My jaw dropped, not about breaking the bond, but about the whole explanation he’d just given me. Was he saying that potential mate part because he thought I still doubted us? I inwardly cringed remembering the speech I’d given him as he dismantled Sam’s truck.
“Don’t use up your word quota for the day,” I grumbled eliciting a smile from him. I stuck out my tongue in response and then got serious. “Clay, I won’t be biting anyone else. Ever. But I have something to tell you. When those wolves attacked… the second one...” I trailed off trying to find the right words. I didn’t want to hurt him. This should qualify as the best day for us. Would telling him turn it into the worst? He nudged me as he often did when in his fur. It made me smile sadly and admit the truth. “I felt the same pull with him as I do with you. I don’t understand why that would happen. Sam said just one. Experiencing that with someone else confused me and made me feel horrible like I cheated on you.”
He sighed and shook his head smiling softly at me. “I saw what happened. It worried me, but the kiss in the car helped me understand how you feel. Don’t worry about it.”
He’d known all along? His impatient finger tapping made sense now.
I met his eyes and smiled back. His easy acceptance of everything that happened finished melting my heart. “I love you.” My admission took me by surprise.
I didn’t see him move. He embraced me again crushing me in a spinning hug. The room spun around us in dizzying speed and I didn’t attempt to focus on it. Instead, I looked down at Clay’s face. He wore a huge smile. I grinned back noting his canines, normal for the first time ever.
“Oh!” I started squirming to get down, excited at the size of his teeth. He grudgingly let me down. “Please can we get rid of the beard?” Yes, I hopped from foot to foot like a kid begging for cotton candy. I just wanted to see him once without facial hair. If he wanted to grow it back, I wouldn’t mind. I’d fallen in love with him with it full grown after all.
He nodded laughing at me.
“And I still want to get my degree. Can we stay where we are until then?”
Before he could say anything, his eyes shifted to the door. My joy-filled smile faded. I still needed to figure out what made Elder Joshua different from other werewolves. No doubt, it affected me in some way. Why else would I be able to see the colors? For a moment, I thought about my mom and all the questions I would ask her if she still lived.
I stepped close to Clay and laid my head against his chest, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Everyone I’ve ever loved this way I’ve lost,” I said recalling my earliest memories of my mom and grandma. I hugged him close. “Don’t let me down.”
“I won’t. You’re stuck with me forever,” he whispered holding me close.
Something chirped behind me. It took a second chirp to recognize the sound of my own phone. I groaned at the interruption, but pulled back from Clay’s warm embrace, not quite leaving it, to pluck the phone from my back pocket. Luke’s number flashed on the screen.
As soon as I hit ‘talk’, Luke spoke in a rush without waiting for my greeting. “Gabby, I have a problem,” he shouted over the roar of an engine. Something popped loudly in the background. Luke swore, and then the phone went dead.
The three-second conversation left me speechless. I pulled the phone away from my ear to look at it. What the hell was going on? Safe in Clay’s arms, I stretched my senses searching for Luke. I found a yellow-violet spark along with a lone blue-green spark swarmed by blue-grey sparks. Luke… and the other spark like me.
“Clay, I don’t think I have a choice anymore. Something’s happening to Luke. The other werewolves are all around him. We need to get Sam.” I turned to look at the door. “I don’t know who to trust anymore.”
Clay nodded, but didn’t move to open the door. Instead, he leaned his forehead against mine. “I’ll stand with you, always.”
Meeting his eyes, I knew without a doubt I’d found the perfect man. He would stand by me. Always.
I kissed his lips, wishing we had time to just be Gabby and Clay the newly engaged couple. Then, I smiled. We would have time. Eventually. Like he said, he wasn’t going anywhere and neither was I.
Author’s Note
I hope you enjoyed Gabby’s story. Continue reading for a sneak peek of Michelle’s story, the second book in the Series.
For more information regarding other titles, please visit my website http://melissahaag.com. I’d love to hear from you!
Sneak peek of (Mis)fortune
Judgment of the Six: Book 2
By Melissa Haag
Available April 2013