If she left, how would he survive? Who would make him—happy?
He washed below his navel, the water lapping at his knuckles. “I’m happy you stayed.” If she looked below the water, she’d see how much.
She blinked and tore her gaze from him. A rosy blush spread over her face.
Had he gone too far? She reminded him of a doe on the edge of a cliff. If he startled her, she’d fall from his grasp.
“Would you like the soap?”
“I already washed.”
Fiddling with the small clump in his hands, he searched the shore for something to relieve the tension strangling the air. The wooden box caught his gaze. “I have a present for you.”
“You do?”
He strode from the pool and set the soap on the shelf, then returned with the box.
She pulled her long hair over her shoulders. As she stood it cascaded over her breasts, acting as cover.
His cock swelled. If she only knew the truth about how the long, brown strands only accentuated the lush curves and played havoc on a male’s imagination.
The pounding of Susan’s heart filled her ears as Sorin’s gaze traveled along her body. He was just here for a bath.
Just a bath.
Reading into things, like his roaming eyes, would only lead to more misunderstandings between them, but all her fantasies came true when he had walked into the cave and dropped his leather kilt.
To her horror, she’d acted like a fifteen-year-old virgin. Where was the do-over button?
She accepted the box and opened it. Her jaw unhinged. With a tender stroke, she grazed the surface of his gift. “It’s beautiful.”
“It belonged to my mother.”
She shot him a look. “I can’t accept this.” An intricately carved, ivory comb sat lovingly upon a scrap of silk. Flowers dotted the spine and a vine traveled over the surface in swirls. The deep cuts had browned with age. “It’s too valuable, Sorin.”
He smiled. The same earth-shattering smile he’d given her the night in the kitchen, when he’d kissed her. “It’s the most valuable thing I own. My father carved it from bone for her as a mating present. It’s the only good thing he ever did. She cherished it.” He took the comb and tossed the empty box onto the shore.
Large muscles slipped under his skin as he moved with an unnatural grace. He slid behind her, like a predator circling his prey.
Her breath caught in her throat as she struggled to follow Sorin’s movements. The current of the water brushed her over-sensitive skin. “The hot spring is a nice asset for your den.” She didn’t know what to do with her freaking hands. Normally she’d stick them in her pockets. “Must be great to soak in during the winter months.”
He ran the comb through her hair, sending a shiver along her neck, over her shoulders then down her arms. She wanted to spin around and press her body against his but for all she knew this was pack etiquette—a grooming exercise. “I’ve been meaning to ask about Apisi history.”
“Hmm…” He swept all her hair off her shoulders.
Swallowing her gasp, she resisted the urge to cover her exposed, hard nipples. Come on, she’d been naked in front of men. Not many, and none anywhere near as sexy as Sorin. As alpha, he must have bedded all the single females in his pack. Some of them were drop-dead gorgeous.
“You’re very tense. Do you want me to stop?”
“N-no.” She ran her tongue over her teeth, searching for a drop of moisture. “How many other packs are there?”
“In this forest? A total of six packs make our tribe.”
“And there are other tribes?”
“Yes, all of them are west of here.” The tips of his fingers brushed the skin along her spine.
She jumped as if branded. “Sorry.” Stepping closer to him, Susan silently encouraged him to continue. Damn, she sucked at flirting. Either she read too much into a man’s actions or not enough.
Taking a deep breath, she turned and faced him. “Do you have a girlfriend—uh—a mate?” Her heart pounded so hard it hurt. She gathered all her courage to meet his gaze and not duck under the water to cover her bare breasts.
“If I did, I’d be a poor mate by combing your hair.”
“I thought bathing together was normal.”
“Yes, but grooming is more…more intimate.” He gave her a shy smile, a blush blooming on his cheeks. “That means no, I’m not attached to anyone.” His gaze traveled lower along her exposed flesh with appreciation. “If anything, according to that mark on your wrist, I belong to you.”
Assaulted by a wave of dizziness, Susan drifted away from him. She’d been in the hot springs too long and needed to keep it together. He was telling her he wanted her, and she was going to pass out. “Good.” Their kiss really had meant something and wasn’t some spur of the moment excitement. Her stomach rolled with nausea. Throwing up would be bad. She exited the pool and dried off.
He followed. “Is it good?” The glow of the candlelight played over his wet, tanned skin. Not an ounce of fat showed on his masculine body.
“Yes.” Oh dear God, he’d been created for her. Right down to that delicious scar pulling on his bottom lip.
He placed the comb in her hand and folded her fingers over it.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Susan dressed in fresh, soft doeskin underwear and a dress with blue beading down the front. It clung to her hips as if made for her. She ran her hands over the fabric, enjoying the smooth feel under her palms. Slipping the comb in the front pocket, she glanced at Sorin.
He tugged an off-white, rough wool shirt over his head and flipped his wet hair back. “I’ll have to mark you again. The bath washed the other away.”
Strange how she couldn’t perceive the scents as shifters did—almost like being blind.
He rubbed her wrist slowly where his jaw met his ear. An oily substance clung to her skin.
