Seeing Eye Mate (9 page)

“Then don’t tempt me, my own.”

“All right, damn it. You’ve been calling me that all day. Where the hell does it come from?” She had her head tilted and was looking at him like he’d grown horns.

He hadn’t meant to let the endearment slip out the first time, but it had and now he couldn’t stop saying it. She was his.

“What?” Maybe if he played stupid he’d get out of having to tell her what she was to him.

Her lip curled. “You know what I’m talking about, my own.” She reopened the fridge and popped the top of another can of high-octane sugar. Caelan imagined the one-celled embryo in her womb shriveling up, and winced. “What’s wrong?”

Caffeine probably isn’t good for our baby.

“Nothing.” He picked up the cordless phone and nearly dropped it. It felt like a block of ice in his hand. Ignoring the strange phenomenon, he dialed the phone number for the pizza place with the biggest ad and placed an order.

“Are you going to answer me?” Tieran asked when he’d hung up. She slid the can of soda onto the table, so close to the edge he reached over and pushed it back before it took a nosedive.

“Now who’s the dog?” He had to stall her, to lead her in another direction. He wasn’t prepared to tell her all the ramifications of being his mate.

“I thought you said a dog was beneath you.” Tieran crossed her arms in front of her, plumping up her breasts.

He salivated. Like a dog. A wolf, like a wolf, damn it. “What were we talking about?”

She dropped her hands to her sides with a slap. “Quit staring at my breasts and you might remember.” Her voice grew as sickly sweet as the smile on her face. “My own.”

He cleared his throat. “It’s just a wolf thing,” he fudged.

“What kind of wolf thing?”

Goddamn, but the woman was tenacious. And he loved her. He’d never believed the elders when they’d told him that finding your mate meant instant true love. At least on his part. Humans, of course, had a bit harder time of it.

“It’s what we call our mates,” he muttered.

“What?”

“Our mates. It’s what we call our mates.” Caelan ground his teeth together. It was coming, he could feel it. First she’d laugh, then explode, then try to throw him out the door. Key word here—try. She could try to throw him out, but wouldn’t succeed. Not with the Mate Killer, her psychic abilities and their baby growing in her belly.

“That sounds so…permanent.”

“It is,” he granted.

She dropped her head back and he swore he saw her mouth form the words, “why me”. Then her head cocked to the side and damned if she didn’t look like she was listening to something nobody heard but her. She sighed and tucked her chin to her chest, looking resigned, to say the least.

“Something tells me you’re not going to go away. Why don’t you tell me about this whole mate thing?”

Caelan paused for a moment. He wanted to kiss her. No laughing, no gawking, no, “Are you fucking crazy?” remarks, just pure help-me-out-here, and make-me-understand. He cleared his throat.

“No, I’m not going anywhere. Especially not now.” He stepped closer, turned her around so her back was to his front, and covered her belly with his hands.

“Why not now, Caelan? What’s happening?”

He blew out a breath, vibrating his lips against the side of her neck.

Tieran pulled out of his grasp and moved around him. She kept her wary gaze on his face as she dropped into a chair. Her elbow knocked into the soda can, nearly tipping it over.

“I am a shape-shifter. One of many,” he said when she quirked an eyebrow and looked at him like she wanted to say, “duh”. “There are communities of us all around you. We live and work and play amongst humans who are none the wiser.”

“How is this possible, Caelan? You’re talking about an entire race of peop—what are you again?”

“Shape-shifters.”

“Shape-shifters. How is it that no one knows about you? Scientists would have a field day.”

Caelan winced. She was absolutely right. “We’ve kept our anonymity for centuries by simply hiding in plain sight. We hold the same jobs and positions as humans, eat the same food, pay the same taxes. The only difference—”

Tieran snorted.

“Okay, so it’s a huge difference. On a full moon, many of my kind shift into wolf form.”

“Many of you? You don’t all do that?”

“Yes,” he said, pulling out a chair next to her and sitting so he faced her. “But here’s where humans come into play. Generations ago, it was discovered that if a shifter mated with a human woman, their child had the ability to control the shift. Half-bloods can change forms whenever they want, like me. Full-bloods cannot. It’s once a month for them, no matter what.”

He watched her swallow and let the information sink in. When she lifted her gaze, it was full of questions.

“So by mating you mean…”

“I mean finding the one woman in the world who is your other half and claiming her.”

Tieran’s hand flew to the spot on her neck where he’d bitten her. Her eyes were wide, shocked.

“Yes, I claimed you. And I’m not sorry, and I can’t take it back.”

Her breath hissed out. “That’s what my grandmother meant.”

“Your grandmother? I don’t know your grandmother.”

“No, but she knows you,” she muttered.

“Oh stop, you’re making me blush, Tullabelle.”

Tieran snorted.
“As if that’s possible.”

“Explain,” Caelan barked.

Tieran jumped in her seat. At least now he was the one confused for a change. The skin on her neck pulsed where he’d bitten her. How do you explain something that can’t be explained?

“I think he explained his side rather well, wouldn’t you say so?”

“Well, what the hell am I supposed to say? Caelan, it’s like this. I talk to my grandmother. Oh, and by the way, she’s been dead ten years. That ought to go over really well.”

“Again, Tulla, the man just told you he is from another race of people. You don’t seem to be having too hard a time believing him.”

Yes, but apparently the public didn’t know about his abilities. The few times she’d told others about hers, things had ended very badly. She was still uncomfortable sharing that part of her life.
To make matters worse, Peter knew about her visions, but she’d never told him about being a medium with her gramama. The visions were more than enough to make him run.

Except Caelan didn’t seem to care that she could see things.

“In case you hadn’t noticed, Caelan is still here. The man can handle anything you dish out. Trust me.”

