'Charlotte...'
His voice made my blood pressure soar and I gripped the seat, refusing to look. Could he hear the frantic rhythm in my chest? Did he know how my body responded to him? I caught his reflection in the window, his lips had parted, his eyes wolf.
He knew. Of course he did. He had the senses of an animal. Embarrassment flushed over me. He recognized how I felt all along, even from the first night in the woods. Every jump in my pulse, every time my breath caught, or my temperature rose, he sensed it. No wonder he was so smug. I couldn't hide anything from him.
'Hey.' His fingers brushed across my jaw line and tilted my chin up. Golden hues swallowed me. 'Let's go eat.' Dropping his touch with a wink, he grabbed the Chinese food, and slipped outside.
My entire body crumbled against the black leather seat. Slowly I let the air enter and exit my lungs. I needed to stay together.
When Liam had the food laid out on the grass, he waved me over.
'I hope you're hungry. I got a little of everything,' he said. Reaching his arm out, he pulled me down into his lap. My temperature climbed. I couldn't help but melt into his chest, hard with lean muscle. He felt warm and safe.
His fingers caressed the back of my hair and he sighed. 'Liam?' I asked.
'Mm,' he said. I felt his cheek on my head and then his fingers fell as his nose replaced them, brushing up through my hair. 'Charlotte,' he said with low groan.
I shivered, knowing the animal part of him. I could feel it, so close to the surface, and despite all logic, I found it exciting.
I wanted the wolf.
My back arched against him, and my fingers tangled in his messy strands. Lips brushed across my jaw line, and I reciprocated, tasting his salty skin.
'Charlotte,' he said, again. Taking my cheeks in his hand, he crushed his lips to mine.
Heat exploded up my backbone and down every limb of my body. I had never felt so alive. Everything started to tingle and then something inside me began to scratch and claw to surface. It scared me, yet I couldn't stop the sensation of this 'otherness' climbing the walls of my skin. The tips of my fingers itched and burned, and I grabbed onto Liam's back, digging them into his shirt.
His chest rumbled against mine and he pushed my lips apart. I felt a dropping sensation as something inside me began to pull away, allowing a part of me, hidden and subconscious, to emerge. Everything burned. I felt dizzy, and then a flush of light pressed through my line of vision.
The forest and picnic tables sprang to life. Each knot and vein of the trees stood out, defined, and vivid to the last detail. With almost microscopic precision I could discern the innate textures of a hummingbird as it flew overhead.
Trembling with this new awareness, I glanced down at Liam's shoulder as he continued to kiss my jaw. Quivering movements wrestled under his skin and then his ears shifted, rising further up his hairline. Adrenaline pulsing, I wanted more.
I gasped for air, meeting Liam's gaze, and then his body froze.
Panic from our first kiss hit me. He dropped his arms from my body and moved back. The hint of tears began to sting. I wouldn't cry.
'What?' I asked. What did I do? 'Liam?'
'Your eyes,' he whispered.
'What about them?' I rubbed them hard, blinking, in hopes any signs of my upset wouldn't show.
'Don't,' Liam said. Taking my wrists in his hands, he pulled them down from my face. He cocked his head to the side, staring. It made me nervous.
'Liam,' I said. 'Please stop looking at me like that.'
'It's true,' he whispered.
'What's true?'
'I mean, I knew it was true, but to see it.' He shook his head with a smile. 'I don't know how you did it, Charlotte. You're incredible.'
'How I did what?' I realized I grabbed a wad of grass in my hand and I let it go. 'You're not making any sense.'
'Shh,' he whispered, placing two fingers on my lips. My body relaxed, even the sharpened vision went normal. 'It's nothing,' Liam said with a smile. He dropped his hand, and replaced it with a kiss.
Chapter 14
'Did you get the album?' I asked.
I had just gotten home from school when Ty showed up at my door. In her enthusiasm, she almost knocked me down, pushing her way inside.
'Upstairs,' she said, pointing.
Her face, dark and serious, made me wonder exactly what she had seen in the photos. I had a bad feeling.
'What is it?' I asked.
Greeted by her extended finger, I resolved to head to my room. It couldn't be that terrible. Ty did have a tendency to over react.
As I reached for my door handle, I stopped short. The back of my neck crawled with tiny fingers of goose bumps, and I smelt pine. Not in the familiar way, but as something else.
'Charlotte, what's wrong?' Ty went to move ahead of me, and I put my hand out, blocking her.
'Wait,' I said, leaning my ear against the white paneling.
'What are you doing? What's going on?'
'Shh.' I said, but I couldn't hear anything on the other side. The crawling feeling still teased the surface of my skin, but I pushed the door open.
The gasp I heard came from Ty first. The covers had been ripped off my mattress and the dresser drawers had been pulled loose. Clothes and personal items covered the floor. My closet door hung half off its hinge. Boxes, old games, and books, spewed, half toppled from the shelves.
'Charlotte,' Ty said, pointing.
My gaze followed to an open window. A fresh streak of claw marks ran about a good half inch deep across the windowsill. I trembled.
'My room,' I said, barely able to breathe. Everything began to spin.
Ty's hand gently fell on my shoulder, but I flinched, and she withdrew. 'You don't think Liam did this?' she asked.
'No,' I said, my response immediate. 'He didn't do this.'
'What if he figured out that we were in his house and came looking for the album? It makes sense.'
'He didn't do this,' I said, my voice cracking. Tears threatened me. 'Liam would never do something like this.'
I moved past her, grabbing a wad of tussled clothes, and slammed them into an open drawer. I went for another wad and then kicked it shut. Ty stared at me like she had something to say. 'What?'
'Nothing.'
'Good.'
My actions embarrassed me and I turned away, one hand on the dresser. My lip trembled. I forced my breathing to slow. 'Why would somebody do this?'
'I don't know, Charlotte, but look at the window. It was a werewolf. It had to be. How many werewolves do we know?'
'I know. Trust me, I know,' I said. I slunk down to the floor and held my knees. 'All I know is it wasn't Liam. Even if he knew we took the album, he wouldn't do this. He'd talk to me. I just know it.'
Ty's didn't seem convinced and a bite of anger flushed through me. It hurt. Glancing at the windowsill, the
