VIOLET

Jayce came back in the house and locked the door. Treyton didn’t come back in. The expression on his face was different from before. For one, he didn’t appear to have that look of possessiveness engrained across his face. He looked a bit perplexed.

I got up from the sofa. “Is everything alright?”

“Uh…yes, no need to worry. I talked to an old Sheriff that I’m friends with and he’s going to get someone to locate your car for you and bring it out here.”

“Oh, thank you so much,” I breathed.

“You’re welcome. But first…um, we have to talk.” He frowned and sat on the edge of the couch.

I sat down next to him, slowly and cautiously. “Is this about that guy that came in here? Because I know what he is…he’s like you, isn’t he?”

He nodded. “Yes, but…”

“Is this about me trying to attack him?” I continued when he looked down at my hands rested in my lap.

Jayce chuckled. “No, although, he did tell me that you pulled a butcher knife on him. Good job, by the way.”

I laughed. “I thought maybe those bad men had found me again. I didn’t know who he was.”

“You’ll be okay, Violet. I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise. And Treyton is my cousin.”

“Oh.”

I smiled. “I thought you two seemed close. Kind of like brothers.”

“We grew up together like brothers. My grandpa raised us. Remember when I told you that my dad was a human? Well, he was also a rolling stone with a thing for feisty female shifters.”

“So, your mom was feisty?” I asked.

He grinned. “According to the legends. But my dad was something else. He wasn’t very popular with the men in the pack, especially the ones with young daughters of breeding age, for obvious reasons. My mother had one sister and a brother. The other sister married a human and conceived Treyton.”

“I’m glad I understand that now. You said you wanted to talk to me about something. What is it?” I frowned when he paused. “Look, if it’s about identifying those men’s faces again, I don’t think I’m up for it. I just want to forget about that. I’m a little embarrassed.”

He caught my arm and squeezed gently and reassuringly. “You shouldn’t be embarrassed. That wasn’t your fault. They had no right to chase you down like that.”

“Well, I think I deserve it for running off without telling my family. I ran for selfish reasons and I was careless about it.” I shrugged.

“Why’d you really run from your fiancé…er, ex-fiance?”

I swallowed. “I’m not in love with him. He’s this big-time lawyer, and where I come from, my family name is well known.”

“You’re a rich city girl then.”

I bit my lip, a blush flooding up my face. “Yes, pretty much. Well, I’m not. My family is. I’m going to be rich one day, but I want it to be because I worked for it.”

“I assume you’re talking about money.”

“Huh?”

“There’s more than one way to be rich, Violet. It’s not always about how much cash one has in the bank.”

“Oh. Well, I knew that,” I teased.

He chuckled. “Sure you did. I know a thing or two about you city girls.”

I swatted his chest. “Oh, do tell, country boy.”

“I’ll tell you about it all one day, but first…” He picked up my wrist again and turned it over, rubbing the delicate skin with his thumb.

I slid my wrist from his grip and turned it over, hiding the recent bruise. “It was an accident, I’m sure,” I mumbled.

“What do you mean?”

“When I uh…attacked your cousin with the knife, he caught my wrist to keep me from stabbing him.”

“That’s not a bruise, Violet. And Treyton would never ever hurt a woman. You could have stabbed him multiple times and he wouldn’t have done anything to hurt you.” Jayce shook his head. “That’s not how we were raised. That’s not us.”

“Oh?”

“Do you have any other birthmarks?” he asked, his gaze shifted back to my wrist.

I extended my arm and pointed to the mark—the sun. “You mean this? You think this is a birthmark? It’s not. I wasn’t born with a birthmark. Not that I know of. I don’t even have tattoos. I mean, I’m not trying to say I’m perfect and flawless or anything, but if I had marks on my body, I would know by now. This is a bruise. This just happened.”

I was trying to convince myself more than I was trying to convince him. It didn’t look like he was buying it.

“That’s more than a birthmark, Violet. It’s a mate mark.”

“A mate mark?”

“Yes.”

“So, what does that mean?”

“It means that only one other person in the world has the same exact mark.”

“How would I know if someone has the same mate mark as me?”

“You wouldn’t know unless you met them somehow. By chance. By fate. Maybe even by accident. You wouldn’t know unless the marks were clearly noticeable.”

“I don’t believe in fate,” I replied, nervously. “Do you mean mate mark, as in, an actual mate, as in a man and a woman, together?”

