He didn’t say anything in response, just nodded slowly, his intense focus still trained on me.
I swallowed roughly again, the lump in my throat refusing to go down.
“You’ve never shifted.” He didn’t phrase that like a question, but I nodded anyway.
I was so nervous, my hands shaking so frantically I had to place them under my thighs, trying to calm down, to sit still… attempting to relax my racing heart. The way he stared at me, watched me, made me feel like his prey, like he was the predator. But I’d never wanted to get caught, never wanted to be devoured more than I did with Cason.
For the next ten minutes, I found myself telling him everything about me. I told him about my father being an outcast for loving my mother, who also happened to be his non-mate and a human. I told him I worked part-time at the local real estate office, that I was going to school for business management the other half of the time.
I told him anything and everything, this verbal regurgitation of all the things I felt he should know, of all the things I wanted him to know about me.
He was silent for long moments, but the amount of focus he had on me told me he’d listened—absorbed every single word I said. “What about you?” I whispered, not sure why I was still so nervous.
I’ve never wanted something—someone—as much as I want him.
“I could listen to you all day… for the rest of my life.”
Oh. God.
His words were like accelerant on my already growing emotional fire.
“I want to know about you, though.”
He gave me this soft, warm smile, as if that pleased him immensely. “This land is owned by myself and my five brothers, but our cabins are spread out amongst the hundred acres.”
There were five other males just like him?
He told me about his woodworking passion, the fact that he worked construction with his brothers on a family owned company. I felt like I was learning the secrets of the world right now, and although this was all new information, it seemed like I’d always known it, like it had been buried deep inside me just waiting to be released.
And when we’d told each other every little bit of detail about us, we sat there just staring at each other.
“I’ve never shifted before,” I blurted out, confirming his words from earlier, the one thing I had never said to anyone besides my parents.
“You will,” he said with confidence.
“How do you know?” I asked like it was something he’d know and be able to answer without a doubt.
“Because I can smell the shift nearing in you. You’ve found me, mate, and that’s what your bear was waiting for. She was waiting for her other half to awaken her fully.”
His words seemed so… right and perfect.
“This is fast,” I whispered, unable to stop the words from spilling from me. “This is insane.” But it had never felt so right.
He didn’t say anything, just stared at me, as if he knew all the secrets of the world in this very moment. And the weird thing was, even though I felt so out
of my depth, so out of my element… I felt like I knew those secrets too.
And then he stood, his big body seeming to take up my entire view, to fill the entire room. He walked over to me, and I held my breath as I tipped my head back and stared into his face.
“It’s all so right.” The way he spoke was almost as if he meant to keep it to himself, as if he hadn’t wanted me to hear it.
Before I knew what was going on, Cason was right in front of me, his hands on the couch cushions on either side of my body.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” I whispered once again, staring into his blue eyes, my heart beating so fast I felt it in my throat, heard it in my ears. He was on his haunches right between my legs, his hands on my thighs now, the masculinity and power from that small touch sending fireworks through my body.
“You want to know what’s going on?” Although he phrased it like a question, I got the feeling he already knew my answer. “What’s going on is we’ve finally found each other, Mena.” His voice was this serrated sound, half-human, half-bear.
I could see how tense he was, how much he was fighting the urge to shift into his animal. I felt right on edge with him, so out of control that the only thing that made sense was being with him.