“Look at that!” he exclaimed. “Didn’t I tell you that you’d heal quickly, darlin’?”
I looked down at the ankle and was surprised to see that the jagged wounds from the night before were almost gone. The flesh had knitted itself neatly together, leaving barely more than a scar.
“How is that possible?” I breathed, staring down at myself. “I mean, my ankle was all torn up last night. You saw it—it was a mess!”
“It’s because you had another Were caring for you,” Nick assured me. “And probably has something to do being in the middle of the pack last night—what with all the hormones flying around—that also makes a female’s body heal more quickly.”
“Why? Because her body wants to be healthy enough to ‘breed’?” I asked, arching an eyebrow at him.
“Something like that,” Nick admitted. “Now that we know your ankle is healed, let’s have a look at the rest of you.”
“Why Nick,” I murmured, putting just a bit of teasing in my voice. “Are you saying you want to see me naked again?”
He shrugged, trying to look unconcerned and failing miserably.
“It wouldn’t matter if I did. Since I’m your brother.”
“Fine, then,” I said, deciding to call his bluff. Without thinking, I pushed the covers down and away from me. I stood carefully, making sure my ankle would hold my weight, then peeled up the white T-shirt Nick had given me to wear and tossed it aside.
Even as I did so, I knew something was different with me—with my body. Something was wrong. The low gasp I heard from Nick let me know I wasn’t mistaken.
“Shit,” he said in a low voice. “Goddamnit, Kira!”
I looked down at myself and saw what he saw—what I had been feeling from the moment I had first woken up.
My breasts were leaking, just like they had on that fateful day ten years before when I woke up in the barn with Nick by my side. My dark nipples and wide areolas were shiny with the clear amber liquid that was slowly dripping from my tight points. And my breasts were swollen and achy—painful in a way they had only been once before—on the morning when Nick had left me.
“It must have been sleeping beside me, breathing my scent that did it,” Nick muttered to himself. “Or maybe being around so many females with Breeding Fever last night. Damn it!”
I felt a sudden, intense pain but it wasn’t coming from my breasts—the agony was centered in my heart.
“You’re going to leave again, aren’t you?” I asked him in a low, unsteady voice. “Go ahead, Nick—this is your cue to exit stage left. It’s what drove you away before, so what are you waiting for?”
He stopped staring at my breasts and looked at my face again. What he saw made him stride across the room and take me by the shoulders.
“No, I’m not leaving you again!” he exclaimed fiercely. “I told you—we’re adults now! We can handle this together.”
“How, though?” I demanded. “Are you going to help me?”
He looked me up and down, taking in my nakedness and my swollen breasts and then seemed to have to tear his gaze away.
“I can’t,” he said hoarsely. “Try to understand, Kira, I’m your bro—”
“You can stop with that ‘big brother’ bullshit right now,” I interrupted him. “I don’t consider you anything but my foster brother and not even that anymore, since we’re both out of the system. Once and for all, I refuse to let the rules of the Were world rule me. Especially when I’m not even in it.”
“You’re in it, all right, darlin’,” Nick said softly. “We’re both right in the middle of it now that we’re back in Wolverton.”
“Then let’s get out of Wolverton,” I said simply. “Didn’t you say we could go anywhere?”
“That’s an idea.” He looked thoughtful. “The moon is still pretty full—there should be lots of pack meetings all around this area. I could take you to one of them so you could find a mate there. Or at least a male to help you out until this passes.”
I glared up at him.
“Are you seriously saying you’d be willing to let another man fuck me? To watch another man breed me?” I demanded, being deliberately inflammatory.
His grip on my arms tightened and I saw a whole range of emotions play over his face—jealousy, possessiveness, rage, desire, guilt…but possessiveness won.
“No,” he finally got out, glaring down at me, his green eyes flashing. “No, I don’t want any other man to breed you! You’re mine, darlin’. You have been since we first met as kids. In fact…” He sighed deeply. “I think we might be Fated Mates—it would certainly explain why we’re so drawn to each other.”
“Then…have you always wanted me the way I wanted you?” I asked, deciding to lay it all out on the table. “Because I do want you Nick. In fact, you’re the only man I’ve ever really wanted. Being with anyone else has always felt weird to me—wrong somehow.”