“Of course not, sweetheart.” He ran his fingers through her hair. The nurses had washed it with something abrasive and horrible at the hospital to get the chemical residues out and he missed her usual sunshine scent. He’d have to get her toiletries before bedtime. “I’m here for the night. I set the timer on the game and the kids will head to bed after. They know you need me right now.”
“I don’t need—” She stopped abruptly. “I do kind of need you right now. You know how you said werewolves like to be petted? I understand why now.”
He smiled, realizing he had been petting her. “I’m glad you like it. It is a werewolf thing and I don’t think I’d be able to stop even if you asked.”
“Then I won’t ask. Will you lay down with me for a while? I know you can’t be tired, but I’m exhausted.”
Since she’d nearly died, he figured she had every right to be sleepy and even though he only needed a few hours of sleep in a night, he wasn’t going to pass up lying beside her. He moved under his blanket, tucking her in as tight to his chest as he could while still allowing her room to breathe. When she sighed happily, he knew he’d found the right spot because his wolf made the same sound.
She felt like heaven in his arms. It was a perfect moment despite the proceeding ugliness. He nuzzled her hair, smelling the true Lucy beneath the chemicals and soaps.
“This is nice.” The arm she had settled on his waist tightened. “I’m not sure how I’m going to get the will to get out of this bed with you in it.”
“I feel the same way,” he admitted, any thought of getting out of bed or leaving her warm body the worst he could imagine. “Go ahead and sleep, honey. I know you’re tired. I’ll stay and hold you.”
She sighed. “If anyone can keep the nightmares away, it’s a big, not-so-bad wolf. Thanks for bringing me here and caring so much, Scott.”
He kissed her hair again, unable to stop himself or even be remotely detached. Once wolves found their mates, things changed inside them. When they fell in love with those mates, like he already had with Lucy, their worlds were completely different. Everything about her mattered to him. He’d learn to knit and learn to enjoy and appreciate it because she liked it. He’d eat her attempts at meals without complaint and keep on cooking duties with pleasure because it made her happy.
Unlike with Tiffany, though, he didn’t feel bitter because of the change. The relationship with his first mate had often felt one-sided. He’d dealt with it and would have been moderately happy had she not turned violent. With Lucy, though, ‘moderate’ would never describe his happiness. He knew she would shine all of his love right back to him and make the same shifts in her life to make him happy. Mates in love couldn’t do anything less.
“You are always, always welcome here, Lucy. If I had my way, you’d never be farther away from me than my arms could reach.”
“That’s so intense,” she muttered, snuggling her nose to his chest. “I really like it.”
Chapter 11
Scott woke up being kissed. Soft lips glided up his neck to his jaw in innocent bites of affection. Lucy had fantastic lips, ones he’d dreamed about kissing many times since they’d met, but he hadn’t indulged. He’d been sure the time would come and he’d never been happier to be right. She hadn’t even neared his lips, yet each press felt nicer than the last. If not for the three pups laying at their feet—probably escaping Lucy’s notice—his whole body would be aflame. As it was, he held very tight to his control to stay appropriate.
Her little kiss changed to a tiny lick and he was ready to boot the kids out of the room.
“You taste good.”
“Oh damn,” he muttered, finally pulling her face to face. The teasing was fine, it was wonderful and welcome, but if they were going to have to stop soon—and they would—he was going to satisfy at least a piece of his desires.
She shouldn’t taste so good, he thought as his tongue plunged into her mouth. After a full night sleeping, she shouldn’t taste like fresh sunshine and flowers, but she did. Every kiss and lick, every innocent touch to his waist by her hands cemented what he knew. She was his mate and they were going to spend the rest of their lives making each other very, very happy.
“Mmm, Scott,” she murmered against his lips and then froze.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, kissing the edges of her lips.
“Are the kids in bed?” she asked in the barest of whispers.
He smiled, the horror and embarrassment in her voice absolutely adorable. “They started trickling in about three AM.”
She pushed him away, but he only let her go about an inch. “You shouldn’t have been letting me kiss you,” she hissed.
“It’s sweet.”
Scott jumped at Jessie’s observation and, though he’d assumed they were all sleeping, when he looked down, he realized he was very wrong. Three little faces propped up on their fists gazed at them with happy, sleepy expressions.
“Hey, guys.”
“Hi, Daddy.”
“Um.” Lucy, completely dressed, pulled the blanket higher, covering herself to the neck. “Did you guys need something?”
“Nope,” Greg said. “We came to check on you and then got sleepy. Daddy doesn’t mind if we crash at the foot of the bed sometimes.”
“Yeah,” Jessie said. “Then you kissed Daddy and it was really nice. He needs kisses.”
Daddy needed to get a lock for his door, Scott thought, but smiled at his pups anyway.
“We can make breakfast,” Ross offered. “Do you like cereal, Lucy? Or do you need water or something?”
Pride filled Scott. Werewolf males weren’t always known for being nurturers, but his boys already showed a level of compassion it had taken years of trial and error for him to find.
“A glass of water sounds really good, Ross. Thanks.”
Both boys jumped to their feet and scrambled out of the room, shoving over who was going to actually bring Lucy the water. Jessie left them to their silliness and crawled up between him and Lucy. She’d never done that with her mother because the shewolf had forbidden it. Lucy just readjusted.
