him right. “And we’ll get past this other business too. We will get you healed.”

“You’re not healed?” asked Roni, having overheard.

Turning to face his sister and seeing the panic in her expression, Nick inwardly groaned. Respecting her too much to blow her off, he told her about the headaches and the memory lapse. “Like Shaya said, this is something we’ll get past.”

Roni put a hand to her forehead, her eyes sad and anxious. “God, this is horrible.”

With cautious steps, Kathy suddenly approached, obviously worried about Roni’s panicky state. “What’s wrong, honey?” She ran a hand over Roni’s hair. “You look pale. Is everything all right?”

“You have to tell her,” Roni told Nick. “She deserves to know.”

“Know what?” asked Amber.

Great, thought Nick. Taking a preparatory breath, he once again explained the situation.

“You’re not healed?” echoed Amber, stunned and panicked. “That can’t be possible. I healed you. I healed you; I did.”

“It hasn’t worked,” Shaya told her gently. It was hard not to be gentle when Amber looked genuinely distraught. “His cognitive functions are degenerating again.”

Amber shook her head in denial. “No, I healed him.”

“You tried, but it hasn’t worked.”

Tears now swirling in her eyes, Amber turned back to him. “Nick, I’m so sorry. I know I warned you the improvements could be temporary, but I was pretty sure you were totally healed. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” he assured her, not being good with crying females. “It is what it is.”

“Let me try again. It’ll work this time, I’ll make sure it does.”

He held a hand up. “Amber, if it didn’t work the first time—”

“Just let me try.”

“Taryn’s going to try,” announced Shaya, which made hope enter both Roni’s and Kathy’s expression.

“She’s not more powerful than me,” maintained Amber.

“You better hope she is, or Nick’s in shit street.”

Shaking her head in denial again, Amber quickly scampered. A concerned Kathy went after her.

“If Taryn can’t heal you,” began Roni, “we’ll find someone else. You can’t give up, Nick.”

“I won’t,” he vowed. Satisfied yet still understandably anxious, Roni nodded and walked away.

Shaya jabbed him in the chest with her finger. “They better not be empty words. You’ve made that promise to both me and Roni, and we intend to make you keep it.” Her wolf was in full agreement.

Nick cupped her face. “I have never given you empty words. Ever.”

“Just sayin’.” As he cuddled her close, his cell began to ring. After a brief conversation, he returned the phone to his pocket with a sigh. “Everything okay?”

“That was Jesse. There are humans watching us closely from a house farther down the street; he recognizes them as extremists. They’ll either follow us or report back to Logan that we’ve left.”

“Do you really think the plan to divide the group and get to Logan will work?”

“Yes, I do. Let’s find out for sure.”

After a very long journey to Phoenix Pack territory in a vehicle full of talking people, Nick had wanted nothing more than to take Shaya somewhere inside the caves where they could be alone. But that hadn’t been possible. First the pack had wanted to make a huge fuss of Shaya while at the same time scowling at him for originally failing to claim her. Defensive on his behalf, Shaya had told them all about how his wolf had surfaced early and what was happening to his cognitive functions as a result. At that point, the scowling stopped, and now Jaime was following him everywhere, claiming she was able to empathize with him as she knew how hard it was to have a scarred wolf. That was nice and all, but Nick wasn’t the type to need empathy. He liked privacy, peace, quiet—and he soon learned that none of these things could be found in this territory.

The meal that had awaited them went a long way to improving his mood. Their packmate, Grace, was a good cook. As they ate, Trey and Taryn had explained the entire situation surrounding the human extremists. Rhett, who was the ultimate geek and also Grace’s mate, planned to try to uncover what he could about the game preserve with his hacking skills, but Nick wasn’t optimistic that Rhett would uncover much—if Donovan couldn’t, no one could. As Nick had expected, two of the extremists had followed them to Phoenix Pack territory and would undoubtedly tell Logan their location So far, everything was going to plan.

That would have pleased him if it wasn’t for the fact that now that the wolves all knew a little about his time in juvie, Nick was receiving nods of respect and pats on his back—particularly from the enforcers and also a mated pair, Cam and Lydia, whose old friend hadn’t made it out of juvie alive. Also, Jaime’s brother, Gabe, and his mate, Hope, were apparently as empathetic as Jaime. Great. Further annoying him, Jaime’s ugly, chunky cat kept charging at Bruce. Even more annoying, the damn dog wasn’t standing his ground.

