A sour taste filled my mouth. Luckily, my wolf seemed content at the moment, but who knew how long that would last.

I set my glass on the kitchen island and wiped my mouth. “She’s a pushy bitch, that’s for sure.”

Kaillen filled his glass for a second time. “She’s as strong as you. You can’t hold that against her.”

“So you’re siding with her now?” I placed my hands on my hips, and his gaze dipped, that glow forming in his eyes when he took in my naked body. Right, I was still in my birthday suit, but I was also dirty and sweaty. Although that apparently didn’t matter ’cause the hunter’s boner was growing at this very second. But even though that would have enticed me a few hours ago, now, all I felt was irritation. “My eyes are up here you know.”

His head whipped up in time to see my nostrils flare.

That ashy scent around him grew. He raked a hand through his hair. “Sorry, you’re just so damned beau—” He shook his head. “Sorry.”

“I’m going to shower.” I swirled away from him before his huge erection could draw me to him. Because even though we’d broached the subject of where we stood as a potential couple and how we felt, we still hadn’t reached a resolution on what to do from here, and honestly, the last thing I wanted to do was have that conversation with leaves and twigs in my hair and smoldering fury churning in my gut. Especially when he’d just sided with my wolf.

“Damn demon wolf hunter,” I mumbled as I jogged up the stairs.

I hurried to my room and into the bathroom. The second the water was hot in the shower, I stepped under it and scrubbed every inch of my skin three times over. Muddy water riddled with leaves swirled down the drain. I would probably clog the stupid thing, but I figured that would serve the scourge of the Shadow Zone right for turning me into a damned werewolf.

When I emerged, I toweled off and dressed. The entire time, an ache pulsed in my chest and my wolf paced in my belly. The urge to leave my room and find Kaillen throbbed inside me.

“What the fuck,” I whispered.

My wolf whined. I could feel her restlessness rising. She’d only been suppressed for an hour, yet already she wanted out.

“Not happening, lady,” I muttered to her.

She bared her teeth.

I bared my teeth right back.

A growl slipped past her, and she swelled, pushing and moving inside me, wanting out again.

“Stop it!” I hissed at her. “What the hell is the matter with you? This is my body, not yours!”

An image formed in my mind. Amber-hued eyes gazed at me out of a strong, masculine face. Square jaw. Dark hair. An achingly beautiful mouth.

Kaillen’s face hovered in my thoughts, begging and pulling at me.

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to dispel the image, but it formed again, and then again. I jolted to a stop as I picked up my brush to untangle my damp hair, because it suddenly struck me that it was my wolf putting these images in my mind.

Was that what Kaillen’s wolf constantly did to him? Flash images of me to him, not relenting until Kaillen did what he wanted?

I set my brush back down. “Are you trying to talk to me?”

She whined.

“What? What do you want from me?”

This time she placed a memory in the forefront of my thoughts. It was of Kaillen’s strong broad shoulders brushing against mine when we trained in that room back in Ontario.

“You want Kaillen?”

Her whine grew.

And then it clicked. She wanted me to go to the hunter, to be with him and to stay near him.

“But we just got done running with him,” I whispered, and for the first time, I realized I was talking out loud. Not crazy at all, Tala . . .

My wolf let out another soft yelp. Obviously, I was on the right track.

I picked up my brush again and began forcefully pulling it through my hair, wincing a few times when I brushed too aggressively through the snarls. “But I don’t want to go down there. I want to take a freakin’ minute to process what the hell is happening right now.”

She let out a growl, a soft one, not a domineering one, but clearly a warning.

A freakin’ warning. As if she had the right to boss me around.

“Not happening!” I snapped at her. I finished brushing my hair and threw the brush back into my bag. “You’ve had your way for the last eighteen hours. I’m taking a break from all things werewolf and mate driven, got it?”

Her power pulsed, and I nearly doubled over. I ground my teeth, fighting back. So my wolf wanted her mate. Well, too damned bad. Just ’cause I wanted the hunter too didn’t mean I’d joined at the hip with him. We didn’t need to be together every freakin’ second of the day.

But apparently, my wolf thought that we did.

Fisting my hands, I fought and struggled internally against my wolf’s rising power. She growled and snarled, then flashed another image. It was of Kaillen and me in bed, him over me, his eyes glowing as his canines elongated right before he bit into the tender flesh on my neck and sealed the mating bond.

“Quit trying to force me!” I squeezed my eyes shut and pushed her down with everything I had. “You just got here and have no idea what’s going on. Kaillen wants me because his wolf told him to, and now that I see how annoyingly pushy one’s wolf can be, I’m only becoming more convinced that his wolf is the only reason he’s pursued me at all!”

When her only response was to sprout hairs through the backs of my hands, I knew she wasn’t going to listen to reason.

“Fuck this.” I snatched my phone up as sweat beaded along my brow.

My eyes widened when I saw the half dozen texts from Prisha wanting to know how my first shift went. I furiously tapped in a reply, letting her know that I’d survived, but I couldn’t muster more than that.

My muscles were still burning from my attempts to avoid another shift as I began to ask her if I could stay with her, but then with an aching realization I knew that escaping to my best friend’s home wasn’t an option.

Jakub-Dipshit was still looking for me. I couldn’t bring him to her doorstep.

Deleting that part, I hit send on my half-assed reply to let her know I’d indeed shifted and was still breathing. Following that, I made a call.

“Good evening, thank you for calling the Supernatural Forces, Chicago division. This is Shelley, how can I help you?”

Thank the gods, Jeff’s not working tonight, so the phone’s actually being answered.

“Shelley, it’s Tala Davenport. I need your help.”

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Chapter 7

The scent and sound of sizzling food drifted through the air when I hurried down the stairs with my bags in tow.

Kaillen stood by the stove, his back to me, as he sautéed something in a pan. He’d obviously showered too and must have used one of his fairy charms, because the muddy footprints and leaves we’d left along the floor were gone.

My nose twitched as heady aromas bombarded me. Onions, spinach, mushrooms, and hints of basil, olive oil, and spicy sausage wafted through the air. I could scent the difference between each ingredient. Not weird at all . . .

Inside, my wolf wagged her tail, her power rising again as her excitement grew at being in the same room as her mate.

This is bordering on codependency you know, I said to her, but she ignored me.

Sighing, I let my bags fall with a thump and curled my fingers into fists. The urge to approach Kaillen and run my hand up his arm and around his waist nearly overtook me. Want, want, want. I wanted him. No, I needed him. That insatiable desire again nearly overwhelmed me.

Frowning, my chest rose as my breaths increased. Because was it me who wanted to touch him like that or my wolf?