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“Do you understand everything I’ve told you about mates and the mate pull?” I ask tentatively redirecting the conversation back to where I need it to be.

Deep ocean blue eyes find mine, and they turn from cool breezes to boiling pools. Her scent shifts from neutral to sexually excited. I inhale deeply, loving her lust-tainted scent. Her pheromones instantly harden my eager and overly excited cock.

A growl rumbles in my chest and throat as my eyes drop to watch her pretty pink tongue poke out and lick a drop of coffee from her lips.

“Careful, Nightingale, I have a very acute sense of smell, and your arousal only makes me hard.”

A bright pink blush flushes her cheeks, and she turns her head, trying to hide behind her mug. Pink looks good on my Nightingale. I’d like to see all of her flushed that color.

Lottie clears her throat, and I can tell she’s trying to subdue her arousal, but I can smell her growing wetter, and it makes my cock throb in my sweats. The soft material brushes against my engorged head and knot. Another thing I’ll have to explain when the time comes. Because it will. Now that she knows what I am and I know the mate pull is real, Lottie will be mine.

“I kind of understand. I . . . I feel the pull too. I just didn’t know that’s what it was. I just thought I was attracted to you . . . and horny.”

I chuckle. Oh, the pull will definitely make us both extremely horny. It helps when creating the bond and for procreation, of course.

Standing from my chair, I cross to her and pluck the coffee mug from her hands, setting it on the counter behind her.Leaning in, I trap her between my arms and press my body flush to hers. Loving when her scent spikes with spicy arousal.

“It makes me horny too,” I admit, punctuating my confession with the softest press of my hips to her stomach so she can feel just exactly how horny.

Lottie’s chest rises with a sharp inhale when she realizes I’m pressing my cock against her. Her eyes go glassy, and the urge to slide my cock inside her and bite the soft tan skin of her neck is so demanding I have to clench my jaw and my hands to stop myself from doing so.

“Wow. It feels even bigger than it looked.”

“I was only half hard before,” I breathe the words against her skin as I bend down to run my nose along her jaw.

The pull appreciates the skin-to-skin contact. Which, of course, only intensifies my desire and hers. I want to act on my throbbing lust, but I need to make sure she has no more questions before I do because I may not be able to stop myself once I start. Instead, I press a tender kiss along her jaw before pulling away to stare down at her.

Lottie isn’t short for a human female, which means she comes up to my shoulders, which I like. With those long, lean legs of hers, she’ll be able to make the chase far more enjoyable when the time comes.

“Do you have any other questions for me?”

Her eyes shift back and forth, searching mine, and I can see when she comes to a decision.

“Can I see you again? In the beast form?”

Chapter 22 – Lottie

He wasn’t expecting me to ask that. Hunter’s eyebrows shoot up, and the surprise is clear in his expression. But I do want to see him again. I want to know all his forms. It scared me before when I didn’t know who he was. Now that I know it’s Hunter, and he won’t eat me—and we’re possible mates, I still need to wrap my head around that one—I want to see it again. See him again.

Learning about the non-humans is shocking but exciting. I don’t know why he expected me to be freaked out about it. I look forward to learning all about his people and finding out which type each person I’ve met in town is.

Wait. If he’s a shifter, that means Ginger is a shifter, as are his brother and his parents. Now it totally makes sense why they were laughing at the photo of Sinatra I showed them. Because they knew it was Hunter. They were messing with him. I think I like them even more now.

Hunter stares down at me for another long moment, reading the determination on my face. Now that he’s told me he has three freaking forms he can shift into at will, I want to see them all. And since I’ve seen plenty of human and wolf Hunter, I want to see beast Hunter. What he calls his true form.

“You really want to see it?” He obviously doesn’t believe I would really want to, based on the slight down-turning of his lips.

“Of course I do. It is you, and you are it, and I want to see it now that I know it’s you. I’m curious. I didn’t really take my time to inspect you before.”

I give him a warm smile, hoping he doesn’t say no. He turns in place, looking around the cabin, but still hasn’t removed his lower half from pressing against me. His hard erection still firm against my lower stomach, just above my pubic bone. Since I’m a bit taller than most girls, our hips are almost lined up. But he’s still taller, just over six feet, if I’d have to guess.

He seems to come to a conclusion with a sharp incline of his chin.

“I guess I could show you in here. I’m rather big.”

“I noticed.”

I gently rock my hips, pressing into his cock, and he groans.