Probably more irritating than all of that, however, was that Marcus kept trying to flirt with Roni. Where Dominic was sleazy-flirty, Marcus was smooth-flirty. The only thing stopping Nick from growling at the asshole was that Roni was simply looking at the guy blankly, totally bamboozling him. Given how uncomfortable she was around all these strangers, Nick wouldn’t be surprised if she returned to her wolf form sometime soon. He had hoped that she would go home to the Ryland Pack with his mom and Amber. Unfortunately, she had refused. Even more unfortunate, so had his mom and Amber. And now—to top it all off—his beautiful mate beside him was totally pissed off because Amber was sitting on his other side. Not even the fact that Kent was throwing fries at Amber was cheering Shaya up.

Wanting to soothe her and reassure her that she was the only one who mattered, Nick lifted Shaya and sat her in his lap. After a moment, she melted against him, and he locked both arms around her. “Please tell me your bedroom is on a completely different floor than everyone else.”

Hearing the frustration in his voice, Shaya couldn’t help but smile. Her mate was in hell with all this attention and offers of friendship. “Sorry to disappoint, but it’s only a few doors away from Jaime, your new best friend.” His growl made her chuckle. “They’re just all feeling bad for their behavior toward you when it’s clear you had your reasons for not claiming me in the beginning. They’ll stop smiling at you within the hour.”

He bit her ear for teasing him. “I can’t believe we’ve only been here an hour and already all the females have our mating ceremony totally covered and have scheduled it for tonight.” It was tradition that the other females of the pack organized the ceremony, but he’d never heard of one being so swiftly planned. “Maybe they just want it over with quickly because they don’t trust me not to abandon you again.”

“You didn’t truly abandon me. And the reason they want us to have it quickly is so that the humans don’t interrupt it with an attack. Dante and Jaime’s ceremony was spoiled by Glory and her relatives infiltrating the territory and attacking everyone. You do want to have a ceremony, right?”

“Of course I do, dumbass.”

She spoke against his mouth. “Good. Because if you don’t turn up at that ceremony out of some misguided attempt to protect me from what’s happening to you, I’ll hunt you down and beat the shit out of you with my bat.”

He smiled. “Feisty.”

“Besides, I asked Taryn if she would try healing you. She said she would.”

“It might not work, Shay,” he told her gently.

“I know, but you promised you wouldn’t give up.”

“And I won’t; I’m willing to let Taryn try. Although, I have the feeling that Taryn would sooner cut my throat than heal me.”

“I think she’s warming to you.”

He snorted at that and was about to comment when Derren, who had popped out of the room to take a call, suddenly barged inside the kitchen.

“Nick, I just got off the phone with Donovan. He said to turn on the TV.”

“Why?”

“He found the location of the preserve. And he called it in.”

Everybody quickly piled into the living area, but no one spoke as the news of the preserve was aired live. Nick had encountered much evil in his life, known cruelty and violence, but he had never seen anything like this. It was worse than even Lee-Roy had described. Dead bodies of shifters ranging from the age of seven—fucking seven—had been dumped on the land, all maimed, brutalized, and decaying. Some of the bodies were even frozen mid-shift while others were missing their eyes or limbs. Even the human reporter, the same reporter who had days ago portrayed shifters as animals, was horrified and close to tears at the sight of the bodies—particularly those of the children.

Nick understood why Donovan hadn’t notified him before contacting the police; he’d known that when Nick saw how bad it was, he wouldn’t have been happy to let the police deal with it and that he’d have wanted to go after Logan and those other bastards himself. As such, Donovan was right not to have told Nick first. This was about more than just them. This was about shifters worldwide.

Although many had been arrested in connection with it, Logan’s name hadn’t been mentioned, and there had been no mention of a shifter being involved either. Nick knew, however, that Lee-Roy had been telling the truth when he said the person running the preserve was a shifter. That meant the bastard was still out there, free as a bird.

Feeling Shaya’s desolation and realizing she was crying, Nick moved her from her spot beside him on the giant sofa to his lap. He cradled her against him, rocking her. Most of the other females were crying too. The sickening sight of the preserve almost brought tears to his own eyes. The more the reporter revealed, the more nauseous he felt. Until they worked out who the shifter responsible was, they couldn’t be sure another preserve wouldn’t be set up somewhere else…and they couldn’t make sure the prick paid for what he’d done.

