Chapter 6

Edric's POV:

I put clean clothes, a new toothbrush, and hairbrush in the bathroom, watching Maya’s silhouette play against the shower curtain, catching a faint whiff of her blood mixing with the water. It takes all my self-control to keep my wolf at bay – he wants to jump into the shower and take her, something I will never allow. ~ Mate, ~ he pants.

* No, * I say sternly, and quietly slip from the bathroom.

For a moment I consider going back down to the clinic to look for her contact lenses, but decide against it. As much as I want to hide her true identity from the rest of the pack I can’t do it. It would be unconscionable. They deserve to know what and who she is – it will affect them as much as it will affect me. For the first time in four decades, our pack may have to go to war. I didn’t exactly relish the idea, but such is the way with destinies – they’re never what we want them to be, are they?

I stare off into the distance, recalling her wolf. She is by far one of the most gorgeous wolves I’ve ever seen – of course I’ll think that, she’s my mate, but even objectively she is remarkably beautiful. Her eyes alone stopped me dead in my tracks, but her coat…I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’m sure no one else have either. A shimmering black-blue that flashes silver when she turns the light catches her the right way. I wonder if her human hair has the same quality. Goddess, I hope so.

My wolf is impatient. He wants to go back, get her, take her outside to run with us. I want to do the same thing, but I don’t think she’s quite ready for that yet. She hasn’t accepted what she is. It’s obvious, to me at least, that she’s been suppressing her wolf; it’s the only explanation for why her wolf was weak and why she’d take control like that.

The bathroom door opens and she steps into my room, wearing one of my shirts and a pair of my boxers. She looks adorable, and now that the grime has been washed from her face, I can see a splattering of freckles across her pixie nose. She flashes me a quick, uncomfortable grin. “It smells like you.”

My heart skips a beat. “What do I smell like?”

“You don’t know?” she asks, cocking her head at me, her eyebrows in a questioning arch.

“No, I mean, yes, but I will smell different to you…unique…my pheromones…it will be attractive to you.”

She blushes and averts her gaze.

Maya doesn’t sit next to me, opting to sit on the area rug at the foot of my queen size, crossing her shapely legs under her. Smiling, I slide to the floor and sit across from her leaning against the bed. “Want to know what you smell like to me?” I ask, hoping it will put her more at ease.

She nods, still shy and unable to meet my eyes.

“When I was a pup, there were these long pots of Nasturtiums on the balcony outside my room. Every morning, my mother would come into my room, open my windows and curtains to wake me up, as mothers do you know? When I started smelling the Nasturtiums on the breeze, I knew spring was on the way. That’s what you smell like to me. You smell like spring.”  

She stares at me. I can’t read her facial expression, but now that she isn’t wearing the contacts I can see the sparkle in her eyes – I just don’t know what that sparkle means.  

“Your turn,” I remind her.

“Oh.” She shakes herself as if coming out of a daze, blushing pink again. Goddess help me, I want to kiss her so bad. “You smell like rain…you know that moment before it starts? Exactly like that. And like the woods close to where I grew up. In summer, it smelled…like the earth. Like-like…fresh soil and green trees. I can’t explain it. And just a little hint of vanilla.”

“Vanilla, huh? That’s specific,” I say with a smile. “Do you have a special fondness for it?”

“Every Christmas, my younger siblings and I…we’d bake these vanilla cookies.” Her eyes fill with tears, and she starts biting into her lower lip so hard that she draws blood.

Quickly, without thinking about it, I lean over, grip her chin and pull her lip out from between her teeth. I didn’t want to see her cry or hurt herself. “I’m sorry,” I say, staring into her eyes.

She looks away from me, digging her own nails into her hands now. “Not your place to apologise for what they’ve done.”

I drag her hands apart. “Stop it. Stop hurting yourself. Come on.” I pull her up, and resist the urge to hug her again; I’m too afraid I won’t be able to control my wolf. “I’ll tuck you in.”

“Here?” she asks surprised, her eyes suddenly big and afraid. “With you?”

“Where else?” Her fear is palpable. “I’ll sleep on the couch. I won’t touch you, I promise.”

I can see she doesn’t believe me. Why would she? The only wolves she had contact with up until now were rogues, and if they gave in to their animal side, they were probably violent and, I hate to think about it but I have to, rapey.

She throws her hands in the air. “Well, I can’t leave, so...”

“Why can’t you leave? You’re not my prisoner.”

A small smile plucks at the corner of her mouth. “I promised my wolf…I’m too scared if I go back on my word she’ll take over my body again.”

“You do know you are the same being right? She is a part of you. She is not some separate entity you can push away and pretend doesn’t exist. If you embrace her as--”

“No,” Maya interrupts. “She is not a part of me. She destroyed my whole life.”

It’s too late, and she’s too tired for this conversation. “Okay--” I pull back the royal blue comforter --“hop in.”

She does as I ask, keeping a wary eye on me. I tuck the blankets in around her and stand back. “I’m going for a run,” I say. “My wolf needs to get out, and I need to think. You are safe here. No one will bother you.”

She yawns and rolls onto her side, away from me. “Okay,” she mumbles.

I stand there, watching her until her breathing evens out and she’s clearly asleep, before dashing from the house. Shedding my clothes at the edge of the forest, I shift and tear off into the woods with no clear idea where I’m going, or why I’m going there. I just know I need to run some of these new emotions and concerns out of my system.