“How? I mean, we’re not bonded so how is that possible?”
“Are you part of a pride already?” I shake my head. I left the only family I knew as soon as I finished college and have been living on my own for years, keeping to myself as much as possible. “Then it’s probably because I’m an alpha and your mate. No clue, but I needed you to shift so I could make sure you weren’t hurt.”
My hand lifts to my face and I feel the slight ridge of a scar that goes from my forehead down along to my cheek. “I couldn’t shift to heal,” I say. I notice a few other marks on my arms and cringe; he’s definitely getting the worst part of this deal.
“You’re beautiful, Jayda,” he repeats. “You’ll always be beautiful to me. Now, c’mon, let me help you up so you can shower. I’m going to change the bed, then grab you some food. I know you’ve got to be starving, but the club doc said you had to start out slow.” As long as ‘slow’ doesn’t mean liquid diet, I’ll be fine. He helps me stand and I find myself wanting to turn into his body and hold on tight.
Soon. Let’s get ourselves clean first, my leopard says.
You’re a hussy, you know that, right?
Only for him, she retorts. I roll my eyes at her antics as she’s preening inside me, flicking her tail and purring.
He leads me to a door on the other side of his room and I see a huge bathroom inside. Walking in, I notice the clothes he mentioned, as well as some female things on the counter and a low growl escapes before I can stop myself. “Gray’s old lady brought that up for you,” he says in response to my non-verbalized question. “She figured you’d prefer a ‘feminine scent’ to my ‘manly woodsy body wash’ or some shit like that.” The way he changes his voice to mimic the woman he’s talking about has me giggling and causes him to pull me into him and cup my face in his hand. “I like that sound coming from your lips,” he whispers before gently kissing my lips. Just a light touch, nothing more, and yet the fire that’s now singing in my body has me nearly light-headed. “Go shower, Jayda, we’ve got the rest of our lives to get to know one another.”
I nod and step over to the biggest shower I’ve ever seen. There are multiple shower heads and I glance at him in confusion. “Why so many?” I finally ask.
“Sometimes, my leopard wants to lie around like he’s in a rainforest,” he admits as a blush covers his handsome face. “We’ve got a beach that’s not far from here, but it’s not always convenient to ride there in the middle of the night when that feeling hits.”
“Gotcha.” I definitely understand, because my leopard enjoys playing in water as well. “So there’s a beach nearby?” I question, turning the water on so it heats.
“Yeah, we, the club that is, go out there and cook out and shift. It’s relatively secluded so we don’t have to worry about humans seeing us, you know?” He reaches under the sink and I see him pull out a new toothbrush, still in the plastic, and put it on the counter. He then fiddles with the towel rack and when I raise my eyebrow, merely says, “It’s a heated rack.” I watch as he places a huge, fluffy towel on it and internally groan, already imagining how it’s going to feel on my body. Seeing that he’s done all that he can short of stripping me and putting me in the shower, he walks toward the door. “Take your time, Jayda. If there’s anything you need that I didn’t think of, feel free to look in the cabinet. What’s mine is yours.”
403
Knox
Leaving Jayda in the bathroom is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. All I want to do is be by her side and if that means standing in the shower and washing her, well, I’m definitely game. My cock twitches in my jeans and I smirk. I’ve been at half-mast since I found her and now that she’s awake, I think my perpetual state of rock hard is going to cause me to burst through the denim currently keeping him trapped. As I strip the bed and remake it with fresh sheets, I’m glad that no other female has ever slept here. Not that I’m an innocent; no, I lost that title many years ago. I just typically go to their place instead, choosing to keep my room for my mate. Stupid, I know, especially since I had no clue that I had a mate until a few weeks ago. Once the bed is done, I call out, “I’m going to fix you some food,” before leaving the room, locking the door behind me. No one would dare enter my quarters without my permission, but she doesn’t know that and I won’t have her scared by my brothers unintentionally.
She’s luscious, my leopard states as we walk into the kitchen.
Yes, she is, I reply. She’s not very tall, but she’s lithe and lean, with curves that had me clenching my hands to keep from mauling her while she was asleep. Seeing her unconscious on the table pulled my protective nature to the forefront. I know that leopards generally have similar coloring, but hers is unlike any I’ve ever seen. She has the spots that we’re known for, but they’re muted, nearly invisible, so all you see at first glance is her bright white fur. I wonder what coloring our cubs will have and have to shake my head, since we’re a long way from even thinking about cubs. Once again, my cock is hard at the thought and I reach down and squeeze myself, trying to calm down. “Someone’s horny,” Thian states