“Nick,” croaked Shaya. “After seeing this…I don’t know if I can—”

She cut herself off, but Nick knew what she was thinking: She didn’t know if she could go through with a mating ceremony and throw a celebration when this was on her mind. He was feeling the same way. The images were stuck in his head, and he couldn’t get them out and didn’t think he would anytime soon. It didn’t seem right to throw a party on the heels of something like this. “Me neither, baby. We’ll do it after this is all over, okay?” Nodding, she snuggled even more into him.

Kent brought his hand to his mouth. “I honestly think I might be sick.”

Derren looked at him, his expression grim. “You know what this means.”

Nick nodded. “It means the extremists’ case will be dismissed on Thursday morning. And it means they’ll be here Thursday night for sure—they’ll take this into their own hands, just as Logan planned in the meeting.”

“That’s okay,” growled Trey, “because we’ll be waiting. I can’t wait to get my hands on those motherfuckers. They deserve whatever happens to them.”

“I have a feeling the shifter behind all this will come with them,” said Ryan. Nick was surprised to hear him speak.

“Me too,” said Trick. “He hates shifters anyway, and now that he’s no longer making money from charging humans to kill our kind, I’d say he’ll be pissed enough to join Logan in the attack.”

“Let’s hope so,” growled Taryn. She rose from her armchair and approached Nick. “It’s time. We need you at top strength. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to heal you, but I can certainly do my best.” She then turned to her pack. “Grace, you know what I need. Ryan, the window.” While the short brunette nodded and left the room, the grumpy-looking enforcer opened the window wide.

Determined to only think positive thoughts, Shaya rose from his lap. “Lie down on the floor, flat on your back.”

“That’s usually my order,” rumbled Nick, smiling at her blush. Hoping against hope that the Alpha female would be successful where Amber wasn’t, Nick did as Shaya asked.

“Everyone other than Shaya step back,” ordered Taryn, all business. The depth of authority and seriousness in her voice had everyone immediately backing up, giving her plenty of space. As she knelt on his left side, Shaya knelt on his right and took his hand in hers. She exchanged a reassuring look with him, knowing he felt a little awkward.

Shaya watched as Taryn placed her hand on his forehead; just like that, patches of luminous lights were gleaming through Nick’s scalp, indicating where the damage was. Taryn then leaned over and placed her mouth to his like she would give him the kiss of life. Although the sight of another female’s mouth touching his made a part of Shaya balk, her concern for his well-being was far stronger than that.

Taryn inhaled deeply, then lifted her head, turned it toward the window, and blew out a heavy breath; a whoosh of black particles escaped from her mouth and zoomed out of the window. She repeated the move again and again, not stopping until the luminous patches of Nick’s scalp had completely faded.

“Done.” Puffing out a breath, she toppled backward, and would have landed on the carpet if Trey hadn’t been in position, waiting to catch her. He pulled her so that she was sitting between his legs, her back to his chest. She was pale and a little tired, but otherwise fine.

“As usual,” said Trey, “you now look like shit.”

Her voice hoarse, Taryn snapped, “Ass.” As a cough seemed to burst out of her, Grace gave Taryn a bottle of water and an energy bar. “Thank you.”

“How do you feel?” Shaya anxiously asked Nick as he slowly sat upright.

Rubbing his head, he considered lying to Shaya, but their bond would allow her to pick up on it. “Honestly…I don’t feel any different.”

“That’s because you weren’t in pain or feeling dizzy or weak,” Derren pointed out.

Good point, thought Nick. He looked at Taryn. “So you’ve healed my cognitive functions?”

Taryn pursed her lips. “That’s not quite how it works with me. All that foul crap I took out of you…that was, like, the badness. It’s hard to explain. If you take away the negativity that pollutes a positive situation, the situation is then no longer polluted—it’s pure again. The same thing applies here. Your cognitive functions are no longer ‘polluted.’ Hopefully, it stays that way. If this was the first time you had been healed, I wouldn’t even question whether or not the effect would be permanent. But as you’ve had a number of healing sessions before now and the problem still came back, I can’t guarantee it won’t come back again.”

Shaya leaned her head against his shoulder, and his arm instantly came around her. “It always amazes me when you do that,” she told Taryn. “Thanks.”

“Yeah, thanks,” said Nick.

“Unnatural, that is,” muttered Greta.

Clearly offended on Taryn’s behalf, Jaime frowned at the old woman. “So is your life span, not to mention your moustache.”

Keeping Taryn in his arms, Trey got to his feet. “Come on, you need to have a small nap.” After that, she would be her normal hyper self again.

“But Kye—”

“Is half the reason you’re so tired,” finished Trey. “He kept you awake for most of the night. He’ll probably still be asleep when you wake up. If he does wake early, he’ll be absolutely fine with all these people to fuss over him.”

