Page 32 of Hunted Mate (Stalked Mates #1)

She opens her eyes slowly, and I feel simultaneously guilty for waking her up, and immensely relieved to see that she is still herself behind her eyes. It wasn’t quite the same when she was unconscious. She might have looked like herself, but I needed to know she really was.

“Was I a pretty wolf?”

I realize she has no idea what happened, or how she looked, or the fact that she was not, technically, a wolf.

I do not know how to tell her, but I know I have to.

“You were exquisite,” I say.

Callie

“What? Was I some kind of mangy whelp?” I laugh, making a joke. It’s really weird not to be able to remember anything that happened between orgasming and waking up in bed, but I hope I had fun. I also hope my ability to remember starts to come back.

“You weren’t a wolf, exactly,” he says. He’s vague. Very vague.

“What, did I just pass out? Nothing happened? My body feels like something happened. Oh, my god, is this what’s going to happen? I’m just going to feel like shit, but have no power?”

“Oh, you have power,” he says.

“What did you see? Tell me?” I’m starting to worry.

There’s an ache in every part of me. It’s not unbearable, but it is constant.

I feel different, too. I feel lighter, more free, as if something I’ve been trying to hold in for a very long time has finally been expressed and I don’t have to hold it back anymore. Something in me is sleeping at peace.

“Honey, you’re a werewolf,” Gray says.

“I mean, I know that. You’re a werewolf,” I say, staring at him in confusion.

“No. I’m a shifter. I’m a wolf. You’re a werewolf. A proper werewolf.”

“What the…” I frown slightly. “You mean, like…”

“I mean you have fangs, and fur, you walk on two feet. You’re incredible,” he says. I can hear awe in his tone, but I can also see a small amount of something like fear in his eyes.

It feels like he just told me I’m actually a unicorn.

There’s not really any reference for what he’s trying to tell me.

I used to discard all the werewolf information when I was researching wolf shifters.

It would come up from time to time, but it wasn’t my area of specific interest. I have a vague sense of a bipedal creature with the body of a muscular animal, but in human form.

“Are you fucking with me?”

“I’m not. You’re beautiful. I think you might want to eat people, but to be honest some shifters want to do that too sometimes. The fact that people are made of meat can get very confusing, especially once you start bringing prey down.”

“I’m a werewolf,” I repeat. “This is going to get so complicated, isn’t it.”

“Understatement, darling,” Gray laughs, drawing me into his arms to hold me close. I am smaller than him, and I curl into the sheltering curve of his body while trying to come to terms with the fact that I am apparently a hideous monster as well as a very pretty heiress.

“This isn’t what they were trying to do, right? Or were they trying to make a freaky monster?” I mumble the question to his chest.

“I don’t know. They didn’t tell me, but from what I understand the idea was to make you a shifter wolf like the rest of us. They wanted to be able to pass on lycanthropy. I guess they managed to do that in one sense or another.”

“Are you sure I’m a werewolf?”

“Very,” Gray chuckles. “There’s not really any mistaking it. You’re a very impressive specimen, my love.”

I like it when he calls me his love. It almost makes me forget that I’m now an absolute monster of the kind villagers get out the pitchforks for, or send for special hunters with silver swords and such.

Gray rolls over onto his back, keeping me held close as he shuts his eyes. He looks tired.

“Am I scary?”

I crawl onto his chest and interrogate him by looking down at his face while lying on his body.

“Of course you are,” he says, his tone indulgent and his eyes still closed.

“Are you scared of me?”

“No,” he says. I see his pulse jump in his throat. I think he might be lying. Maybe he’s not afraid of me right now, but I think he was at least a little afraid of me last night when he saw who and what I was.

“I guess I’m in charge now,” I say. “Because you know of course werewolf beats wolf.”

He opens one eye at me. “Do you want me to thrash you right now? Is that what this is?”

“No,” I giggle. “I just need to know what is going on now that everything is monstrously wrong. No wonder I feel so rough. A werewolf. Did I do anything fun? Did I eat any villagers?”

“You and I ran in the woods and took down a deer or two,” he says.

“We didn’t bone?”

“No, we didn’t.” He opens both his eyes, reaches up, and cups my face in his hands.

“We have to keep this secret. From everyone. This is the sort of thing that could land you in a laboratory for the rest of your life. They will want to be able to replicate this. They will want to study you. My father will want to use you. Normal humans will consider you either a miracle or a curse. Both roads will lead to an early grave. We have to be so, so careful from here on out. Do you understand?”

I nod my head as best I can. “I understand.”

“I’m not trying to scare you, but you have been behaving so badly lately. You have been drawing attention at every turn. It cannot go on. You are going to have to get your wild impulses under control. It’s going to be difficult.”

He looks so worried. He truly thinks I am an absolute psycho. He assumes I can’t control myself, and hell, maybe I can’t. But I bet I can take control of my lack of control.

“Don’t worry. I’ll buy an island and just hide out there. Enya lives in a castle with cats and a couple of people and she’s doing fine.”

“Are you saying Enya is a werewolf?”

“No, because that would be libelous. Enya is one of the most talented artists of this, or any other time, and if she was a werewolf, she’d be the best werewolf,” I say, careful not to attract legal attention.

“We don’t have time to talk about Enya.”

“There’s always time to talk about Enya,” I disagree.

Gray sighs, and I know I am pushing him to his limit, but in a fun sort of way. He’s got to relax. He’s been through so much stress lately.

I slide off him, nudge him over onto his stomach and start rubbing his shoulders and neck. My fingers feel stronger now, even as a human being. That’s going to be fun. I’m going to be able to move furniture on my own now.

In spite of everything, the ‘bad news,’ so to speak, I am in a very good mood. I feel a lot more settled now that the moon is in her waning phase, and the worst of the whole ‘turning into a wild animal, or actually a creature of legend and lore’ part is over.

He makes a low, happy groaning sound and I feel him relax a little. That’s good.

“You don’t have to worry about everything all the time,” I tell him. “Sometimes everything works out fine, even though you don’t think it’s going to. Sometimes you think you’re gonna be a stock standard wolf, and you turn out to be a werewolf. Stuff happens.”

“Yeah,” Gray agrees with a muffled voice. “Stuff happens.”