It was a very scientific term, in its basis. He knew mates had sex. He also knew that some animals were monogamous, choosing to be with only one mate for the entirety of their lives.
He needed to know more. He wanted to know if Dakota was still considering mating him, whatever that meant. Perhaps that would ease some of the thoughts in his mind.
“Talk to me about mates,” he said. He really would need to get used to his new voice. It was deeper, but somehow, everything out of his mouth sounded more commanding. As if he were always giving her some kind of order.
“Mates,” she repeated the word like it was foreign to her. “Right. Mates.” She bit down on her lip and took a deep breath. “So shifters, we have this thing.” She went on to explain how shifters could sense their mate as soon as they set eyes on them. It was truly fascinating.
“Have you found your mate?”
“Have you?” She was throwing the question back at him. It was the second time she was doing that to him, and he had to admit that he was not a fan of it.
“Answer me, Dakota.” He shook his head. He really was sounding like a caveman now. “Please,” he added, making his word as soft as possible.
“Well,” she looked down at her hands. They were tearing at a thread in the comforter. He took the hand in his.
“Well?” he prompted.
“Yes. I have.”
“Can you look at me in the eyes and answer?”
“I don’t want to,” she said.
“Why not?”
“I’m having a bit of self-doubt and fear at the moment. I’d rather not feel too vulnerable.”
“When did you know I was your mate?” Bennett wasn’t too sure why or when he had decided to ask the question, but he couldn’t take it back.
He wanted to know the answer, anyway.
Dakota looked up to meet his waiting gaze. “You know?” she whispered.
He nodded. “I wasn’t too sure what it meant before, when we were in bed last night. Now I know. It hurts to be apart from you. I don’t like not knowing where you are, I don’t like not being about to touch you.”
She snickered. “Well, you’ll have to get used to it, Mr. Big Brain. We might be mates, destined for each other, but this lady still needs her independence. If you think you can be by my side at all times, you’ve got it all wrong. I still want some freedom.”
There was a bend to her lips. She was teasing him. He liked it.
“Oh?” he said as if he was taking the bait. “And what if I tied you to this bed and made you addicted to my touch? Would you still long for your independence then?”
Dakota shivered and hopped off the bed. She walked right by him, trailing a fingernail across his back. “You run that risk, either way, Ben.”
She disappeared into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. Bennett’s cock was as hard as a rock, and all his mate had done was graze his back.
Life as a shifter was definitely going to be an adjustment.
Chapter Nineteen
Dakota
Dakota had been very wanton and overly confident in her ability to resist Bennett in the morning. She had showered and dressed as fast as she could, half expecting Bennett to knock the door down and have his way with her against the shower wall. He hadn’t done that. In fact, he had shown great restraint all day, which was making Dakota curse herself for not taking advantage of his morning wood when she had had the chance.
The rest of the day had been spent in a flurry of actions. Between helping Corey and Stuart set up the perimeter of the house with some kind of laser thing, and checking on Vance, it had been busy. Bennett had all but locked himself away in the lab, going over the serum to see what he could learn from it. He was no longer looking for an answer to all of the world’s ills but instead trying to understand all of how it could be weaponized.
The easy answer was creating an army of shifter soldiers, but he was confident there was more to it than that. He just wasn’t too sure what this Winchester woman’s angle was. He would hardly find the answer in one sitting, one single day. Dakota knew he was a genius, but now he also had an animal inside of him. He had yet to go through his first shift, but