“Hello? Did you go away?”

“No, I…” The doorbell intruded. “I better get that.” She let out a breath with an audible whoosh and all but launched herself from the chair. She darted toward the front door, and heard him bounding after her.

“Tieran, wait.” His foot came down on a box of food still in the middle of the foyer.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Caelan stumble. His arms windmilled as he tried to catch his balance. She started to take a step back toward him when the doorbell pealed again.

“Hold on, would you?” she muttered. “Why is everybody always in a hurry?” She braced her feet shoulder width apart and grabbed the doorknob with both hands but paused for a split second to look back.

Caelan finally caught himself with a hand on the desk. “Don’t open the…”

Tieran yanked the protesting door open.

“…door,” he finished with a curse she chose to ignore.

“Oh look, it’s the clone.” Her voice sounded dry as dust even to her own ears. And why shouldn’t it? She was faced with two shape-shifting werewolf…beings, one of which had claimed her without her consent. She would not think about how earth-shattering the idea of him claiming her was.

“No need to be snotty, Tulla.”

“Goddamn it, Tieran. Don’t you ever fucking open this door again unless you ask who it is first.” Caelan grabbed her by her shoulders and swung her around. He shook her as if scolding a child for not looking before crossing the street. Her teeth clanked together as her jaw snapped shut.

“Just who in the hell do you think you are?”

“Your mate.” His roar made Tieran flinch beneath his hands.

“Well, I didn’t ask to
be
your mate, you big oaf,” she shouted back.

Their noses touched, their breathing turned heavy, their eyes dilated.

He kissed her hard, relinquishing his bruising hold on her upper arms and hugging her closer to him. Her tongue tangled with his, exploring his mouth in a parry and retreat dance. Their lips melded, sealing in the moans coming from both of them.

“Break it up, you two.”

Caelan pulled his mouth off Tieran’s and steadied her before turning to his brother, leaving her wondering what had just happened.

“Eli.”

Eli grunted. “Who else did you think it would be?”

Tieran stuck her head around Caelan’s arm and answered for him. “The pizza man.”

Eli’s gaze roamed over her face then took in her bare legs beneath Caelan’s T-shirt as she stepped out from behind his overprotective twin. He poked his nose up in the air as if he smelled something and grinned a huge wolfish grin.

No, not wolfish, stop thinking about wolves!

“They aren’t going to go away, Tulla.”

Eli slapped Caelan on the shoulder. “Congratulations, Bro.”

“For what?” Tieran swept her gaze between the twins. Eli’s eyes twinkled with pure delight, Caelan’s were narrowed and dangerous. She’d have missed the tiny shake of Caelan’s head had she glanced away one second earlier. Eli’s smile faltered and he dropped his hand.

Eli cleared his throat and tried to be surreptitious in looking around the room. “What happened here?”

Damn, she really needed to get this place cleaned up so she could get on with her life without rehashing this particular story again. “I was attacked by…”

“He’s already fucking found her?” Eli’s explosion drowned out the rest of her sentence. He grabbed the door and slammed it shut, only to have it bounce back and smack him in the ass. Tieran jumped back and out of reach of the suddenly angry man who’d just entered her home. She couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled up. It was too funny to watch a grown man struggle with the complexities of a piece of wood.

“…the door.”

“By the door.”

Caelan and Tieran spoke at the same time. She covered her mouth with her hand, deciding it was better not to let the man think she was laughing at him. He appeared ready to spit nails.

Then it dawned on her. What did Eli mean by…? “Who is ‘he’, and why is he looking for me?” Tieran tried to walk between the brothers. There had been enough space for her to fit without her accidentally touching Eli, except he took a step at the same time. She dodged him by practically tripping over herself and backing up to the door. Eli reached out, a surprised look on his face, and grabbed hold of her arm to steady her.

A streak of pain shot through her temples. She hissed and fought the instinctive need to grind her palms into the throbbing veins at the sides of her head.

Pictures flashed in her mind like a warped movie. An old warehouse, a cracked, overgrown, weed-filled concrete lot, a sign, half-hanging from its post, the letters faded beyond recognition, and woods. A man got out of a pitch-black sports car and walked toward the building. His gait was purposeful, but his eyes were wary. He jerked his gaze over his shoulder at the rumble of another engine and turned around just before he got to the rusty-hinged set of double doors adorned with a brand-spanking-new, shiny padlock. “Dane Christian?” There was a flash of metal through the air and darkness.

“Hello? Jesus, where the fuck did you just go?” Eli asked.

The pain subsided as quickly as it had attacked. Tieran sucked in a breath and tried to focus. She sagged against the door and braced her hands on it, scratching at the wood with her fingernails. She prayed for mercy and waited for the churning of her belly to diminish. Only then did she attempt to put all of her weight on wobbly knees.

“Nowhere. Nothing’s wrong,” she lied as calmly as possible, fumbling for the knob and slamming the door shut with the aid of her butt. A fine sheen of sweat had broken out on her upper lip. “Twist the knob to close the door.” She leaned against it, wrinkled her nose at them and crossed her arms over her chest like nothing strange had happened. The vision had lasted scant seconds. She could easily downplay what they’d seen without giving herself away. Later she’d worry about whether she needed to assimilate what she’d seen, which wasn’t much.

“Bullshit, nothing, Tieran,” Caelan barked. She startled, dropping her hands to her side. “One minute you’re fine, the next you look like someone rammed a spike through your heart.”

Eli glared at her. Clearly he held the same opinion.

“You had a vision, didn’t you? Just now, when Eli touched you. He triggered something, didn’t he?” Caelan demanded.

Arrogant…

“No, I did not,” she answered succinctly. “I…stubbed my toe is all. When I tripped going past him. Hurt like a sonofabitch.”