He wanted her to open her eyes, to see into those mossy depths and know her. Her body welcomed him in a way he’d never felt before and even clenching his teeth and reciting his mnemonics from the bar exam for commercial paper did not help.

He had to come and right then. His c**k didn’t care if he wasn’t ready for it to be over. Her body had pushed him past endurance and when it hit him square in the balls, it also hit him in his heart, in his gut and he threw his head back and gasped out her name as he came deep within her body in pulse after pulse of pleasure.

He stayed inside her as long as he could and finally rolled to the side, chest heaving, his arm over her waist, fingers entwined with hers.

After some minutes of silence, he moved to sit and leaned down to kiss her. His eyes were sad. It tore at her and she wanted to make him all right. Wanted to comfort him. But she couldn’t. It wasn’t her place.

“I’m going. I’ll see you tonight at the joining.” He paused a moment, tracing a fingertip over her bottom lip. “It’s just the anchor forming, Tracy. That’s all.”

She looked into those deep brown eyes and nodded. “Of course. Thank you.”

He laughed as he got up and pulled his clothes on. “Sweetness, thank you. I quite enjoyed myself. I’ll be happy to get to know you better as your anchor.” He went to the door and turned to her one last time.

“It was just the bond.”

He said it twice but she wasn’t any more reassured. She just hoped that the bond lessened because she wanted him again, his hands on her. Right then. Pushing it away as hard as she could, she nodded. “Of course. I’ll see you later tonight, Gabe.”

He waved and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

Gabe walked straight out of the apartment, knowing that he smelled of Tracy’s sex and her body and that if he’d gone to Nick right then it would have been hard on him.

From what he understood, most of the time the anchor left for a while to let the mated couple reassert their bond anyway.

Or so he told himself as he tried to put as much distance between himself and Tracy as possible before he let his wolf take over and challenge Nick Lawrence for his mate.

* * * * *

Her thoughts racing and unease gripping her guts, Tracy threw herself into changing the sheets on the bed and opening the windows. She wanted to try and get rid of the scent for Nick’s sake. And for her own.

Giving herself a bunch of tasks was better than thinking about what had happened. She showered and tried to erase Gabe’s scent from her skin, but she couldn’t erase the memory of his touch, the way his lips had felt on her own. He had burned himself into her, just like he said he wanted to. Guilt beat at her.

She loved Nick. Period. She loved Nick Lawrence and she was his mate. She was just unaccustomed to the whole anchor bond thing. Still, she’d talk to Nina about it when she saw her at the Pacific Pack house later that night.

An hour later, scrubbed and calmer, the bedroom airing out, Tracy sought Nick out.

Standing in the doorway, she watched him work. Took in the expanse of his back, of the way the muscles moved as he typed. His hands were really beautiful for a man who’d probably broken a finger or two at least half a dozen times. He was wearing headphones and listening to his mp3 player but she could tell he was distracted. She tossed a paperclip at his head and he jumped and turned in her direction.

When he saw it was her though, he relaxed and took the ear buds out and smiled. “Hey. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. How about you?”

He stood and walked to her, relieved that there was only a slight scent of sex on her. He’d heard when Gabe left the apartment and had given her time. The washing machine was on in the distance and he smelled fresh air and he had to give a rueful smile that she had to air out a bedroom in much the same way he had.

“You feel more centered than you did before. I shut down the link as much as I could earlier. No offense but I really didn’t want to feel you being with someone else. But I did feel you having a good time. Three times actually.”

Tracy blushed furiously. “Okay, that’s enough of that topic.”

He laughed.

“Are you all right?” she asked him softly, reaching up fingertips to feather through his ebony hair.

Exhaling, he nodded. “I am. I am because it’s the last thing to help us start our life together. You’re safe and I’m relieved.” He took her hand and they went into the living room.

“I spoke to my realtor, he’s one of the higher-ranking members of Pacific. I’ve got him scouting out homes for us with nice views of the city and close in—my needs—and big yards suitable for dogs—your need. He’s going to get us some listings together and we can start looking tomorrow. Is that all right?”

She warmed as her heart filled near to bursting with her love for him. “Thank you, Nick. I know you’ll love Milton. He couldn’t stay here though, he loves to run. So I’m going to ask Nina to babysit him until

we can get a bigger place. At some point I need to get back up to Seattle to figure out what to do with my house and my store.”

He looked at her, feeling the sadness at the mention of selling her business. “Baby, have you considered keeping it and hiring some other staff to run it for you?”

“I don’t know. I can trust Charity, she’s full-time anyway and I know she’d welcome the extra money.

And there are a few of my staff that I could hire on full-time. I’d have to run the numbers to see what my profit margin would be. But what would I do here?”