“I know, but he looks for me, so I feel bad when I’m not there for him,” whined Taryn. The kid, though extremely sociable, was very tightly bonded to Taryn, just as Taryn was to him—which was most likely why she continued to complain as Trey strolled out of the living area with her in his arms, en route to their bedroom.

Shaya turned to Nick, who was clearly attempting to smile at a talking Jaime, but it looked more like a grimace. Taking pity on him, she said, “Come on, let’s go take our stuff up to my room.” Nick’s relief was visible in his expression, which made Jaime smile.

Entering Shaya’s bedroom, Nick studied his surroundings and noticed that the room was a lot like the bedroom in the house she’d been renting in Arizona—pine furniture, gold and cream color theme, satin sheets, and a bed adorned with decorative pillows. He still had yet to figure out why anyone would bother with decorative pillows, but the last time he’d complained about it, she’d smacked him over the head. So he would stay quiet about it this time. Instead, he tugged her to him and ravaged her mouth like he’d been dying to do since they arrived. “We need to christen that bed.”

In the aftermath of a session of wickedly slow, leisurely sex that made Shaya come so hard she saw stars, she simply lay—totally sated and somewhat resembling a limp noodle—in Nick’s arms, content. “I don’t think I can move for a while.”

“Good. Let’s just stay here until it’s time for the evening meal.”

She chuckled. “So you don’t have to interact with the others?”

“That and I like having time with just you.” He nipped her bottom lip. “I don’t like sharing you.”

“It’s a good thing I have no intention of asking you if we could live here permanently—it would kill you.”

The total lack of privacy would in fact drive him insane. “If you really want to, I could try.” This was the only family Shaya had ever really had, and he wouldn’t take her away from it if it would devastate her. “Any other ideas of where you’d like to live?”

“I don’t know. I guess that depends on whether or not you’ve decided yet if you want to be an Alpha again?”

Rolling onto his back, he groaned. “Not you too. You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“I am on your side.” She rested her chin on his chest. “That’s why I’m bringing it up. You need to talk about it.” When he didn’t speak, she said gently, “Hey, if you don’t want us to form a pack, we won’t.”

“But…?” he prodded, sensing there was one.

“But I think that you do. You’re a natural alpha. I think, deep down, a part of you must want it, must want to be part of something and want to give your wolf the sense of purpose that any alpha likes to have.”

“My wolf does want it,” he admitted, “but he wants you more, so it doesn’t matter.” She smacked his shoulder. He winced. “Hey!”

“Of course it matters. I don’t want your wolf feeling in any way unfulfilled.” She didn’t want their bond to always remain incomplete.

“He doesn’t feel unfulfilled. Besides, you don’t want to be an Alpha female since you’ll need to travel a lot for the job I’m confident you’ll get. I’ll be traveling with you.” He was no longer worried that her being an Alpha female would place her in danger, not after witnessing her strength over and over, and not when he knew that the people who were sneakily trying to make him their Alpha would never challenge her anyway. They saw her strength, and they respected her. Plus, they knew she was talented with weapons, and they didn’t want to die.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t be an Alpha. There are some dispersed packs out there. I know usually shifters don’t like their packs to be that way, but if people are trying to influence you into forming a pack while knowing that’s the only way it could be, it’s obviously not going to be something they’ll care about. I can’t promise I’ll be any good at the Alpha female thing.”

He dropped a kiss on her mouth. “You could do anything.” He was certain that she’d make a good Alpha female, just as Taryn had said. Shaya wouldn’t be loud and forward like dominant Alphas; she would lead in a diplomatic, calming, supportive way. He could give the pack the feeling of physical safety, and she would give them the feeling of emotional safety. Providing the people in his pack could totally accept that, it could work. “I thought you wouldn’t want that position.”

“Miss a chance to boss people around?”

Toying with her curls, he told her, “It’s not something I need, Shay. Wanting something and needing it are two different things. You’re what I need.”

“Ah, but if you can have what you want and what you need, why shouldn’t you?”

Unsure what he wanted, he said, “Let’s talk about something else.”

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that I don’t want you fighting against the humans with us on Thursday night.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I knew you were going to say that.” She wasn’t exactly surprised. He was her mate; he wouldn’t want her in any form of danger. “I know you like to have your own way, and I know that sometimes I compromise, and I know that sometimes you sneakily talk me into consenting to what you want”—he smiled, not in the least bit apologetic—“but I won’t budge on this: I will be part of what happens Thursday night.”

