Chapter 14 - Malachi

Blood started to well up from the wound she stitched together. She hopped off the counter and limped down the hall. Once I was cleaned up and back into my pants, I followed.

         She stood next to the sink naked, she took off the remnants of her sweatpants, and tried to get the bleeding to stop. Her back wound also had a trickle of blood, but not as bad as her leg.

         I closed the toilet seat. “Sit,” I commanded.

         “I got it.”

         “I said sit.” I took the washcloth that she was using from her hands. She looked at me incredulously, she stared for a minute. When she realized I wasn’t going to back down, she sat. I kneeled in front of her and inspected the wound. “You really should get this looked at by a professional.”

         “No hospitals.” Was all she said.

         “Why?” I continued to look at the wound. “Do you have a medical kit?”

         She pointed below the sink.

         I grabbed the box with a red cross and opened it. This kit wasn’t normal; it was decked out with bandages of all sizes, pain killers that needed to be prescribed, suture kits, and other items I wouldn’t know how to use. I pulled out the ointment that was in there. She would probably get an infection if we didn’t get antibiotics. “You didn’t answer my question.”

         “What question?”

         “Why no hospitals?”

         She didn’t answer for a long moment. I continued to work on her leg while she battled her inner demons. “The last time I was in a hospital was when my parents died in a car accident.”

         “I’m sorry for your loss.” After the ointment was applied, I took one of the larger bandages and put it over the cut and taped it down. “We need to change this twice a day. Turn.” I swirled my finger to show I wanted her to move. She obeyed.

         “We?”

         “You sure as hell weren’t taking care of it.” I put the ointment and a bandage on her back wound. “All done.” I set the items back in the box and stowed it under the sink.

         “Thank you.”

         I bent down and picked her up, cradling her in my arms. Her eyes widened with the quick movement.

         “What are you doing?” She leaned against my bare chest.

         “I’m going to take you to the living room and sit you on the couch. Then I’m going to make you something to eat, because I’m pretty sure you haven’t eaten anything today by the sound of your stomach. Then I haven’t decided. I was thinking maybe about watching a movie.”

         “You know I can walk, right?”

         “It’s better if you don’t. You should take it easy.”

         “And you are just going to carry me around all day?”

         “If I have to.”

         Harlow tried to hide a smile. Even though she was independent, she liked the idea of me carrying her around. That boded well for me. It will make it easier to tell her that she was my mate and maybe just move into the pack house. But I didn’t want to get ahead of myself.

         I gingerly sat Harlow down on the sofa. I went and grabbed the shirt we tossed in the kitchen and handed it to her. If I had it my way, I would keep her naked and fuck her all day. But, again, I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

         “Where is your room?”

         She pointed to the opposite hallway from which we had come. I wasn’t about to ask her to go through her clothes; I knew she would say no. Instead of asking for permission, I would ask for forgiveness.

         The whole house was very minimalistic. There were no decorations, just gray walls and modest furniture. The epitome of a modern house. I opened a door; it was to a linen closet. I continued down the hallway. I opened another door; it was a large bedroom that looked to have been lived in. This must be it.

         Harlow didn’t seem like the type of person to unpack. I looked around the room, and I was right. There was a duffle bag sitting on a dark gray side chair spewing clothes. I dug around until I found a pair of underwear and loose sweatpants to replace the ones I ripped.

         I made it back to the living room and handed her the bottoms she was now missing. Harlow watched the television, which had a cooking show on it.

         She looked down at the offering. “Uh, thank you.” Her cheeks blushed pink. I didn’t think she was the type to get embarrassed.

         “What?” I watched her take the items from my hand.

         “It’s nothing.” She laughed.

         “Seriously, what?”

         “It just completely left my mind that I wasn’t wearing underwear or bottoms.”

         “Ahhh, so you’re that comfortable around me.” I winked at her.

         She gave a smile and rolled her eyes.

         “Did you need help?”

         She let out a breath. “No, I can at least put on underwear and sweats by myself.”

         “Let me know if you need any help.” I let my voice drop lower, hoping that the inuendo was received. By the blush of her cheeks, it was. I watched as she pulled on her underwear and then the sweats. One day, I would make her slowly take those items off in front of me. Let her bare herself to me, no secrets. My dick started to get hard at the thought.

         She looked at me, not moving. As if she were a deer in the woods and heard something, waiting to see if she heard it again before darting away. I wanted to leap over the couch and kiss her. Rip off the clothes that she just put on. Show her that what we did on the counter wasn’t only a one-time thing. That what was between us was forever. Maybe if I fucked her hard enough, that would tell her she was my mate…that was stupid. I knew it. But coming up with the words was so difficult.

         How could I just say, ‘hey, there is this thing with werewolves where they have the destined mates and as soon as they see their mate, they know…well, guess what…you’re my mate. Congratulations!’ That sounded dumb. I feared that anyway I told her would sound dumb.

         I cleared my throat, breaking the tension and my flow of thoughts. If I overthought this, it would never happen. “I’m going to go raid your fridge. Why don’t you pick something to watch…unless you want to watch this.” I turned my back on her. I needed to; the bulge in my pants was growing painfully, and I didn’t want her to see.

         “Okay.” It was the only thing she said, and it seemed like it was a struggle. What I wouldn’t give to know what she was thinking? Maybe she was thinking the same thing? That she wanted me to jump over that sofa and do nasty, dirty things to her. A wolf could only hope.

