“Nina, baby, look at me,” he said and gently tipped her chin so that she was looking up into his face where she couldn’t ignore the truth of the situation.

He saw the panic in her eyes and his heart ached. “Do you really think I’d do anything to hurt you?”

She shook her head, afraid if she tried to speak she’d cry. Now that the shaking was over she was drowning in emotion. She’d never felt anything like what she was feeling at that moment. It was as if the warmth of him was seeping into every pore. She felt his presence, his confidence and courage, his strength, his desire, his lust and his fear. His love. God, he loved her. How in the hell could he love her? Worse, she felt the same. Oh god, she was doomed, she was in love with the giant tool. She actually liked this feeling of connection. Gah!

“What is this?” she managed to croak out. “What’s happening?”

“I feel it too. It’s the bond forming. We don’t have detailed explanations for it. All we know is that when a male releases his seed into his mate, the bond forms. An emotional and physical connection is made.”

He leaned down and kissed her gently and his own fear ebbed when she responded.

“Great. Magical cum, lucky me.” She sighed and quirked up a smile at him. “So am I a werewolf now?”

He chuckled. “No. You’d have to have the virus put into your bloodstream through a bite. We can talk about that later but we have a lot to deal with right now just figuring out who killed Tommie and Rey. I want to focus on keeping you alive through this ridiculous plan of yours. Then we can talk about whether or not you want to be a wolf.”

“We should start planning. How are you going to arrange this meet-up?” She sat up and he pushed her back to the mattress.

“We are not talking about any of this until tomorrow. Tonight you are going to rest. We’ll get dinner and I’ll get you moved into our room while you take a long hot bath. Cade will call the family together to accept you into the Pack as my mate, and my mother will be thrilled of course. She’s always on me to give her grandchildren. Heh, Cade is next! The pressure is off me now…”

She put her hands over his mouth. “God, you seemed so stoic before you got your super se**n into me. Let’s back up, shall we? First of all, moving in together?”

“Nina, where else would you be?”

“Shouldn’t we date for a while or something?”

He sighed and rolled on top of her. His weight anchored her as she smoothed her hands up the muscles of his back.

“Beautiful, you are my mate. Where else would you be but with me? Human mates live together, why wouldn’t we?”

“Well, people date and then they sometimes live together and then they get married. They don’t set up house after having sex once.”

“I think we are having some basic problems with definition here. You are my mate. I am your mate. In human terms then—you are my wife. In werewolf culture, once a mate is claimed that’s a declaration, a marriage. You carry my scent, Nina. A wolf will be able to tell that you’re my mate by scent. I carry yours as well. There’s no courtship, although you’ve certainly been a pain in my ass over the last weeks as I watched you, that’s probably close to a courtship for a prickly woman like you.” He said this last with that naughty grin.

“Married?” she asked faintly as she thought it over, giving his ear a halfhearted twist for the prickly comment. “Well, I’ll agree to the moving in to the same room part, after all we’re sleeping together and I don’t have a house anymore, so my being in here is silly. But it’s going to take me some time to deal with the marriage idea. Plus, uh, this mate thingy is fine for you in your culture and all, but humans don’t recognize it, do they?”

He frowned. She was so contrary. “I don’t care what others recognize. It is. You are mine, period.”

“Yeah, okay, He-Man. So now you want me to meet your mother? ‘Cause you see, I’m not exceptionally good with mothers. They never seem to be very excited when they meet me.”

“Well of course! Nina, do you need to go to the doctor? Are you having hearing problems? You. Are. My. Mate. My mother and father and sisters are all going to want to meet you. And they’ll love you. In fact, they have to meet you before anyone else in the Pack does or my mother will never let me hear the end of it.” He rolled off her and reached for the phone and she grabbed his arm with a squeak.

“You’re calling them now?”

He laughed. “No, Cade, as the Alpha, will call them. I have to call one of the Pack who is a jeweler, have him design rings for us.”

She groaned, fell back to the mattress and pulled the sheet up over her face. “You know, Rushy McRushter, you don’t have to go all wild right now. We can, oh I don’t know, take things slowly!”

He leaned over and pulled the sheet back and peeked into her face. “Rushy McRushter?”

She gave a wave. “It was off the cuff, I’m better if I have time and I’m not being pushed into marriage by a f**k-drunk werewolf.”

He laughed. “Fuck-drunk? Good one. But there’s no point in not moving forward. It’s a done deal.” He shrugged. He dialed the numbers and she groaned and rolled out of bed in search of her panties. With a growl he pulled her back to the bed with an arm around her waist. “I have plans for you, don’t rush off.”

He held her there while he spoke to the jeweler and had him start on some design ideas for rings but swore the man to absolute secrecy under pain of death. He sounded so serious about the last part that Nina shivered. He was so big and bad and scary but she didn’t feel threatened in any way by him. That was really sexy.