Chapter 22: Chapter 22

Adrian is posed to disrupt anyone that will stop him from getting across his mate. He shoved Murray aside and strode up to Andrea.

She saw him approaching him and anyone would think her would react to him, knowing how bad and good their relationship had been since they met. Despite everything between them, Andrea smiled when she saw him. He pulled her close and she rested her head on his shoulder as she had always wanted him back "There's something I didn't tell you last night," he said.

"Of course." She didn't sound mad. Perhaps amused.

"Will you come home with me?"

"Yes," Andrea replied.

They didn't stop touching on the way to the car, but this wasn't the uncontrollable sexual need of yesterday. Instead, it felt comfortable. Adrian kept glancing over at her, hard to believe she was so close, that tonight she would be his. "Did I tell you how I was changed?" He asked once they sat in the car and he pulled onto the road.

"You didn't." She laced her fingers through his.

"Do you want to know?"

"I do."

"I was eighteen and completely stupid," he began.

Adrian smiled, "I know a lot of stories that start that way." She said.

"My friends dared me to walk in the woods and midnight on the new moon. So it was damn near pitch black. I'm stumbling around, more than a little drunk. And then there's this valley that

ran through the woods of the campus."

"You fell?" she asked.

He nodded, "Tripped over a branch and hung off the side of this drop. I had no idea how far it was to the bottom, but I didn't want to find out the hard way. And along comes this wolf. Big ass thing. And I was terrified. I thought it was going to kill me. Instead, it takes a big chunk of my arm and pulls me up. Just barely nicked me in the process. Whoever it was, I don't think they even knew.

And then on the full moon, well I knew something was wrong. Luckily the head of the werewolf down there found me before I got into real trouble. Taught me everything I knew, and then I moved here just after graduation."

"Couldn't that wolf have just shifted to help you up?" She asked.

Adrian shrugged. "It takes a lot of energy. I thought I would pass out last night. And if he was far from home, or naked, or any other number of reasons he might have thought he could help me without shifting."

He pulled into his driveway and they got out of the car and entered the house. "It was a nice story," Andrea said. She placed her purse on the kitchen table and set her shoes by the wall. She hung her jacket on the back of one of the chairs and revealed her black halter top which was edged with sequins of some kind.

"So what's the next bombshell?"

But staring at her, Adrian felt incapable of speaking. All he could muster was, "You're beautiful." Andrea thought he had heard that a whole of time, even Morgan said that to her all day and still didn't think it twice to cheat on her when they finally had two kids. She laughed and the sound punched him in the gut, twisting into something darker. So he forced himself to admit it. "You're my mate. It's why we're so drawn to each other."

"So that's a thing now, too?" But her tone misrepresented the silliness in her words.

Mate, now wasn't that a word with a whole lot of baggage. How was she even supposed to respond? But every denial she knew she should give rang hollow. Adrian was her mate. That was the first thing in two days that made any sense. "I'm sure you say that to all the girls."

Adrian froze. He would have not expected such a response from Andrea but it came from her. He had to says something to make her not feel he is flirting with her. "I've never said it to anyone. Except you. I want you to understand. I want you so bad that I'm hard from just being by you. But this isn't casual."

Good, Andrea didn't do casual. "Then why are you over there?"

The words took a second to register on Adrian's face. But he damn near bounded across the room once he did. He swept her up into his arms, actually carrying her, and took two steps toward

his bedroom.

"You're sure?"

"I'll be more than more sure once I have my hands on you," Adrian said.

Something between a laugh and a yelp escaped her throat as he ran past the stairs and into a bedroom, tossing her onto the bed. This was all Andrea wanted to be rig a man who will see her as all in all. Adrian towered over her at the edge of the bed, his eyes glowed with that yellow light she now realized must have something to do with his wolf. The sheer hunger in his gaze thrilled her, made her yearn, made her wet and ready for him. She crooked a finger, summoning him. Andrea was set for another hot adventure with her stranger mate.

He knelt at the edge of the bed between her splayed legs. Slowly, ever so slowly, he traced one finger up the inseam of her jeans, all the way up until he all but touched her most intimate place, separated only by fabric.

He continued to trace up the seam, over the zipper, and then even further over the button and up to her belly button. Flames licked up Andrea's body, but He made no move to touch her bare skin. She moved her hands to remove her shirt, his shirt, anything, but he clamped down on one wrist.

"Don't," he growled. He yanked that arm above her, his other hand settling under her breast, thumbing the nipple, the touch barely registered through her shirt and bra.