Our home.
And then her eyes opened and she glanced at me, the sharp intake of breath coming from her. I groaned anew, rolled my hips again and again, my body swaying back and forth from the intensity of my need for her.
Her eyes. So blue they glowed. The color of mine… of my Lycan’s. I knew she was still deep in sleep, her focus unseeing, her body knowing what I was and being inexplicably drawn to me.
“Sleep, iubirea mea.”
Her eyes closed easily on the command, as if she’d heard me, as if I whispered those words intimately against her ear.
I wanted to desperately go to her. I’d waited three hundred years for this female, and here she was, just feet from me, only that fragile rock and glass keeping me from the one who was meant to be mine.
But I’d only frighten her, the intensity in which I needed her so strong she’d be terrified. And that was the last thing I wanted to do. My sole goal, the only thing my instinct demanded of me, was that I protect her. Make her happy. Keep her safe. Above all else, I needed to make her happy and give her anything she wanted.
So I could wait. I had to. Just for a short time. I’d learn about her and pray that she came to me of her own free will before the full moon. And it was quickly approaching.
Because once it was full and high in the sky, my beast would take over, the need to mate and mark her so strong there would be no denying it.
Gods. She was here. I’d finally found her.
7
Mikalina
I had the strangest dream, although I couldn’t remember the details. But it stuck with me all morning. And no matter how hard I tried to recall it, it was fleeting like mist.
I scrubbed a hand over my eyes as I sat at the table, my breakfast of fruit and tea mainly unconsumed.
Elbows on the table, like the warm tea in front of me, I pushed the plate of fruit away and stood. I walked out the front door and saw Mini working in the garden. I lifted my hand, although she wasn’t even looking at me, too focused on her work.
From last night, I knew Andrei lived out of town in one of the larger cities. He worked as a computer analyst—whatever that entailed—and came once a week to see Mini. Although he’d given me his number in case I needed a translator or anything else, I knew I had to figure out what I was going to do.
What am I going to do now?
My mind was calculating how much money I still had saved versus when I expected to go home. I cringed internally. Going home. Why did that feel so… wrong?
I didn’t know what kind of job opportunities I could possibly have here, what with not speaking the language, not even being a citizen, and not having a vehicle.
God, was this all one huge mistake, even if it felt like the very best thing in the world?
I found myself walking toward the woods, but something had me looking over my shoulder. Mini was standing and staring at me, and then surprising the hell out of me as she lifted her hand and shooed me along. Was she telling me to keep going? Was she telling me to move away? I didn’t know, but my feet must have, because I kept walking forward.
There was a small footpath at the edge of the tree line, and I made my way along it, the sun streaming through the leaves, the sound of birds overhead almost a lullaby.
I didn’t know how long I walked, but the sun felt good through the breaks in the trees, the breeze felt nice on my skin, and the sounds and smells around me had me closing my eyes and just... feeling.
I felt this lightness, but then that easiness kind of dissipated as something tighter, harder, stronger settled within me. I slowed and then stopped, looking around, unsure what I was feeling, but knowing it was... intense.
Seconds passed. Maybe minutes. And then it hit me.
This feeling. The intensity. The thickness all around me.
Someone’s watching me.
I’m not alone.
My heart started to pound harder as I looked to my right. My left. In front of me. Behind me.
I spun around. Around and around. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. On my arms.
I panted.
God, someone’s watching me.
The flight instinct was running rampant inside me, so I turned and started heading back toward the village, telling myself not to run. And with every step I took, I continued to tell myself that maybe this weird feeling was just in my head.
I’d been thinking a lot about Mini’s story from last night, picturing what these Lycans looked like, what their fire felt like under my skin—you know, things a crazy person would ponder.
Would I fear one if I saw it in person? Would I run from it?
I shook my head at the ridiculous thought. See one? As if they were real.
And then there was my dream, the one I couldn’t remember but felt like was right there at the surface of my consciousness. It was a strange and confusing feeling, and as I slowed to a more reasonable pace, I tried to reason with myself that’s all this was.
An overactive imagination—my body making something in my mind physical.
I forced myself to stop and look around, telling myself over and over again that it was nothing. There was nothing there, no one watching me. I gave a nervous laugh, but still I walked toward the village. I ran my hands up and down my arms, trying to push the chill away even though it wasn’t cold out.
But the strangest thing out of all of this was… I wasn’t afraid.
I felt like someone watched me, that there was something out there I couldn't see, yet I felt no fear. I just felt… awareness.
I stepped through the tree line and headed right toward the front door of the cottage. I’d call my mother. I shook my head and snorted internally at that thought. I must’ve really been freaked out if I was resorting to making an expensive, overseas call to my mother.
Before I went into the house, I stopped and looked over my shoulder, scanning the tree line once more. I saw nothing, but I still felt as if I wasn’t alone. A shiver moved along my arms, and I forced myself to go inside. I closed the door and leaned against it, shutting my eyes and telling myself it was all in my head.
All. In. My head.
Yet why did it feel so real and make me feel... alive?
8
Ren
I’d stay in the woods all night, watching that cottage, waiting for my mate to emerge. I had to see her, wanted to hear her voice, get a concentrated inhale of her sweet scent.
The instinct to go to her was fierce in me, a war drum that beat fast and hard, demanding I make her mine.
The minutes turned into hours, and soon the moon was falling away as the sun rose. But I’d wait out here all day for her, wait my entire fucking life if that’s what it took for me to get another glimpse of my female.
I wanted to watch as the wind blew through the strands of her dark hair, teasing the ends so they moved along her shoulders.
I wanted to see every detail that made up her facial features. I wanted to stare into her Lycan-like eyes and pull her in close, push the hair off her shoulder, and strike her neck to mark her.
And then she finally emerged, and all rational, conscious thoughts left me.
And she was even lovelier in the morning sun.
Absolutely gorgeous.
Perfection.
Mine.
Never could I have pictured my mate to be so ethereal, so perfect for me in every way. It was as if she’d been plucked out of every fantasy I could have ever conjured. Made just for me. Only for me.