         I looked through her fridge, and there wasn’t a lot of food in there. But the freezer was stocked full. “Do you only eat frozen food?” I leaned around the wall so I could see her.

         “Yeah, I’m not much of a cook. Never had the time.” She glanced over at me, then back at the television.

         “Okay, remind me to teach you how to make things that don’t require a microwave.”

         She snorted. “Right. I’m no Julia Child.”

         “But you watch cooking shows.”

         “Correction, I watch cooking competitions. Way more interesting.”

         I pulled two frozen pizzas out of the freezer. “Such a huge difference.” I laughed. “We are going to have pizza. If you want something else, I can run to the store.”

         “No, that’s fine.” She paused. “Are you sure you don’t need my help?” I could see her lean forward so she could see me in the kitchen.

         “No. You keep your sexy ass down. This isn’t rocket science.”

She snorted. I wondered if she blushed. I hoped she did.

I turned on the oven to preheat; it was going to take a while, so I brought the bottle of wine to the coffee table and topped her off. I could feel her eyes on me while I poured. I brought my eyes to hers, bright blue, and I could only imagine her steely gaze during a fight or interrogation. She would be terrifying.

“What?” I stood in front of her.

“Why are you still here?”

The words that came out of her mouth made my heart drop. “What do you mean?” I tilted my head to the side.

“You could have left after you showed me what you were, but you didn’t. You could have left after we got the envelope, but you didn’t. You could have left after…well, you know, but you didn’t. You have to have other things to do than stick around here and take care of me. That leads me to question, why…why are you here?”

What was I supposed to say? Her question was valid; if I were in her shoes, I would be questioning the same thing. Before I could answer, the oven dinged, letting me know that it was up to temperature. “I’ll be right back.” This gave me some time. Maybe I should just tell her, this was my opportunity.

I popped the pizzas in the oven, set the timer, and went back to the living room where Harlow continued to flip through the movies. She stopped and looked at me. I had to do it. This was the right moment.

I sat down on the coffee table, directly in front of her. I hoped that it would hold me. “This is going to sound crazy, but I need you to hear me out…okay?”

“That’s not a great way to start…but okay.” She snorted into her glass of wine.

“From what I understand, you don’t know a lot about werewolves…right?” I paused, and she shook her head no. “There is something with werewolves that makes them different than humans. We look like humans, but as you clearly saw before, we are not.” I put my hands out in front of me, trying to use them to explain what I was trying to explain with my words, but everything was getting jumbled. It was harder than I thought to explain a mate to a human.

“I’ve caught up to that part, but that doesn’t answer my question. Why are you still here?”

“I’m getting to that part, but it’s a little harder to explain than I thought it would be.”

“Clearly.” She stared at me, waiting for me to continue.

I rubbed the back of my neck. Might as well bite the bullet, terrible saying when my mate could actually shoot me if need be. I looked down at my hands now that they were resting on my knees. “Within the werewolf community, there are things called mates, and when a werewolf finds their mate, it’s an instant thing, and they are then officially off the market.” I glanced up at her, but her face gave away nothing.

I looked back down at my hands and took a deep breath. “With that being said, the first time I saw you yesterday, I knew you were my mate.” When I said she was my mate, I couldn’t help but give a small smile.

There I said it. All of my cards were on the table, and the ball was in her court. If she wanted to reject me, she could; it would crush me, but I was sure I would survive…maybe.

When she didn’t instantly reject me or try to shoot me, I looked up at her. Her eyes were wide, not really staring at me, but staring through me. I didn’t want to interrupt what she was working through; I wanted to give her time. But also, the suspense was killing me. Almost as if I was telling her she was pregnant or something.

I looked over at the clock, five minutes had gone by, and she barely blinked. “Harlow?” I didn’t want to push her, but I also wanted to make sure she didn’t have a stroke or something. And I was sitting here, like a dumbass, waiting for a response that was never going to come.

Her eyes focused on mine. “How do you know?” she said, her voice cracked at the end.

“As soon as I saw you, my heart stopped and then ramped up a million beats per minute. Every time I see you, that happens. My wolf screamed in my head that you were his, you were his mate.” I paused and looked at her. She didn’t make to say anything, so I continued. “When you leave, my heart drops. Every second that I’m in your presence, I want to rip your clothes off and take you on every surface of this house and then proceed outdoors. I want to protect you with every fiber of my being. I want you by my side, for the rest of my life.”

There weren’t any other words that I could think of to explain it. I could use the word love, but she was human and would be a flight risk if I used that word. My heart pounded; the oven timer went off. I stood; I was going to let her process. At least she said something, instead of demanding that I leave. And it was even better that she didn’t shoot me. I considered myself lucky.

I looked into the oven, the pizzas were golden brown and perfect. I clicked the button to turn off the oven and used the cardboard circles to pull them out. I set them on the counter to cool. I looked through the cabinets for plates and then the drawers for a knife or a pizza cutter. When I found both, I set them next to the pizzas.

I took a deep breath and went back to the living room. Harlow was in the same position as she was when I left. She stared straight ahead. I could almost see the gears turning. “It’ll be just a few minutes, and I’ll get you something to eat,” I said in a soft voice. I didn’t want to disturb her, but at the same rate, she was killing me. Just say something. Anything.