Unexpectedly, the heat of Emmitt left me, along with the breeze, and I found myself sitting alone on the grass. The singing birds, who’d moments ago chirped out their happiness, quieted in the nearby branches.
Unhurt and confused, I set my hands on the cool grass and twisted around to look for Emmitt. I found him just a few feet away. He sat back on his heels, knees spread apart and fingertips touching the ground. His eyes were closed, and his jaw clenched. Fur rippled along the bare skin of his arms.
I had a clear view of his change. The bone structure in his face started to shift. As disturbing as I found the view of his body changing, another concern took precedence. Hadn’t Emmitt mentioned werewolves changed as a defense mechanism? My head swiveled around looking for a threat.
“What is it Emmitt?” I scrambled close to him, clinging to a furry arm as I scanned the trees and hoped Nana Wini and Jim had the boys close. “Did you hear something?”
He tried to speak but, with his mouth already too far out of human shape, the sounds weren’t intelligible. He took a slow breath. His face stopped contorting and began to move back into place. The fur slowly faded from his skin. Unclenching his jaw, he opened his eyes and looked at me with a hint of discomfort, but no alarm.
“What? What just happened?” If we weren’t in danger, then why had he started to shift?
“I had to set you down.”
“Yeah, the fur gave that away.” I waited patiently for a better answer.
“I was taken by surprise, that’s all.” He stood and offered a hand to help me up. I took it but didn’t let go once I stood.
“By what?”
“You were just a little close, and I wasn’t expecting it.”
I stared at him dumbly for a moment. “You picked me up, remember?”
He took another deep breath and looked down at our joined hands. “Michelle, Claiming is pretty serious stuff, equivalent to getting engaged in your world. If a guy would give you a small, velvet box, your first thought would probably be ‘it’s a ring’. Turns out, it’s tickets to a ball game. Guys know girls associate those little boxes with rings, so it’s cruel to use them for anything else, right? Claiming is a quick hard bite to the neck. We grow up knowing a werewolf’s neck is a special area that you don’t go near lightly. It’s the small, velvet jewelry box. Do you understand?”
Claiming...bite...neck. Several pieces of Blake’s speech fell into place. But why would Blake want me to become engaged to one of his men? I couldn’t picture biting any of them.
The vision I had where I bit Emmitt resurfaced, and I blinked at him. Engaged? My stomach did a wild flip, and my heart stuttered in panic. My nearness to his neck had caused the change to burst upon him. He’d had to put me down or drop me.
“But you said you thought of me as a friend.”
“If that’s all you can give me, then I’ll respect that.”
Our gazes held for several long moments as what he said settled inside me. I knew he waited for me to say something.
“Stay away from werewolf necks. Got it. Sorry.”
“No,” he said a bit forcefully then grinned ruefully. “You can get as close as you want to mine. Just avoid anyone else’s.”
His intense gaze pulled another blush from me before I looked away. Clearing my throat, I suggested the next test.
“How strong are you?”
“Strong enough that any display would catch the attention of Liam and Aden.”
Bummer. No proof of that one. Although, proof wasn’t really necessary. I trusted what he said. So far, he hadn’t given me any hope. Nothing I could use to put to rest my fears of Blake.
“So, how do you fight a werewolf?” I wondered absently.
Emmitt chuckled. “With another werewolf.”
I turned away before he could see my despair.
Chapter 11
After saying that I needed a break from werewolf information, Emmitt and I joined the others in the front yard just in time for sprinkler races. I let the rest run while I sat in the shade, thinking. My mental list of questions wasn’t any shorter than when we’d started. What could I do to stop Blake? Would he pick up traces of my scent and have enough of a broken trail to follow me here? Why did Blake want me to Claim one of his men? And if humans and werewolves didn’t have relationships, why did I feel a pull in my stomach when I looked at Emmitt?
After Emmitt’s explanation of my scent appealing to all werewolves, I really needed Nana Wini to clarify a few things for me. She’d said scent was how werewolves found their Mates but then hinted werewolves and humans didn’t work. So what did that mean for me? And why was biting even necessary?
Since it was too early for lunch, I struggled to come up with an excuse to invite Nana upstairs. But, I needed the distance and closed door to ensure we wouldn’t be overheard. I didn’t want to embarrass myself with my line of questioning.
Perhaps my repeated looks her direction gave me away because she came to sit by me without any manipulation on my part.