He nodded, pressing his lips together to hold back a grin. “That’s exactly what I mean.”

“Oh boy,” I breathed. “I mean, my body has been feeling kind of weird since I woke up.”

“How so?”

I had no intentions of telling Jayce that I was so utterly attracted to him that my body responded in ways that surprised me. I could even look at him straight and not think about his physique of perfection.

I shook my head. “Just…I’ve been feeling weird. And about this mate symbol, I’ve never seen anyone with a birthmark on their skin that looks like a sun with rays.”

He grinned. “Are you sure?”

Jayce was so easy to talk to, so I started babbling.

“Well, if you’ve seen someone who could be my mate walking around your town, do let me know because I haven’t had much luck in the mating department. I mean my luck has been terrible. The men back home aren’t like you. I mean, they’re not…desirable to me. It’s gotten to the point where I haven’t had sex in ages. I even told my ex I wanted to wait and not have sex in the months leading up to the wedding, but the truth was that I wasn’t even majorly attracted to him like that. He was my childhood friend, for Godsakes. How could I have agreed to date him and then let it go on for so long that he actually thought it was a good idea to propose to me?” I sighed heavily. “Sitting here with you, like this…I can honestly say that I haven’t felt this alive ever. I feel free to do whatever without watchful eyes staring at me and judging me. Maybe it’s because you’re just so fucking sexy and hot and the way you look at me is…I don’t know…dark and feral. And oh my God, I’m babbling again.” I rolled my eyes and looked down at the carpet fibers. Jayce was utterly quiet while I talked myself into a corner. “I guess I’m just trying to say that I’d really just like to be with a man and not feel so obligated to marry him because my parents think it’s the proper thing to do for a lady of my upbringing. I just want to…to—”

“You talk too much,” he growled low, and then with an intensity that shocked me, he slipped his fingers against the back of my neck and claimed my lips possessively.

I parted my lips, letting his tongue slip inside. He tasted exquisite—like fresh rain from the sky. I had never been kissed this way before. His mouth was heaven and soon my body became pliant to his demands. His thumb stroked a spot at the nape of my neck that caused me to gasp and moan into his mouth.

He parted from my lips long enough to speak endearingly to me. “I want to claim you for myself.”

“Is that what wolves do…claim?”

“Yes,” he breathed against my neck, pressing small kisses along the column of my throat.

“God, your mouth feels so good against my skin,” I moaned.

“Can you imagine how my mouth would feel all over your body? I’d taste every single inch of you.”

“Please…yes…”

“I have to warn you, Violet. I’m not a one-night-stand type of guy.”

“Yes, okay. Don’t one-night-stand me.”

I heard his chuckle against my skin, but I was serious. I wanted this man so much.

“If I do this…if I take this sexy body, there’s no going back and there’s nothing either you or I can do about that. Fate brought us together, but once I take you, you’ll be mine.” He peppered a row of kisses from my mouth to my ear.

“Is your mark visible like mine?” I panted.

“Yes,” he breathed, tasting my skin as he kissed me softly and slowly.

“Are you going to show me?”

“Oh, yeah…I’m going to show you. When I’m done with you, you’ll be marked inside out and you’ll know that I claimed you. You’ll know that you’re mine.”

The loud shrill of a phone ringing on the table next to us made my heart leap. I jumped apart from him as reality flooded back to me. I pressed my fingers to my lips.

What was I doing?

“What’s wrong?” Jayce asked.

The phone continued ringing. “I…I’m sorry. I’m not usually like this. I don’t normally ask men for sex.”

“There’s a reason you’re in heat like this.”

“In heat?”

“Yeah. That’s not just an animal thing. When true mates meet, the urge to bond is strong,” he exclaimed. “I better get that. Not many people have my landline number. Might be my alpha,” Jayce said and then leaned over and picked up the phone. “Jayce speaking,” he answered.

Unlike a cell phone, the volume on the headset was deafening. And whoever was on the other end had a deep, commanding voice. I was inches from Jayce and I heard every single word.

“Jayce, I’ve got something. I think I know why they were chasing that out-of-towner. There’s a lot of history behind it, so I can’t say much over the phone. Is Draven on the way?

“He is. Should be here by morning.”

“Let’s meet at your spot in the morning.”

“Sounds like a plan.”