She woke in the basement with a sick feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach for what this morning brought.
Today, she had to confess to the girls and Cormac about why she’d really darted him back in Colorado. No way he was going to believe her life mate claim after that. He’d think she made it up to save her own hide, but while that was partially true, it wasn’t a total lie.
He was her life mate. He was meant to be hers, and now, even though he’d hate her guts once she confessed, she was going to make sure no one hurt him. Whether he liked it or not.
Rolling to her side, she hugged the pillow and moaned into it to keep from waking Cormac, who slept soundly on a twin bed not far from hers.
Nina had put them down here in the playroom her daughter Charlie and her cousins played in because there were no windows where people could turn her into a cadaver. It was a room built virtually underground, full of all sorts of toys and Barbie motorized cars—and unicorns. So many stuffed unicorns.
Sitting up, she pushed the warm blanket from her body and reached for the bathrobe Nina had loaned her, snuggling into it as she watched Cormac’s wide chest rise and fall.
His arm was thrown over his forehead, his rippled-with-muscle chest exposed, the delicious trail of hair from his belly button snaking down under the sheet, dark and crisp-looking. Teddy wanted to run her fingers through it, burrow against his side, wrap her leg around his and nestle. He was a thing of beauty—every last inch of his hard body made hers tighten in curiosity, made her fingers itch to explore.
She had to take a deep breath when she simply looked at him. He was so beautifully rough; she had to force herself to continue taking air into her lungs.
“Are you watching me sleep?” he grumbled, deep and sleepy.
She jumped, her cheeks going red, her eyes shooting to the floor. “That’s creepy. Why would I do that?”
He laughed that rumble of a laugh that made goose bumps appear on her arms. “This from the woman who darted me and hauled me over her shoulder like some cavewoman with a side of beef? You have some questionable moments, lady.”
Teddy giggled and stretched. “How’d you sleep?”
“You mean when I wasn’t worried to death about you?”
Her heart skipped a beat then settled in her chest. “You don’t need to worry about me. Clearly, I can take care of myself.”
“Yeah. Your broken rib and torn-up gut say so.”
“I was trying to keep you from being shot, thank you very much.”
“No,” he murmured in a softer tone. “Thank you very much. You did save me from being shot. I’ve been a bit of an asshole about it ever since, haven’t I?”
Teddy snorted, trying to smooth her bed-head into place without appearing obvious. “A bit? Define your means of measurement.”
“Okay, a lot of an asshole. I apologize.”
“How magnanimous,” she replied, but she smiled when she said as much.
“How’s the rib this morning?”
Her hand went self-consciously to just under her breast, where she pressed with two fingers. “Fine. Like it never happened.”
“This healing thing is pretty amazing, huh?”
Teddy cocked her head. “You say that like you’ve just discovered it. You should have always been able to self-heal. From birth, in fact.”
“Welp, I wasn’t born this way. So seeing it happen and having confirmation I’m not crazy is all new to me.”
“Come again?”
“I said I wasn’t born this way—the way I assume you were. I was bitten.”
Her hand flew to her mouth to cover her gasp. “What? Someone bit you? That’s against our code!”
“There’s a code?”
“Yes! A very strict one. If you break it, you’re subject to some serious shit. We don’t go around biting people just to bite them. It’s 2016, for hell’s sake.”
“So you used to bite people to just bite them?”
“No. I mean, sure, we had rogues who did whatever the hell they wanted, but there weren’t any penalties until the late seventies. Now if you bite someone and turn them, unless it’s in self-defense, you end up in the pokey. We have rules, just like humans.”
Cormac cleared his throat and propped himself up on the pillows, his thick chestnut hair against the white sheets falling to his jaw line in a sexy tousle. “Good to know. I don’t need to end up in bear jail. I have enough trouble as it is.”
Her head reeled so hard from this revelation, she was almost dizzy. Who would do such a thing? “Who bit you?”
“Andre.”
Now her eyes almost fell out of her head as she hopped up and paced to his bed to look him in the eyes. How had she not smelled Andre was a bear? Had she been too pumped up on adrenaline? Too focused on saving Cormac that she’d missed a crucial clue?