This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,87
sense my emotions now. Mates can communicate by speaking into each other’s minds, but you and I don’t need to use words.”
“You mean you can read my thoughts?” I ask, suddenly anxious that he knows about my encounter with the white wolf—and about my ability to separate from my wolf.
“No, I can’t read your thoughts. It’s more primal and instinctive than that.” He steps forward with a rapidity that takes my breath away, but I’m just as fast, anticipating the reach of his arms as I twist away from him. It’s difficult to move agilely in the thick bathrobe, but I manage it. He predicts my evasion and steps into the space I’m aiming for. Except that I sense he’s going to do that, so I step in the opposite direction. For a few seconds, we chase each other along the table, each predicting the other’s moves.
We could do this all day, neither one of us achieving our goal.
My head spins as I come to a deliberate stop beside the table.
He also stops. Smiles at me. Then he inches forward, testing my resolve to keep him at a distance.
I remain where I am, allowing him to approach.
He takes it slow as he slides his arms around my waist outside of the robe, pulling my hips against his, before lifting me onto the edge of the table with ease, guiding my legs to either side of his hips.
“I understand your strongest emotions,” he says. “I can anticipate your impulses, your wants, and your needs. But your thoughts—the things you choose to keep secret—are hidden from me. You can choose to hide your emotions from me too, if you wish. But I can sense the emotions you don’t cage. For example…” He dips his lips to the corner of my mouth, a tingling contact. “I know that if I kiss you right now, you won’t push me away.”
He tugs at the sash keeping my bathrobe in place, allowing the strip of material to fall to the floor. My breath catches when his palm presses against the exposed skin at the base of my stomach.
He leans forward and presses another kiss to the other corner of my mouth.
“I love that you let me win just now,” he whispers.
I allow myself to smile, brushing his cheek with mine. I was the one who chose to stop dancing around the table.
He said that our strongest emotions will be plain to each other. I read the desire in his eyes, but I keep my own in check. With difficulty.
Damn, it would be so much easier to give in.
“We can embrace the connection between us,” I say, assessing our situation. “Or we can use it against each other. Both options carry risks.”
He gives me a single acknowledging nod.
Since the fight yesterday, Tristan has allowed me to choose our path. I suddenly understand what a leap of faith that is for him. He gave me the choice yesterday to decide how to resolve the power struggle between us. Now he’s allowing me to choose our future.
It takes me by surprise to realize I have more power than I thought I did.
I turn my mouth to his, catching his lips. A brief contact. It’s nearly too much. I thought the lightest touch would give me some sort of closure, but now I don’t think any contact with his body will ever be enough.
The growth across his jaw makes my lips tingle before I force myself to pull back, drawing on every bit of will inside me not to return to his lips and give in to the desire to explore his mouth.
“I accept your proposal.” I curl my fingers around the back of his neck. “Show me your city. Give me what I need to kill the shifters who hurt me. I’ll stay for as long as it takes to end them.”
Removing my hand from his neck and placing both my palms on his chest, I push him firmly but slowly away from me. “But remember that I belong to me. Once I’m done here, I’m leaving.”
I wait for his response, wondering if he will raise the subject of the three-headed wolf—if he will finally reveal to me that he wants me to stay and kill it.
He simply gives me a nod. “I accept your terms.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Reaching an agreement puts us in a position of an alliance, a situation that is so unexpected that I’m trying not to be thrown by it. After eating a quick breakfast of toast