Taking a shaky breath, she tried not to lose herself to his touch. “As I searched for the spring, I found a room not far from here with a map on the wall. Could you show me where we are located on it?”
“My grandfather collected maps. I know which one you’re speaking of.” He didn’t release her hand. “Let’s go look at it.” Sorin led her to the room. Shelves filled with rolled-up parchment lined the walls.
She itched to unroll them and pore over their contents. A large map encased in a wooden frame covered a good portion of the far wall. Painted in faded colors, it resembled North America.
The sight made her ache inside. She wanted to lean on Sorin, to have him wrap his arms around her and tell her everything would be all right.
“We’re here.” He pointed along the northeast coast of the continent.
“I’ve traveled across dimensions yet I’m still in the same area as my laboratory.” She shook her head. “It’s hard to believe.” Touching the map made it seem more real. “We’re in New York. Where did all these freaking trees come from?”
“There’s no forest where you’re from?” He rubbed his neck.
Talking about dimensions bothered him. She didn’t need a shifter’s nose to sense this. “I worked outside the city in what we call upstate New York. There’s forest but not this kind of dense, primeval, untouched beauty. It’s a garden compared to this.”
“The vampires have a city by the ocean. They call it Paoro.”
Her heart skipped a beat. That didn’t even ring a bell. “What is the name of where we are?”
He grunted. “Home. We don’t name the land. Ours are marked by scent.”
“Of course.” She should have realized this after accidentally crossing the Payami scent borders. “What are those colored areas?”
“Different tribe territories before the vampires invaded. Things have changed since then.” A muscle in his jaw twitched.
Something sounded familiar, just out of her reach. The information danced around, taunting her. “The vampires aren’t from here, from these lands?” She pointed at the map. “They’re fr
om across the ocean. They arrived in large ships two hundred years ago and have slowly been moving west. No way!” She clapped her hands against her chest and realized in her excitement she’d been speaking her thoughts out loud.
He quirked an eyebrow.
“They’re settlers, people from Europe trying to colonize here. This happened in my dimension too. Did I really go back in time as well?” She paced the room. Finally, some useful information to piece together the puzzle of where all the humans had gone.
“I don’t know, but—”
“They’ve built cities along the coast just like in my world.” She spun and faced him. “But what does that make your people?”
“Shifters.”
“No, no, there are no shifters in my world. It’s on the tip of my brain.” She tapped her forehead with her knuckles. Come on, the answer teased and cramped her thoughts. Europeans sailed across the Atlantic to settle North America. She came to a dead stop. “You mentioned tribes. That your packs made a tribe.” Rushing toward him, she couldn’t contain her bubbling excitement. She jumped up and down. “You’re Native Americans.”
He chuckled, the first laugh she’d heard from him. “What are you going on about? I feel like I’m hearing half a conversation.”
“I’m comparing our dimensions. There are similarities, yet our worlds are vastly different.” She continued her pacing as if chasing the answer. “Native Americans lived here before the settlers arrived, just like shifters were here before the vampires came. The settlers carried disease that decimated the natives.”
“You’re speaking as if this already happened.”
She pressed her hand against her big fat mouth. So absorbed in her theories, Susan hadn’t noticed Sorin withdrawing from her.
“What else did your settlers do to the tribes?” The question cut her with its razor sharp edge.
“I—I…you have to understand this is part of my history, not yours.” She knotted her hands, not sure what to do with them.
“Your history appears to be my present.”
“Time travel is not possible.”
“And crossing dimensions is?”
“I’m not going to start explaining the math, Sorin. Just trust me when I say my machine could only build a bridge at a fixed point in time from one dimension to another. We’re in the same year. Something drastic altered our timelines that either advanced our technology or kept yours back. What happened on my world centuries ago should not repeat itself here.”
“But it is.” He stalked toward her, his massive shoulders rolling with each step.
Backpedaling, she hit the stone wall. She’d missed the growing worry on his face during her eureka moment.
“This isn’t the first illness to hit my people. The vampires brought disease with them in the form of other shifters from different lands. What else happened?” For a moment, Sorin’s feral side surfaced through his civil eyes.
She took a shaky breath. “They took over the continent.” Her voice broke.
Sorin rested his hands against the wall on each side of her head. “How?”
“War. The colonists had more advanced weapons and tools. Their numbers grew with each ship off-loading more settlers.”
Sighing, he rested his forehead against hers. The metal in his spine bent. “This has already happened during my grandfather’s time. The vampires decimated our numbers with guns and cannons. This map is the last of its kind and outlines old tribe lands.” He stroked her hair. “But the vampires and their tame shifters do not outnumber us yet. Not many ships arrive in port anymore.”
“See, that’s a big difference, right there.” She cupped his cheek in her hand. “Please, you have so much to worry about already. Don’t add to it.”
“What became of your natives?
“They still exist.” Tears welled in her eyes at his palpable sorrow. She slid her hands over his chest as if to heal his bleeding heart. She couldn’t change history.
“Our tribes have shrunk, and we have been isolated from each other. Outside our territories, the vampires rule. Their laws, their ways and their colonies.”