“Shay—”

“I’m just as angry as you are about that preserve. Those bastards did things they deserve to die slow, agonizing deaths for. On top of that, one of them tried over and over to rape you in juvie. Then there’s the little fact that he wrecked the salon and had someone shoot at us. I’m not letting that slide.” To her surprise, he wasn’t scowling, he was smiling. “What?”

“You should hear how righteous and very Alpha-female-like you sound.”

She blushed. “Females feeling vengeful on their mate’s behalf can sound a lot like that.”

“It’s not just me who has a problem with this. Your wolf doesn’t like it either, does she? She’s nervous at just the idea of it.”

Her wolf was, indeed, pacing anxiously. “Granted, she’s not keen on the idea of being in a situation that violent. But she’s also reassured”—okay, slightly reassured—“by the fact that I have no intention of shifting and expecting her to deal with it.”

He frowned, confused. “You don’t intend to shift?”

“It’ll be kind of hard to use my rifle with paws and claws.”

“Rifle?” he echoed disbelievingly.

“Thanks to my dad and our hunting trips, I’m a really good shot. I deserve to be a part of this just as much as the others do. The other males haven’t asked their mates to stay behind—it’s unfair to expect me to stay behind just because I’m submissive and—”

He silenced her with a look. “This has nothing to do with your submissive status, so don’t even go there.” He was becoming increasingly offended by her repeated accusations of him thinking less of her due to her submissive status. “Trey and Dante aren’t asking their mates to stay behind because the situation isn’t personal for them. My wolf has wanted to get a grip on Logan for a long time for a long list of reasons, and he’s none too happy with the shifter who created the preserve either. During the attack, his sole focus will be on getting to them. You’re the only thing that could distract him, the only thing that would matter more to him than ripping those fuckers apart.”

“You’re saying I’ll place you in danger.”

He cupped her chin. “You’re my only weak spot, Shay. Logan will know that. On that battlefield, it’ll be you who he’s looking for. If you’re there, my wolf will be distracted and anxious and won’t be able to focus on getting to Logan or the shifter—and that will make it easier for them to get to one of us.”

Well, when he put it like that…“What if I promise not to enter the battlefield? What if I promise to stay on a spot out of sight? It’s not like I need to get close to use my rifle.”

That placated him and his wolf slightly, but the idea of her being anywhere near Logan still turned his stomach.

“You can even help me choose which spot.”

He scrubbed a hand down his face. “I don’t like it, Shay.”

“Of course you don’t. Just the same, I don’t like the idea of you playing a part in the battle, but I haven’t asked you to stay out of it, have I?”

Twisting the situation to get what she wanted? “Baby, that’s sneaky.” Because she made a very good point.

“This is my fight too, Nick.” He was silent for a long time, and she thought he was going to object again, but he instead released a sigh of resignation.

“I can’t deny that your skills will be needed.”

Knowing that was Nick’s version of an “oh, all right,” she kissed him hard. “I appreciate you not being an overprotective caveman. Dante used to do it to Jaime a lot in the beginning—God, they argued like cats and dogs about it.” Although Nick was even more overprotective than Dante, he didn’t play the “I’m a male, I have a dick, and therefore I will make all the decisions” role like the Beta male had.

“This doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. My wolf’s pretty pissed with you too.”

She petted his chest patronizingly. “Don’t worry; when we go down for dinner later you can tell your best friend, Jaime, all about it and she’ll—”

“You keep that woman away from me. She’s chatty and does that sympathy thing.”

“And that’s bad?” chuckled Shaya. Although Jaime genuinely did sympathize with Nick and liked being around someone who could sort of relate to her predicament with her wolf, Jaime also found it hilarious just how uncomfortable it made him.

Nick moved Shaya so that she lay on top of him, fitting her body to his. “I don’t want sympathy, and I don’t like to chat unless it’s with you.”

“Why? What’s so different about me that my company is okay?”

He smoothed his hand up and down her back. “You’re perfect to me. They’re not. You’re important. They’re not. You’re mine. They’re not.”

“Your family is important to you,” she reminded him.

“But not in the same way you are. I care about them, but you’re something I need.” That was the only way he could explain it.

It scared Shaya that he needed her, felt so strongly for her. She knew that he’d kill for her, die for her, and do anything he had to do to keep her, no matter what it cost him. She had never been that important to anyone before. No one had ever needed her like that—it was scary, but it was also fulfilling. “Then prove it.” Entering her a second time that day, he did exactly that.