He figured he’d try and talk her down anyway, just in case it helped. Using his calmest voice, he said, “I’m coming out now. Don’t bite me. Your wolf teeth can crush bones and there’s no recovering from that.”
He turned off the water and then opened the glass doors. In that instant, looking into her beautiful brown eyes framed by the tan mask and reddish fur, the black hairs covering the tips of her ears, he thought how lovely she was. Her ears were perked, expectant, waiting for his next move as he stood still in the shower, dripping wet, naked, and vulnerable. He didn’t think he’d ever felt this imperiled in his life. Maybe because normally if he felt threatened, he’d take care of the threat in any way that he could. But in this instance, he wanted to make her feel safe and protected, and reassure her everything would be okay. That she would be okay.
So he was attempting to act calmly with no hint of aggression, which could escalate the already tense situation.
Her posture was stiff, indicating she was ready to spring into action, but her face was an unreadable mask. Wolves could be unpredictable when they were newly turned, or even if they were from another pack. Like old friends playing card games, wolves in a pack gave away their intentions in minute ways—the twitching of ears, shifting of the body, facial expressions—all kinds of visual cues. But she was an unknown quantity, totally indecipherable.
At first, her eyes were on his, a pure alpha challenge. But then her gaze moved and settled on his package. In a purely sexual way, he would have become aroused, but not in this instant. He didn’t even want to think what she could do to him if she was that angry. He hoped his nervousness didn’t show.
“You’re family now,” Allan said, trying to coax her down. “You’re one of us, a lupus garou. Before, I couldn’t date you, given what we both were. But now I want to, if you’re of a like mind.” Even if she wasn’t, he wanted to give them a shot. It might take years, he figured, but she wasn’t leaving them and he wasn’t giving up on her. He wasn’t certain this was the time to approach that subject, but she had seemed interested before. He wanted her to know how much he cared about her. That he would be there to help her through this every step of the way and, at the same time, give her his love unconditionally.
He slowly moved out of the shower to grab a towel, not wanting to move quickly and appear hostile.
Standing her ground, she refused to back up, which meant his legs were practically touching her nose. He tried not to think of it when she lifted her nose and smelled his package, those wicked teeth too close for comfort. Not that she was showing them, but it would only take a second to change from curious to vicious.
He had to remind himself that she was a new wolf and everything would be fascinating to her: the smells she could smell now, even the ability to identify distress and sexual interest, though he wasn’t certain if she could tell the difference at this point. To him, it was instinctive, but then again, he was born knowing this. Maybe with her new wolf genes, it would be just as natural for her.
If so, she could smell his stress.
He slowly pulled a towel off the rack behind her, which meant he had to lean forward a little, something he really didn’t want to do because he was getting even more into her space. When he grabbed hold of the towel, she licked one of his balls, and he swore he nearly had a heart attack. It could have been sensuous and arousing under totally different circumstances.
He began to dry himself off, and she licked some of the water off his thigh. So far, so good. But as soon as he wrapped the towel around his waist to feel as though he had a little armor to protect his masculinity, she backed up. The way she crouched, as if she were on a hunt and held her tail straight out, he knew she was getting ready to attack.
He could have shifted and pinned her down, could have done so easily as a much bigger male wolf. But he didn’t want to scare her. Still, he had to get out of the damn bathroom in one piece. It might be his only choice.
She jumped, and he veered left, anticipating her move to the right. Just a slight turn in her body gave her away. He leaped out of her path, her teeth snapping, and she snarled. Wolves could be dangerous, and she sounded like a vicious predator, not a wolf in play. She grabbed his towel as if it was the only thing she could vent her frustration on. Teeth sinking into the blue plush towel, she yanked. Instinctively, he wouldn’t relinquish it. For a second, he had ahold of one end, and she had the other.
She tugged with all her might, body close to the floor, teeth and lips closed over the towel, butt elevated a little as she pulled backward, shaking her head while she tried to jerk it away from him and growling ferociously.