“Why what?”
“Why me? Am I really what you wanted? From what I hear, you had your pick of the girls. Why would you risk it? With me.”
He ran a finger along my bottom lip. “You want to know what was going through my mind when I bit you?”
God. I wished he wouldn’t do that. It took everything in me not to lick his finger. “Yeah. It might help.”
“It’s hard to…” He sighed. “Okay. So I guess I should start at the beginning. My whole life I’ve felt as if part of myself was missing. It was a nagging feeling, and it made me anxious. Irritable.”
“You mean it made you a dick.”
He chuckled. “You could say that. I wasn’t mean to anyone, but closed off. And then a few days before you came…there was this sense one day when I was in Michael’s cabin. I felt this presence and it was like something clicked. But just as it did, it was gone. I knew I was missing my other half, but had no idea how to find you. I kind of went a little crazy.”
“It’s not like I planned to do that—”
“So it was you?”
I nodded. “Nothing like that has ever happened to me before. I left that vision and punched this jerk from my class in his face. Broke his nose. In the middle of my dad’s going-away party. It was kind of a disaster.” And one I wasn’t proud of.
His grin made me laugh. “When I first saw you at your house, for a second the wolf took over. He was drawn to you. Had to have you. I’d let you get away once already and he wasn’t going to allow it to happen again.” He started pacing. “I didn’t get control back for days. I was restless, so I went to the mall. But after I talked to you—it only got worse. I convinced some of the guys to go hiking, hoping to burn off steam. And then I found you.”
But why me? He wasn’t giving me the answer that I wanted—needed—and a heaviness settled in my chest.
“What I did—it’s unforgivable. And yet, I want you to do the impossible.”
His amber gaze was so intense, I couldn’t look away. My heart sped. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to forgive me. I want you to be mine.”
I was short of breath. “You’re not answering my question. Why me? You don’t even know me. I don’t know you.”
“Don’t lie.”
He was frustrating the crap out of me. “I’m not lying! You’re the one that’s avoiding the question.”
“Okay. So I don’t have a perfect answer. When you meet your match you just know. The more we get to know each other, the more we’ll know how right we are.”
That warmed me. “Good answer.”
His gaze turned from amber to gold. “I want to announce it to the pack at the next full moon.”
That sounded serious. “Wouldn’t Imogene oppose that?”
He grinned. “Jealous?”
“Hey! I’m not the one going around beating my chest. From what I’ve heard, she was the one you were supposed to be with, and isn’t she your girlfriend?”
“She’s not my girlfriend. She’s my friend that’s a girl. We grew up together. Our families went on vacation together. I think both she and her father wanted us to end up mated. And to be honest, I did give it a shot. But it didn’t feel right and I ended it before summer.”
I hugged my knees into my chest. The need for him filled me up, threatening to take any will power I had left. Whatever happened, I couldn’t let him take over my life. I wouldn’t let myself be that girl.
He knelt in front of me. “Give me a chance.”
Crap. He was going to get his way. “This is way insane. I’m a normal, ordinary girl. Okay maybe not normal exactly, but normal-ish.”
“You don’t honestly believe that, do you?”
I narrowed my gaze at him. “If you wanted me so badly, then why’d you ignore me?”
“I was trying to let you adjust. To give you space. Like Mr. Dawson asked. Not to mention your family. It wasn’t easy to stay away from you.”
I opened my mouth with a retort, but he held up a hand.
“No. Not as hard as adjusting has been for you. But seeing the guys following you around…” His eyes flashed even brighter. He paced all the way to the other side of the creek and when he came back they were amber again. “I did something awful to you. Everyone thought it would be best if I stayed away, gave you time to get used to everything before I staked my claim as your mate.”
It killed me to say it, but I had to ask. “And if I didn’t want to be with you?”
“I’d let you go. Or try to.” He ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end. “No. I don’t know that I could do that. I’d wait. I’d do my best to win you over.”
“Okay.” I swallowed my nerves. “The whole mate word freaks me out. So let’s just leave that out for now.”
The smile that spread across his face made me melt.
Yep. He was dangerous.
“Deal.” He held out a hand and pulled me off the bedrock.
His hand brushed against my arm and a tingle ran up it. “What’s that?”
“Best guess?”