“I like you here, Lucy. I wish you hadn’t gotten hurt. You can stay even when you feel better. Daddy won’t mind.”
Lucy laughed, real humor and not the awkward kind that could have presented at being called out by a small child about being in bed with their father.
“Isn’t that a wonderful invitation,” she said. “But you know how it is with grownups, Jessie, it takes a lot of time to make big family decisions. We’re definitely good friends, like I’m friends with you and your brothers too.”
Jessie frowned and Scott felt a moment of panic. Whatever his daughter was about to say might not be what Lucy needed to hear at the moment.
“Jessie—”
“You’re Daddy’s mate,” Jessie said, ignoring him. “You two smell like mates and he smells like you more all the time and you smell like him too.”
Jessie took a big breath near Lucy’s neck, the same place where he’d spent the night nuzzling, indeed transferring his scent to her and taking hers on himself as well. It was the natural next step in the courting process between werewolves, but he’d left out a few details when he’d explained about mating. He wasn’t sure how she’d react when she realized he’d been branding her against other werewolves and in turn doing the same to himself to ward off interested females.
“Oh.” Over Jessie’s head, she looked at him with wide eyes. “Is that so? Well, I suppose it’s because we’ve spent so much time together lately. Things like mating and marriage and love take time and respect, not just smells.”
“That’s not what my grandma said. She said—”
“Jessie, go help your brothers with the cereal.”
“But—”
“Baby, please go help your brothers. Lucy and I are going to get dressed and we’ll be out in a few minutes.”
Jessie nodded and scrambled out of the room, even closing the door behind her. Scott got up and dug in his dresser for a pair of sweats for Lucy to wear. He wanted her comfortable. Maybe she’d want a shower and—
“So, I think we need to talk about mates again because it sounds like I’m missing a few details.”
Why the hell had he thought he could avoid the question? He pulled out sweatpants and a sweatshirt. The morning was cool and he hoped by the time it warmed up, they could run to her house and get her some fresh clothes. He turned to her and found her waiting.
“Mates, right. What Jessie was saying is only one piece. The other things I said are true. It is a voluntary commitment. It’s similar to marriage, but better because where marriage can be looked at as legal by some people, or even religious by some, to us, mating changes us down to our blood. At least it does if the mating is right.”
“Right, and the smell thing?” She sat up and finger-combed her hair.
“The smell thing is how we recognize our mates. It’s not a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. We can run into multiple females who smell ‘right’, I guess you could say. Other things, like compatibility, aren’t ignored because they smell good.”
“What do I smell like?”
He hadn’t expected her question, but it was better than what she could have asked. He grinned and walked closer, taking a long, slow sniff of her neck. She giggled and swatted at him, The giggles broke the tension and he finished abolishing the stiffness with a long lick to her cheek.
“You, my dear human, smell like sunshine and fresh cotton. And sweet, I can’t get over how completely delicious you smell. Even when you’re mad or upset, it’s like you’re coated in patience and sugar—those things aren’t the norm for werewolves. Hell, it’s not very often you find that kind of combination in any species, but you’ve got it.”
“And now you smell like that too?” she asked.
“Well, maybe a little,” he admitted. “You’re right about the time part of it. The more time we spend together, logically, the more our scents will mingle. With mated couples it’s different. The scent goes deeper, it intermingles and eventually becomes one until you can recognize a mated couple even though they are thousands of miles away from each other, just by their shared scent.”
She looked thoughtful a moment and he was relieved the revelation hadn’t angered her. He didn’t want her stressing about the mating stuff. Her being in the dark about the whole thing was probably best. Without other werewolves around, it wasn’t like the fact smacked her in the face everyday anyway.
“So are we mated, Scott? Did you do something I didn’t know about to make us mated?”
Shit. There was no answering without either telling a truth she might not be ready for or without bald-faced lying. Not that he had anything against lying when it fit the situation, but lying to Lucy screamed ‘horrible idea’ on all fronts.
“Well—”
She pushed to her feet, too short to be face-to-face with him, but she certainly was in his space. “Oh my gosh. You tell me right now we’re not mated or whatever you silly werewolves do.”
“Well—”
“Don’t you dare ‘well’ me again. Give me an answer, Scott.”
She was so hot when she was ticked off. “All right. I’ll explain. If another werewolf came to town and passed by you, he might assume you were mated. You do have the scent of a werewolf mate. Just like if a female came to town and got near me, she might assume I was mated by my scent.”
“Assume?” she asked, eyes narrow.
“Right. Like if you wore a ring on your left hand, people would assume you were married, but that doesn’t necessarily make it true.” He tucked a piece of her hair away from her face, careful to keep his hand gentle because he could smell the edge of pain she still carried.
“Honestly, Lucy? If I had my way, you would already be my mate. Werewolves know when things are right. With Tiffany, things were right for many years, but we changed when she started having mental problems. Those are so rare in werewolves that none of us realized what was wrong until it was too late. The two of us dated a week before deciding to formalize our mating. I know you’re human and you’ve got different expectations and experiences. I’m very willing to take my time. But, if you decided to be my mate right this minute, we’d be really happy together.”
“You just know?” she asked, her eyes once again narrow in suspicion, but his answer was as easy as pie.
“I just know.”
“It wouldn’t matter that I spend a huge chunk of my time working and can’t cook to save my life? Or that I haven’t had sex in over four years and haven’t put any thought into having a relationship in those years?”