CHAPTER FIVE:Hazel Ellis

With a frown, I turned my head slightly toward him and sniffed.

Shit, he really did smell better than the steak. I’d officially taken a turn toward crazy-town.

What the hell had he done to me?

“Do your pheromones change the way things smell?” I asked, biting into a fry.

“True Mate pheromones do, but it only affects the way I smell to you. I probably smell better than either of our meals, right now.” He nodded toward my food, his hands wrapped around the giant burger. “You sure as hell smell and taste better than this.”

My cheeks reddened.

Dammit, I was like a blushing teenager. 

Because of my ruby wolf status, no man had ever touched me as anything more than a friend. I knew how to charm the pants off most of them, but they tended to be either too intimidated by me or too afraid of my parents to risk touching me. I was twenty-two and still had virgin lips, of all things. Hell, even my fingers were virgins, since I’d never held a guy’s hand or anything.

I took a big bite of steak so I didn’t have to respond to his compliment, chewing slowly. I was right; it was delicious.

“You’re close to your parents,” Merrick said. He’d probably heard most of my conversation with my dad, so I couldn’t exactly deny it.

“Yep.” I popped another big bite of steak in.

“I was close to mine too.” He grabbed a fry and dunked it in a little container of barbecue sauce. “They were killed by the cats about a year ago.”

One of my cheeks was full of steak—I shouldn’t have taken such a big bite. Swallowing it down, I grabbed a sealed water bottle Merrick had brought with him. “What happened?” I asked.

I knew it would be polite to apologize for his loss, but Merrick didn’t strike me as someone who appreciated empty words. I hadn’t known them, and I didn’t know him.

“The biggest powers in the city are the bears and the big cats. They’ve hated us for a long time and finally made a move. The cats killed my parents, my bears killed the couple leading the cats, and instead of bringing peace, it broke the city even more. Now everyone walks on eggshells, waiting for something to instigate another battle.”

“Wow.” I took another bite, a smaller one. “Maybe if you mated with a cat, it would fix things.”

“I’d rather rip my own balls off,” He said, bluntly. “You hate them that much?”

“That’s a nice way of putting it.” He dunked another fry, this one a bit more violently. “What are your parents like?”

“True Mates, probably.” I grabbed a fork, diving into my potatoes. “I mean, I don’t know much about True Mates, and we don’t have a term for that. But I know they smell really good to each other, so there’s a chance. My mom was a ruby wolf, and my dad went through the trials so he could mate with her.”

Merrick whistled. “Damn. Most normal shifters don’t have the guts for that.”

“It wasn’t guts. My dad just really loved my mom.” I scooped up more potatoes. “My best friend is on her way here. No attacking her.”

Merrick nodded, taking my warning seriously.

“So the lion you attacked earlier had a role in your parents’ death?” I asked, imagining that was probably why he’d lost his temper so easily.

“His claws were the ones that slit my mother’s throat.”

I believed him. True Mate thing aside, something about the grizzly bear just seemed genuine. But that didn’t mean the lion was necessarily a bad guy.

“Why did he call me Princess?”

“The wolves used to rule the city before they all left a few hundred years ago. No one really knows why they left, but when they did, war broke out. It was bears verses cats back then, and we won the ruling seat, but the cats never accepted it. The war has continued, on and off, ever since. Mostly it’s a political war, but sometimes it’s physical. Since you’re the pink ruby wolf, you’ll take over as the leader as soon as you’ve chosen a mate.”

Well, that was both good and bad. I’d been training to take over as Alpha Female of All for a long time, and definitely didn’t believe in war. But, actually leading a city would take some getting used to.

“Mating with me would put your people in charge again,” I said, watching Merrick’s reaction.

He didn’t deny it, dunking another fry. “Yours would be in charge, but mine would be working hand-in-hand with them. My people are the best for the job. We’re fair and we respect those around us, unlike the cats.”

“You do realize that you’re biased, right?” I took another bite of my steak. “And for all I know, you caught a whiff of me and realized I was a wolf before you were interested at all. Then, you used your pheromones as a weapon to pull me in.”

Merrick grunted. “I have no more control over my pheromones than you do. Grab my hand, and you’ll see.”

I was way too curious not to take him up on that. Leaning over, I poked a finger into the top of his hand. His scent immediately intensified, and I found myself fighting an instinct to scoot closer, to lean into him and touch more of him.

He leaned closer to me, and I withdrew quickly. Occupying my hands with fries, I took a bite.

“This is only the beginning,” Merrick warned. “I won’t back down, and the pheromones will get stronger if you continue to resist.”

“So you’ve said. Even if that’s true, I’ll still be meeting the rest of the unmated ruby shifters tomorrow. Growl all you want; I’m the one who’s going to have to jump in bed with a stranger in a few days, so you can be damn well sure I’m going to make sure I’m picking the right one.”

Merrick said nothing as I stood, lifting my food with me. I would definitely finish eating it all, but didn’t want to do so with him and his intense green eyes or incredible smell.

“Thanks for the food, Grizzly.” I told him, tugging my room key out of my bra and sticking it in the door. The light lit up green, and the lock clicked open. Though the motel was sketchy, it wasn’t so sketchy that it didn’t have automatic locks.

“Thanks for the date, True Mate,” he countered.

I flipped him off over my shoulder as I stepped inside and shut the door behind me. The lock clicked as he chuckled, and I found myself fighting a smile, too.