He stopped pacing and glared at the bathroom door. Had he been too rough with her? Yeah, okay, going straight into the office and immediately fucking her didn’t exactly shout romance, but he’d been at the damn edge. Jane had nearly died. Again. That shit had to stop. She was too important to him. She needed to realize it.
He spun from the door and marched to his desk. He stared down and then…
Then his fingers traced the deep gouges that she’d left across the top of his desk. Claw marks. Her hands had scraped over the desk right before she’d grabbed onto him. When her claws had curled into his shoulders, he’d loved the burn of pain.
Even as he knew just what it meant.
I did this—I did this to Jane.
Paris had warned him, over and over, that Jane was different. No average vamp. Because of Aidan, she wasn’t. Because of Aidan, hell, he wasn’t even sure what Jane truly was. A hybrid? Half-vampire, half-werewolf? Something else?
Something…worse?
The shower had turned off. His shoulders stiffened as he listened to the soft rustles of movement from inside the bathroom. A few moments later, the door creaked open. He caught Jane’s scent drifting in the air—soft, sweet, feminine.
Not the bitterness of fear, not any longer.
The breath he’d been holding slipped away. “Jane, I—”
“I’ve done something to you.” Her voice was stilted. Sad.
Not Jane.
He spun to face her. She was pale—okay, yeah, most vamps were a little pale, but this was different.
“I’m sorry,” Jane said, and her fingers rose to press against her neck. “I never meant to hurt you.”
Hurt him? In a flash, he was right in front of her. “You scared the hell out of me, baby.” He pulled her into his arms and held her close. “When I came into that alley and saw you—shit, don’t do that crap to me again, got it? My heart can only take so much.”
She was tense in his arms.
He didn’t want that. Aidan squeezed her tighter. “Okay, so I flipped out a bit. That happens when the woman I love is attacked. It happens when—”
“You bit me.”
His body tensed.
“When we were having sex, you bit me, Aidan.”
Handle with fucking care. “You…didn’t like that?”
Her hands curled over his shoulders and she pushed back so that she was staring up at his face. “I thought I was supposed to be the vamp in this relationship. Paris said—”
Shit, shit, shit! Paris needed to stop saying things.
“Paris said I was changing you. That can’t happen, Aidan. I can’t hurt you. Not you. You can’t become—”
He made himself speak carefully as he explained, “Werewolves mark their mates. They bite them.”
She stepped back. Her hands slid from him.
“They bite them…” Aidan continued, and he was the one to reach out and touch her. His fingers trailed over her collarbone then slid to the soft curve where her shoulder and neck met. “Right here.” The sweet spot. Not the sweetest spot, though. That area was lower on her lovely body. “I bit because you’re mine, Jane.”
Her lips parted. “You…you drank my blood.”
Tread carefully. “Did I?” He shook his head. “Paris doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The guy’s a worrier. Always has been. You aren’t hurting me. You aren’t doing anything to make me weaker.” That was the absolute truth. “Together, we will always be stronger.”
Her gaze searched his. He saw the exact moment when she decided to believe him. A relieved breath slipped from her and her eyes gleamed. “Always.”
He knew the storm had passed, for the moment. “Glad that’s settled,” Aidan muttered. His hand slid up the delicate column of her throat and he leaned toward her, pressing a quick kiss to her lips. Jane leaned into him, kissing him back so sweetly and then when he pulled back, she smiled at him.
His beautiful Jane.
Mine.
Hell, yes, he’d marked her. No other werewolf had better get close to her, and if Paris thought she’d drink from him…
Think again, buddy. Think the hell again.
“Are you going to tell me what you found in that alley?” Jane murmured. A furrow appeared between her brows. “I guess the clean-up is all handled now and—”
Right. Time to get back to business. Though the pleasure part of their relationship had certainly been fun. “Someone beat me to that particular job.”
The furrow deepened. “Come again?”
Oh, baby, I plan to. At the first available opportunity. He cleared his throat. “The bodies were gone. The alley reeked of bleach. No work for me there.”
She blinked. “But…who did it? Why?”
Might as well tell her all now. The better for her to be ready for the threat that would come again. “I found a video camera out there. Someone was watching you, baby. Those humans in the alley? They might have thought they were there to take you out, but I suspect they were really just bait. Someone wanted to watch you. Maybe see how strong you were.”
“What?” Then she gave a bitter laugh. “Well, if that’s the case, then that someone saw me nearly get taken out. If you hadn’t been there, I—”