He held her close, hoping that his body warmth would doher some good as he made his way back to the house. With her practically wrapped around him, his sensitive nose caught her scent, and his pace faltered. She smelled like honey and summer and wildflowers under the grime and fading stench of … wolves. His beast took instant notice.
She’s our mate. Wolves have hurt our mate!
Magnus rejected the suggestion, ignoring the clamoring of his bear even as his body responded to the scent and feel of her. No way was his mate a child.
Ulf was up and alert now, sniffing at her feet and moaning in concern as if he could sense her distress.
What was stranger was that she seemed to be trying to respond to him, but her grumbles were too weak to be heard by anyone but him.
“It’s okay, buddy.” He wasn’t sure if he was talking more to the dog or the girl, but they both seemed to relax a little at his words. Magnus continued to murmur as comfortingly as he could while he took her up the stairs to his bed where he carefully laid her on the blanket.
It was a quick matter of starting a warm shower and returning, confident that it would be at temperature by the time he returned. Magnus stalked back into the room and stared at her for a moment.
Under the tangle of hair and grunge, he could see she was quite pretty. Very clearly Asian with her petite features, but so pale. Even her hair was shockingly white. Too pure to be a dye job. An albino? He tried his best not to notice her curves as he peeled away the clothes he remembered hanging on the line a few days ago. They were ill-fitting but he surmised they were more for warmth piled on over her other clothes as they were.
Definitely not a girl. She was small and fine-boned, yes, but her curves made it clear beyond doubt that she was not a child. And she smelled like heaven. His cock, which had been athalf-mast since he first scented her, was rock-hard now.
Feeling like a letch, he averted his eyes and focused on getting her to the bathroom and into the shower without incident. He held her high, doing his utmost not to rub her all over his cock like his instincts were telling him to. He got in with her and sat on the floor with her in his lap as he checked her over for injuries. As the warm water rained over them, he carefully cleaned the filth away and found far too many bruises and cuts, though they were healing, but nothing that required more than a clean and maybe some ointment.
He carefully made his way down her body all the while ignoring his own. The worst injury he could find was her ankle. It was purple and swollen. Broken? His bear raged that his mate was injured. Who’d done it? Getting the answer to that would have to wait. He cleaned it as gently as he could and moved on. Once he was sure the rest of her wasn’t too damaged, his attention went back up to her neck. More precisely, where the strange collar she wore had cut into the skin. The fat green gems embedded in the leather were carved, not to reflect light but with strange symbols. The skin around them was marred with what looked like scratch marks as if she’d been trying to free herself of it. It was no wonder she couldn’t get it off when he couldn’t find a clasp of any kind on it.
It had to be magical.
He gingerly slid them both over so he could reach around the glass partition to the cupboard where he kept the cut-throat razor he used when he could be bothered to shave and carefully sliced the leather. Only with every cut, the leather not only healed but tightened against her skin. Pissed off, but not wanting to do anything to hurt her more, he put the blade aside and rinsed the wounds on her neck again.
Definitely magical.
When he was satisfied that there was nothing more hecould do, he got out and wrapped her in his thick robe, yanked the soiled blanket off the bed, and put her back on it. Ulf, who had followed and watched the proceedings with uncharacteristic interest, gave him a questioning head tilt.
“Don’t look at me like that.” But Magnus knew he was acting as strangely as his dog was. He didn’t rescue damsels in distress and absolutely did not bring them back to his place and put them virtually naked in his bed.
Our mate deserves more than just a simple bed. She deserves silks. Satins. Mountains of pillows. The best.
He went back to the bathroom and tore off his wet clothing, wondering what the hell had gotten into him. He didn’t want a mate. He liked his life as it was. Simple. Quiet. A female would ruin that. He thought about the small form on the bed and shook his head. Even one as beautiful and perfect as her. After quickly pulling on sweatpants and a t-shirt, he gathered his spare pillows and blankets and was about to leave her to go spend a night on his couch when he heard her move and murmur something.
Irritated that he was this attuned to her, he spun on his heel to stalk back toward the bed. Maybe she was well enough to leave? He shook off the idea, hating the thought of her being out in the woods alone. She clearly didn’t have what it took to survive out there, and his conscience would never let him send her back out there. Especially with that ankle. He needed to get her to a doctor in the morning to take a look at it.
Sighing, he leaned closer and was immediately captivated by her scent.
He gritted his teeth. So what? She smelled nice. Weren’t women supposed to smell good? Magnus was wise enough to know that not every woman smelled this good. He knew deep down that he’d never smelled a woman as mouth-watering.
It meant nothing. His bear roared, snarling about hisstupidity.
He ignored him once more in order to explore her scent more. There was more to her scent than the average human. A shifter? Now that the other smells were gone, he could detect the muted scent. It was like it was being stifled. Smothered.
But he found he loved everything about it and wanted to bury his nose in her hair and skin, never to resurface. Speaking of burying himself, his cock throbbed and strained against the fabric of his sweatpants.
No. He held his breath and turned his head to try to listen to what she was trying to say, and he could be sure as hell that it wouldn’t be an invitation to fuck her.
Her small hand was hot and surprisingly strong when it curled around his neck to draw him closer.
Magnus couldn’t help but turn to look at her. Her eyes were open now. The startling ice blue peered into his. Pleaded with him.
Her lips moved again, but he couldn’t make out a thing even with his exceptional hearing.
Magnus moved closer still. “What?”
He barely heard her thready whisper, but the two words were nearly enough to bowl him over.