sigma fucker. My options were thin.
“Give me time to figure out another way,” I said eventually.
“How long?”
“However long I need.” I glared at the huge Luther, trying not to linger on the broad expanse of his chest. Mating voodoo.
Wade grabbed my hand. “The remaining meets. Care to fill us in on what to expect?”
But Sascha’s gaze fixed on where Wade touched me. His nostrils flared.
Wade stilled—perhaps without realising he’d reacted to the silent charge in the air.
“You’re very lucky that your smell doesn’t change when you touch her, boy,” Sascha said, darkness nearly blotting out the honey. “Or hers.”
Wade took a few seconds to answer. “She doesn’t give me a boner, if that’s what you mean, and I don’t make her nipples hard. Just chimp tits. We’ve checked. It’s a friendship miracle.”
Sascha’s growl exploded from his chest.
“Wade,” I whispered.
He didn’t stop. “If you really care for her, you’ll be happy Andie has someone to talk to about this bullshit. You have no idea the state I found her in before learning all this. Back off.”
I tensed in readiness to become a human shield. Sascha surprised me by blinking and leaning back, honey returning to his vision.
“For that, I thank you,” he said stiffly. “The thought of her in pain keeps me up at night.”
I wrinkled my nose. Ugh. “The meets. What are they?”
“You’ve changed your mind.”
“It doesn’t seem like we can get through the meets, Sascha. Part of me doesn’t think we should bother. You said this far through the process, distance between us causes you physical pain. Will that get worse?”
“For the record, I wanted to tell you everything after you nearly drowned the first time,” he said.
“I wasn’t ready to hear it then.”
Sascha searched my face, voice lowering, “I know, little bird.”
My eyes misted at the aching in his smooth tones. Fucking bond shit. Wade would give me crap over the little bird comment later too.
I dragged a hand over my face. “Tell me now.”
Sascha’s eyes narrowed at the command, but he pulled his throne closer. His knees bordered mine, and I sucked in a breath as we touched.
“What was that?” Wade demanded. “You both relaxed.”
Sascha’s voice held a floating quality. “At first, scenting each other, eye contact, and touching carries the ability to heal your potential mate.”
He blinked several times, fixing on me. “The effect is less in you, Andie, but you can feel some degree of what’s happening. After the capture meet, usually a bond would be forged on both ends. We’d always know where the other was.”
I stilled. “You don’t, do you?”
He pressed his lips together. “I do.”
That’s how he knew I was at the apartment! “For fuck’s sake.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t receive this gift?”
“Gift is a massive stretch.”
“All supernatural creatures refer to powers developed through the mating process as gifts.”
Vampires, demons, and witches included? “I knew you were in this building. But it only works at close quarters.”
Sascha’s chest rose sharply, but his expression didn’t alter.
He liked that I could feel where he was. “You said at first about the healing stuff. What does that mean?”
“As the meets progress, the individual gifts knit together. Each gift begins to interact with the others. Our senses would become one over time. We could exchange physical strength and call to each other from great distances. If you choose to mate with me, the gifts are greater still. We would be able to see through each other’s eyes and mind-speak outside of wolf form.”
Mind-speak. I struggled to contain my excitement. “It’s not normal for mind-speak to happen outside of wolf form?”
“Not in human form,” Sascha said after a beat.
He’d said too much and knew it. Got ya. That’s how wolves communicated in Water. They were partially shifting. Some of them anyway. Our heat detectors didn’t pick that up.
“Is mating a senses thing then?” Wade ticked off his fingers, saying, “Touch, sight, and scent.”
Sascha darted him a look before returning his focus to me. “Senses are crucial to our way of life, so those dictate the initial meets, yes. My wolf then controls two of the meets—the capture meet and the biting meet.”
My eyes widened. “Biting meet? No way.”
“It won’t turn you into a werewolf,” Sascha added.
I almost melted into a puddle on the floor in relief. Their bites didn’t do anything. Thank fuck.
“It’s a marking thing?” Wade asked. “The Luther version of Andie tattooing your name on her butt?”
The werewolf tightened his grip on the armrests.
“You doing okay there, furry?” I asked, ready to throw myself out of