Ash stood back and studied the metal door of Rosemary’s flat. It was locked up tight, but he needed to make sure she was okay. Most of all, he needed to set eyes on her and to answer questions. Listen to her if she felt uneasy about moving forward with their relationship after watching him nearly kill a man.
There was no chance of breaking down the door, but he was able to pull the pins out of the hinges. He mentally added that to the list of reasons why this place was not safe for her.
Once inside, he found her in the shower, steam making it difficult to see. She screamed and blurted out a string of curses when he announced himself in the bathroom.
He put up his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Have you never seen Psycho? You don’t do that to a person!” she shouted. Rosemary turned off the water and reached her hand out of the shower door; Ash obligingly handed her a towel.
“I wanted to make sure you were okay, but you weren’t answering your texts and you didn’t answer the door,” he said, politely averting his eyes while she dried off.
“Well, Ash, I was fucking traumatized after what happened. Not to mention sweaty from following you around all night. I needed a long-ass shower. How did you even get in here?” She opened the shower door again to hang the towel; Ash took it and handed her a fuzzy robe that hung on the hook nearby. She slipped into it and stepped out while she tied the belt.
“Loose hinges,” he said.
She cocked her head to study him. “I hope you don’t think I find that sexy?”
“I didn’t think you would. But when I need to make sure my girl is okay, there’s nothing that can stop me. Not even a shitty door.”
Rosemary shook her head, padded past him, and made her way over to the bed to sit down and pull on her socks. “Well, as you can see, I’m fine. Narrowly escaped a wolf attack, but fine.”
Ash winced. “You’re angry with me.”
“I’m not angry,” she said. “I’m tired. Confused. A little scared. Severely lacking in information. Feeling like we’re way past due to talk about how this whole whirlwind romance is going to work out in the end.”
“I’m here now. Let’s talk.”
She laughed and tucked herself under her blanket. “Stay if you want to. But any touching is going to be non-goal-oriented touching, and it’s gonna be a lying-down kind of talk.”
Ash ditched his shoes and stripped down to his undershirt and boxers. “This okay?”
Rosemary grinned rolled over to face the wall. “Spoon away.”
Ash slid up behind her in the bed, and feeling her warmth against his chest lit up his heart beyond words. He exhaled heavily and kissed her shoulder.
“Remember what I said,” she warned with a grin in her voice.
“I do. I’m just happy to be here with you, to answer any questions, reassure you if you have any reservations about marrying a wolf.”
Rosemary snuggled back into her lover and sighed, “A sentence I never thought I’d have to ask myself.”
Ash chuckled softly and squeezed her closer, eliciting a sleepy, satisfied noise from her. “Why have we never done this before? We’re really good at the snuggling part,” Rosemary said.
“Because we’ve been preoccupied with ravishing each other in stolen moments between weeks of wedding planning?”
“Yeah,” she answered. “And we haven’t taken the time to talk about what marriage would look like.”
“The way I see it, we’d only have to separate two nights a month. Me on the full moon, and you on the new moon,” he said.
She took a while to respond. Ash thought she might have fallen asleep, but she finally said, “As I understand it, you can wolf out at any second, but you say you have it under control. And you said you generally don’t remember what happens during your wolfy time. But I know you remember tonight. What happens when you get angry and wolf out at someone, say, bullying our children? Harassing me at the grocery store over nothing? I can’t have you ripping people’s throats out, Ash.”
“That guy was a grade-A psychopath. I could … jeezus, Rosemary, I tasted it in his goddamn blood,” he said, already feeling his blood pressure rise at the memory of his female being threatened.
“Ash,” she said. That was all that she said, but there was something in it. He’d spent his whole life learning how to control the beast, but she had his blood calming with a single word. She helped him get out of his head. If nothing else conveyed how he had truly found his fated mate, it was this. He let the realization of this wash over him, satiate him, and reassure him.
“You’re right,” he said, stroking her hair.
“The thing about us cats is we can shift when we want to, but we rarely let it get out of control. The only time things are out of our control is on the new moon, and we have our ritual so down pat, we’re never a danger to humans. We leave the city, we go to the wild places, we hunt live animals.”
Ash shifted in the bed so he lay on his back and stretched out. Staring into the black, he said, “Just like in real life. Your family is so much more used to this. Old money. New money. Old shifters. Newish shifters. I guess we have a lot to learn.”
Rosemary pivoted to face him, nestled against his chest, her eyes catching the lights outside so they almost glowed in the dark. “This is the last time I’m going to say this. Maybe our families can learn from each other. Nobody is better than anybody else might be the first lesson. Whether or not I’m marrying you is not a question. I only need to know that you’ll be able to control yourself when you’re angry or feeling protective. You
