~

 

“So, you don’t want a mate?” Jena tipped her head to one side, raised her eyebrows, and questioned his sanity with just a look.

“Okay,” he mulled that over. “It is like that…”

“Told you,” Jena tossed back.

“But I thought you meant…”

“Oh, so that’s where your head was at,” Jena tossed back.

“No, it’s not like that…”

“Make your mind up.”

“I thought I had.”

“Obviously, not.”

“Damn, woman, you confuse the hell out of me,” Colt growled.

“You don’t say,” Jena smirked.

“I…” Colt closed his mouth and pressed his lips together.

Either she was pulling his chain, or they were both getting the wrong end of the stick. Maybe he should try again?

“A man of many words,” Jena chuckled to herself.

“Well, maybe if I could get some in without being interrupted…”

“Go ahead; I’m not stopping you.”

“You just did.”

“And you wanna bitch about it, or you want to take the opportunity to speak?” she challenged him, and Colt growled in annoyance.

“You’re frosty…”

“As in — the snowman?”

“There you go again; you just can’t seem to hold your tongue, can you?” Colt tossed back. He watched his mate chew over that thought. “But then you are female.” Colt grinned inwardly.

“Strange — I thought you didn’t like getting a kick in the balls,” Jena hit back at him, offering him that mental image, and a smirk on her lips.

“You are one tough cookie,” Colt said with a small shake of his head, but it wasn’t in disbelief, it was in amusement.

“You’d better believe it,” Jena said, raising her chin in defiance of the world that had dealt her a shitty past.

Her father had walked out when she was a toddler. Her mother had died when she was fourteen, and she’d been forced into the care system — not that there was much care in that system. She’d been on her own so long that she didn’t trust anyone else, and that was the way she liked it.

The closest person that she had to a friend was Rayner. Truth be told, maybe Rayner was the only other person that she trusted — they were the same — or they used to be before Rayner was bitten.

That didn’t mean that she wanted to be like Rayner. But Rayner had said that didn’t need to happen — it was a matter of choice, and she couldn’t foresee a future where she’d choose that fate.

“And you’d have to be in order to be my mate,” Colt offered back. “Fate knows what it’s doing…”

“I can’t say fate has impressed me much over the years. But you’re still getting ahead of yourself there, furry balls,” Jena tossed back.

It wasn’t that she didn’t find the man attractive on so many different levels that it was scary – she did. Maybe she did believe in fate, just a little, but that didn’t mean she was going to take a blind leap of faith.

He was more her type then she would care to admit to anyone. But, he was still a shifter, and that came with its own set of problems.

Not that she wasn’t built to take care of problems, she was, and maybe she even actively went out and looked for them — but him?

Hell, she was a child of the care system — she was a woman of colour — her education was limited to street life and keeping herself alive. She’d known problems all of her life.

Why the hell would she actively jump into more problems with both feet and little thought?

Maybe because the man was as sexy as hell?

Maybe because of the way that he was looking at her right then — like she was all of his Christmases all rolled into one — like he could lick her from head to toe and back again — like it was already a foregone conclusion that he was her man.

In a way, she guessed he was — if everything that Rayner had told her was to be believed — and she had no reason not to believe Rayner. It was crazy — almost as crazy as that Bowie bear outside — fate, the unseen hand controlling everything in her life.

She didn’t have a lot to thank fate for. Unless — maybe fate had come through for her this time.

Hell, she didn’t know what to think. She didn’t even want to think.

“If that’s going to be your nickname for me then I’d prefer you keep it amongst us,” Colt grumbled.

“Really? Because I was thinking of buying you a tattoo for your birthday and having it inked onto your forehead,” Jena tossed back.

“Honey, if you wanna buy me a tattoo; then get me one that says property of Jena, and I’ll have it tattooed on my ass.” Colt tried not to grin, but there it was, a slow to boil, gorgeous as hell grin that spread across his face and kept her mesmerised.

Damn, but that man was tempting in ways that she didn’t even want to think about. Damn him – damn fate.

“Way ahead of yourself now, furry balls,” Jena tossed back. But that smile of his was catching, and no matter how she tried, she couldn’t keep one from sneaking onto her lips.

Colt felt emboldened by the smile that she offered him, the amusement in her eyes, and the fact that she didn’t look as if she was on the warpath anymore.

He took one long step toward her, and she snatched her head back on her neck, raised her eyebrows, and looked him up and down as if she was sizing him up for a coffin.

“Oh no, you stay right there.” She tossed a snort of disbelief in his direction, and Colt was in two minds about what to do next.

“I wanted to show you the bedroom…”

“Say what?” She didn’t look impressed.

“The kitchen — I meant the kitchen,” Colt grimaced.

“A slip of the tongue?” She snorted again. “Uh-ha.”

Colt took another step toward her and watched as her eyes started to narrow on him.

“Not exactly…”

“I thought not,” she tossed back.

That didn’t stop the man from putting one foot in front of the other, and he was headed in her direction.

Jena’s heart skipped a beat, and then it raced. Adrenaline pumped within her, excitement raised its wicked head, and her mind turned to X-rated thoughts.

She’d already kicked him in the balls once — she didn’t think that he’d be so forgiving a second time. She had a choice to make, but what the hell kind of a choice was it?

Try to fell the sexy shifter like a big old tree in the woods — or see where fate was leading her?

One thing was sure — time was running out.