Mira swallowed down bile. She was going to be sick…again.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Aron asked.
She plastered the practiced grin she’d used for years on her face. “I’m fine. It’s all the different smells in here. I’m still not used to being around people and their perfumes.”
“It can be disconcerting.” He focused his brown-contact-covered eyes on her. “But you’ve seemed a little off ever since I picked you up.”
He’d completely caught her off guard. Why didn’t men—shifters and humans alike—do what they were told? They only ever half-listened, filling in the parts they ignored with their wants.
“You just surprised me. I didn’t expect you to walk into my house.” While she was naked. “I told you I’d meet you here.”
He grinned. “Now that wouldn’t be very respectful. If we’re courting, we’re going to do it properly. That includes picking you up.” He leaned across the table and trailed his fingertips over her knuckles. Her belly heaved. “Will I get a good-night kiss when I take you home?”
No. “Maybe. I’m not the same woman I was. Nor are we promised mates. I don’t owe you anything.”
Aron studied her intently, eyelids lowered so he looked at her through his lashes. “No, you’re not. You’re stronger. Bolder. You’re unlike any female I’ve ever known.”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” She asked because she hadn’t expected Aron to appreciate such traits. When she’d been younger, he’d told her not to bother training with her brothers, that it wasn’t proper for a female—shifter or human—to act aggressively. Women were to be protected and cherished, not to be able to rip a male apart in seconds.
Aron turned her hand over. Sheer will kept it limp.
“It is.” He inclined his head. “I’m not the same male I was either, nor can I wait for the day you look at me the same way you ogle the human.”
“Josh,” she snapped.
Aron rubbed circles into her palm with his thumb. “Josh wants you, but I have you tonight.” He slipped out of his side of the booth still holding on to her hand and urged her to stand. Reluctantly, she did. He tugged her body against his. With his head bent close to hers, his warm breath tickled her ear. “And when I’m done with you, you’ll want me, not Josh.”
Her life would be so much easier if she did. Josh would be safe with her out of the picture.
Aron led her to the dance floor. Being with him was necessary. She’d known what she was setting herself up for when she’d called him. With Aron’s scent in her lungs, she regretted her choice. Being close to him literally heaved her gut. It also didn’t help that her cats eyed him as a threat. Even reminding them Aron had been the one chosen for her didn’t help.
Her cats had made their choice and no amount of rationalization mattered. In the end, they were animals. Prophecies and visions meant nothing to them. They’d set their sights on the male they wanted her to be with. In their primal minds, it was a done deal, and she was just being stubborn.
Aron pulled her closer. Neither of them danced, despite the grinding music playing in the background.
“You have matured into a beautiful woman, Mira.” He licked the rim of her ear, and she bit the inside of her cheek. “And you stir me as no other female has before. Your body, your scent, your voice…you lure me, tempt me to carry you back to my bed.”
A roughened tongue traced a path down the column of her neck. Her breathing quickened, but fear drove it, not passion. The appearance of his primal side didn’t bode well for her. It meant she’d caught the interest of his animals too. Not good. She’d never brought forth a shifter’s animals before, not once in her three hundred years of life. If Aron’s cats set their sight on her, she’d never get free. Aron would claim her body, spilling his seed inside her and marking her womb as his.
He’d mate her.
Mira scolded herself. That was exactly what she wanted. A shifter mate. The quicker she picked one, the better. She had to protect Josh. The thought of hurting him sickened her. She couldn’t. She’d do anything for him, even spend eternity with a male she didn’t want.
She swallowed hard and bent her head to give Aron better access. He took advantage of her offering. His tongue laved her, a rough lick. Rougher than before. She shivered, but not in desire. It tickled. Aron groaned and nipped at her flesh, obviously interpreting her response as approval.
With a hard tug of her shirt’s neckline, he exposed the old scar on her shoulder. She didn’t like to think of it as a mate bite, more of a disfigurement. If her attack had happened after she’d matured, she wouldn’t have to look at the constant reminder of her rape, but it hadn’t. Edmund’s bite had been too deep for the natural ointments her mother had used to heal it.
Aron flicked his tongue over the scar. She held still while he toyed with the entry points, nibbling and licking the raised brands. She felt nothing, not surprising really. The bite was meant for a mate’s pleasure, and Aron wasn’t hers.
“When I rebite you, it’ll feel good,” Aron said as if he’d heard her thoughts.
“If you rebite me.”
After another nip, she squeezed her eyelids shut. It was either do that or wrap her arms around her heaving gut.
“When, baby. Not if.”
“Oohh, another pretty kitty.”
Aron jerked back at Zoe’s comment and spun to face her. She grinned and openly perused him, letting her gaze linger on his wide chest and narrow hips. Her smile widened.
“How did you sneak up on me?” Aron asked.
“Just a gift I have.” Zoe shrugged.
Mira had noticed the human’s approach, though. That Aron hadn’t meant he’d been too focused on her. She inwardly groaned. Not good, not good at all.
Zoe stepped between them so they were face-to-face, Aron at her back. She winked at Mira before scowling, the fake frown ruined by the mischievous glint in her eyes. “I hope you don’t plan on monopolizing this fine specimen of a man all night. I want a little of him for myself.”
Zoe was offering her a reprieve. Mira shouldn’t take it. She had to get used to another male’s touch, but she needed some fresh air to settle her belly. Just a couple of minutes.
“I did come here with Aron. I shouldn’t abandon him.” She raised her brow, hoping Zoe would take the hint and push a little more. Mira couldn’t appear too eager to get away from her date.
Zoe leaned against Aron’s chest. “Five minutes. Please?” She lowered her voice. “Consider it an ‘I’m sorry for going furry on you’ gift.”
“I truly am sorry.”
“I know.” Zoe offered a small smile, a real one that warmed Mira’s heart. Waving her off, Zoe turned slightly, wrapping her arms around Aron, to cuddle against his chest. “Now get out of here for a while. This one’s mine until you get back.”
Mira rubbed at her nose to hide her smile. She liked Zoe. The same instant kinship she’d felt with both Jazz and Lena stirred to life. If anything, moving to West Virginia had given her the one thing she’d never had before, female friends.
Zoe grabbed Aron’s shoulders, the height difference between them forcing her to lean back. “What’s your name?”
He smiled. “I’m your owner’s older cousin, Aron.”
“You got that backward. He’s my kitty.” Her eyes widened. “I should get tags for him so I don’t lose him.”
Mira slipped away. She was delaying the inevitable. A shifter held the role of her future mate, not Josh. Her cats growled their displeasure. They shoved the image of her, heavy with child, and Josh rubbing her belly with love in his eyes to the forefront of her mind.
She stopped, completely caught off guard by the picture they’d conjured. Her animals were delusional. They had to be. There was no way the image they showed her could come to be. Their species’ difference prevented conception.
Desperation must have spurred her cats to concoct the image. Nothing more.
She swiped a mental hand over the picture, scattering it. Her cats’ annoyed snarls reverberated in her head. She tuned them out and hurried to the door.