“Yet you all survive.” She hugged him close, running her fingers through his hair. The strands were so long and still damp from their bath.
So wild and free. She could imagine Sorin hunting in the mountains, running through the tall grasses of the glades and stalking in the forests. She couldn’t do any of these things. If she lived here, would she be content to stay within the den waiting for him to come home?
Tilting her head back, she was trapped by his sorrowful gaze. No male had ever affected her like Sorin. He made her want to sacrifice everything to be with him, made her want to cast aside common sense and lie beneath him, moaning in ecstasy.
His gaze grew more heated, sinful. “You want me.” It wasn’t a question. “I can smell it.” He bent and captured her mouth. Rough and wanton, he claimed her with a kiss. His tongue pushed pass her lips, pumping into her mouth with abandon.
Knees going weak, she collapsed against his hard body with a moan.
His hands smoothed up her legs, drawing her dress with them until he cupped her ass. Lifting her against the wall, he pressed between her thighs, raking the hard bulge of his cock along her underwear.
“You make me crazy,” he murmured against her lips. As he trailed kisses along her neck, his teeth raked her skin.
She arched for him and shivered in pleasure. “I need you.”
A growl rumbled in his chest. His strong hands gripped her hips, and he ground his cock against the juncture of her thighs.
She panted as he rocked. The waves of pleasure crashed over her, growing stronger and stronger. Her attraction to Sorin was so much more than physical.
He groaned. “Not yet.” He grasped her jaw between his fingers and stole another scouring kiss. “I don’t want you this way, in here.” Setting her to the ground, he let her dress fall back over her legs. “To my room.” He patted her ass and pushed her toward the doorway.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Okay.”
Heck, Sorin could have suggested the kitchen and Susan would have agreed. She restrained her desire and led the way back to the main corridor.
He hesitated by the sick, who lined the wall on chairs, taking some fresh air. “Let me settle those who wish to return to bed, and I’ll meet you in my room.”
The brush of his fingertips over her cheek scorched her skin. Unable to resist anymore, she took his hands in hers. His calloused skin was a symbol of all his hard work and dedication to his pack. Confident, caring and intelligent all described him. She could wrap those traits around her like a thick blanket. “Where exactly is your room?”
He pointed toward the main entrance. “There will be a set of stairs on your right by the gate. The door at the top leads into my rooms.”
Before parting, he scooped her into his arms, pressing their mouths together. Nothing to melt her underwear off but not chaste either—a soft press of exploring lips with no tongue. When he straightened, he glared at his pack as if daring them to say something.
She could have heard a flea squeak in the silence that fell over the den.
Sorin gave her a gentle push toward the gate. “Go rest. You’ll need it.” Then he winked.
Butterflies took wing in her stomach, and a grin spread across her face. This playful part of Sorin hadn’t surfaced before today. She liked it.
A few females exchanged knowing glances. Even though Sorin spoke softly, they must have heard him. Heat rushed over her cheeks and burned her ears.
Susan hurried her step to place some distance between her and the unwanted attention.
“Who’s tired?” she heard Sorin ask in a too-loud voice.
Was it taboo for their alpha to show interest in a non-shifter? She’d never considered asking. Why would she? She’d thought Sorin was way out of her league. Just as she was starting to feel comfortable something new cropped up to unsettle her ease.
She r
etreated from the hustle of the pack by the sick room and headed toward the wooden gate. It loomed over her head as she drew closer.
“Susan?”
She twisted and faced Lailanie, who sat on the step leading to Sorin’s apartment. The female patted the stone seat next to her. An inviting smile graced her beautiful face.
Susan eyed the spot and hesitated. Lailanie appeared slight, but she could shift into feral form and tear Susan’s throat without breaking a sweat. Kele had told her not to show fear—it was her worst enemy. Smoothing her dress behind her knees, Susan sat down.
“Sorin seems quite taken by you.”
Susan’s stomach took a nosedive. Lailanie wanted to be the pack’s female alpha. From what Susan had witnessed over the past few days, she’d be a really good one. “I’m just a fascination for him. It should pass in a few days.” Those words stung but she believed them.
“You think our alpha is frivolous with his affection?” Lailanie refused to meet her gaze. She stirred the sand between her feet with a stick, her shoulders bent with exhaustion.
“No, but I assume…” Susan cleared her throat. “We barely know each other.”
“I know him very well. He hasn’t had a lover since he took leadership from his father. He hasn’t even kissed a female publicly until today.” The shifter stabbed the ground with a sharp jab.
Susan jumped. “Oh.” She wanted Sorin’s kiss to mean more than physical attraction but didn’t want it to turn into a death sentence either. Shifter culture differed so much from human. Sorin’s mark protected her from challenges. Eventually, she’d have to stop hiding behind it and fight for what she wanted.
“He watches you when you’re not looking.” Lailanie finally met her gaze. “I smell his desire for you. This isn’t curiosity. He’ll fall in love with you if he hasn’t already.”
Torn between wanting to high five someone and jumping into a suit of armor to deflect any wayward claws, Susan settled for rubbing her sweaty palms on her dress. “Is that so bad?”
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