Pain flashed across his face.
“No, afraid it doesn’t work that way.” He kissed her forehead. “Unfortunately there is one more thing I need to tell you, and it’s probably going to be another doozy of a revelation. You want it before or after supper?”
He released her and she went to the sink to splash her face with water. More mysteries? Her heart couldn’t take much more.
“Is it really important?”
He nodded. “You should sit down.”
Oh shit. “That bad, eh?”
“I’ll promise to turn into my wolf afterward and you can twist my ear again if it makes you feel better.”
She chuckled. “Goof.”
He sighed mightily. “Hold on to your sense of humour, you might need it.”
She sat and he sank to the floor at her feet. His expression was serious and concerned, so different than what she’d seen in him over the past days.
“Hey, where’s that lighthearted guy who makes me smile gone? You can turn into a wolf. It’s not the end of the world, not unless you give me fleas. I hate having to deal with flea infestations.”
He took her hands in his and brought them to his lips, kissing her knuckles tenderly.
“No fleas…but something a little more permanent. I mentioned we’ve got a kind of government? My big brother, Keil, is the head of the Granite Lake pack.”
“Really? That’s kinda cool. Why is that an issue?”
“Well, it’s not, but he’s the Alpha since he’s the strongest wolf around. There’re these unspoken rules that happen in a pack, based on our wolves. Keil and his wife, Robyn, you remember her? They’re the top of the heap. Well, one of the other things our wolves decide is…”
He shook his head slowly and brought her hand to his ear. “Here. You may as well grab on now.”
How could she stay angry around him? She laughed and leaned forward to give him a kiss, smoothing her fingers through his hair. The sensation distracted her. “That’s what your hair reminded me of.”
“What?”
She stroked again, reveling in the softness. So soothing to the touch. Something about caressing, being close to TJ made her happy inside, lighting all the dark corners. “Your fur. The night you slept with me in your wolf form I fell asleep stroking you. That’s what your hair feels like. So soft.”
He shivered. “God, you keep touching me like that and I’m never going to get this out.”
She stilled her hands. “Just tell me. It’s not like you’re going to shock the daylights out of me.”
“We’re mates.”
She paused. “Sure. We’re best buds. Whatever you say. Now tell me the rest of the news because getting freaked out seems to have made me hungry.”
He shook his head wildly. “No, you don’t understand. Mates, as in the way a wolf takes a mate. You know dogs, you must know a little bit about wolves. We have a lot of the characteristics of wolves, and just like there’s an alpha and an omega wolf, our wolves pick our mate and they pick them for life. You, me. My wolf picked you.”
TJ stared into the fire. It was far too early to be getting up and way too late to still be awake. After his little life-changing revelation, Pam had snatched together the fixings for a sandwich then retreated to the bedroom to “get some space to think”. He’d settled in to wait and see what the verdict would be.
He’d screwed everything up. Everything.
Crap, why had he imagined, even for a moment, that hauling Pam into the bush against her will would make anything easier? Time alone, right. He poked the logs and watched the sparks fly upward in protest. That’s what he had now, time completely alone. Just him and the couch, which was lumpy and uncomfortable, and he’d sleep on it for the next week without a single complaint if Pam would give them a chance.
He’d sleep on it forever if she asked him to.
The floorboards creaked in the bedroom and he stood in a rush, staring at the door in the hopes she’d come out. The freaky part was he sensed where she was—and what she was feeling—just a little. His brother had explained once how the connection between him and his mate Robyn worked. While this wasn’t as strong as Keil had described, it was vivid enough to give TJ a teeny tiny fraction of hope to cling to.
Maybe there would be more to their mate connection than he’d dreamed possible.
When she’d barricaded herself in the bedroom, she’d been royally pissed at him, and he’d taken it in stride. It was the confusion that followed and the tears shortly after that had him on the verge of ignoring her request and breaking down the door, because he knew he could comfort her.
Needed to comfort her.