Seeing Eye Mate (18 page)

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her cheeks were red. Her hands were fisted in her lap so tight the knuckles were white and he wondered what was making her so nervous.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because the last time I tried to talk to you about it, you had a cow,” she muttered.

For the love of… “Tell me again,” he gritted out, “and I promise to keep my cow birthing in check.” Then it occurred to him that she didn’t want to tell him because she still thought Eli did it.

“Forget it. I’ll go first. We’ve been hunting a man who’s killed four of our mates.”

“Probably more like six,” she grumbled, “and you’ve already told me this.”

“I’m going to tell you again and again until you get it through your thick skull how serious the situation is. What do you mean, six?” His fingers tightened on the steering wheel. She’d seen two more and not told him? Fuck.

Tieran dropped her chin to her chest. She picked at a fingernail and seemed to be having some type of internal debate.

“What do you mean, Tieran?” he asked again, trying hard not to lose his patience.

“That woman, in the paper this morning.”

What woman? There’d been women all over the paper. Dozens of them.

“Her picture set off my little warning system. Since lately my visions have all been about your killer, I’m assuming this one is too. He’s either already killed her or is going to.”

“Jeeesuus Christ.” The leather creaked beneath his fingers. “Why didn’t you say something this morning?” Damn it. He’d thought he was getting closer to earning her trust. Apparently not. Whatever the little fucker from her past did to her, it destroyed her ability to rely on other people. It made him want to pull his hair out.

“All right,” he said, biting back the words he wanted to shout when she remained silent. It wouldn’t help. “So she’s five. Who’s the sixth?”

Tieran sighed deeply beside him. When she spoke he could barely hear her. “The one the man in the car kept thinking about.”

Son of a bitch, she was one tenacious woman. He held on to his temper by a hair. “Right, but since we’ve already established that was Eli, then whatever woman he was thinking about doesn’t count.”

“We didn’t discuss anything. You decided the little black car from my dream was Eli’s Mustang, that doesn’t mean I’m convinced, and why shouldn’t she count?” Tieran snapped, jerking around in her seat to face him.

“Because,” he ground out, “I can guarantee if Eli was fantasizing about her, he wasn’t thinking about killing her. Unless it involved killing her with pleasure.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“My brother likes women, Tieran. Too much to ever hurt one. He’s the ultimate playboy. Hell, he tried to pick you up at the bar the other night.”

“And what does that have to do with the price of beans in China? The fact is I had a vision about him thinking of a woman and so far everything I’ve seen has been about your killer. Tell me what you would think if you were in my shoes?”

The muscles in his jaw bunched. “God help me, you are the most stubborn… I knew there was a reason I didn’t want a mate right now.” He laughed. He couldn’t help it. The whole situation was becoming one big clusterfuck and if he didn’t convince her otherwise, she’d end up having his twin turned in for the murders.

“Do you know the elders in my pack have been pushing me to find my mate? But I said, ‘no, not until we find the shifter responsible for this and bring him to justice.’” He pounded on the steering wheel. “It isn’t safe for me to have a mate right now,” he growled, his face heating in rising agitation.

“So what did I do?” he continued. “I went out with my brother to this bar. And lo and behold he spots a woman he wants to take to bed for the night. Surprise, surprise.” He leaned closer to her and swung his gaze back and forth between her and the road.

“I had to physically stop my brother from going after a woman he wanted to fuck all because I decided to take a whiff of the female who’d given him a hard-on.”

Tieran bit her lip and edged away from him. He continued to crowd her, keeping one hand on the wheel and one eye on the road. Her shoulders pressed up against the door and her eyes were wide.

“Do you know why I had to stop him, Tieran?”

She started to shake her head. “I have no idea why men behave like Neanderthals.”

He ignored her remark. “Because I knew from the second I’d seen—no smelled—you, what you were to me. That’s why I didn’t let Eli come after you. To do so would have been paramount to giving my wife to another man for the night. It didn’t matter that we hadn’t met, or that you had no idea about being a mate-in-waiting for a healthy, red-blooded, shape-shifting Prime.”

He watched her eyes grow even rounder and after sucking in a quick breath she nodded slowly.

“Dammit.” He swung the truck off the road and slammed on the brakes, throwing the gear into park before the truck even settled. Tieran shrieked and lifted her hands to catch herself on the dash. Her seat belt locked, holding her in place. “I’m sorry,” he said immediately, thinking he might have harmed her or the baby. She flung him off when he tried to touch her.

“He was honing in on the one woman destined to be mine, Tieran. Mine. Not his.
Mine
, and fate doesn’t give a rat’s ass that this is absolutely the most piss-poor time for me to finally find you.” He was so close to her face now she had to feel his breath puff out on her lips with each word. His voice grew softer, calmer, and he begged her to understand with his eyes.

He cradled her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him. Christ, he just kept making this worse and worse. Even he could see that his words had cut her deep to the bone.

She hadn’t asked for this any more than he had. In fact, if anyone should feel put out here, it was her. He’d known about taking a mate his entire life, she’d only known since yesterday. So fuck him for thinking that this was a piss-poor time to
finally
find her. If he felt so damned strongly about not wanting her, he should have stayed away.

Then maybe she wouldn’t be having goddamn visions about men and wolves killing women. More importantly, she wouldn’t be having these doubts in her mind about Eli and the fact he shared a few strange characteristics with both the wolf and the man from the car. The eyes of all three were the same, the scars, the hands. Jesus, she must be losing her mind to be connecting the smallest things the way she was.

When she realized he was still practically on top of her, his cheek nuzzling hers like he hadn’t said that he didn’t want her, she shoved hard at Caelan’s chest with both hands, drawing on the element of surprise to push him away. “You know, Caelan, what you just said proves how shitty the whole idea of matedom really is. Excuse the hell out of me for not being a werewolf and knowing the laws of…wolvery.” She shot him a look, leaving him in stunned silence and staring at her like he was wondering what had happened to her. Good. Maybe it was time for him to see things from her vantage point.

“It’s not my fault that any of this is happening. In fact, it’s yours, because I was going along just fine before you. Now I’m having visions left and right, and puking, and being accused of being pregnant, and…and forced to eat pancakes, when I don’t want any goddamn pancakes,” she yelled.

Several heated moments passed while they studied each other. Caelan’s body seemed to deflate. He was the first to break the silence between them. “Don’t get me wrong, now that you’re here, I wouldn’t change having you for anything in the world,” he placated.

Damn. She wanted to stay mad at him, not forgive him.

He leaned over again, tugging at his seatbelt until it was as loose as it could be, and nuzzled her cheek with his. His deep breath tickled her ear and she breathed in his familiar scent. Whimpering, she sagged into him. The man could control her like no other. Even pissed at him, he made her feel safe, comforted. It wasn’t an altogether good feeling to have no control where he was concerned.

“I love you.” He wrapped his hands around her face and kissed her eyelids and the tip of her nose. “No matter how weird that sounds, it’s the truth. If something happened to you, it would kill me.” Caelan moved to her lips, tasting them and begging her to open for him.

When she complied, melting into his arms even further, he dipped his tongue inside her heated mouth and tangled it with hers.

Stop. They had to stop or they’d be fucking right here on the edge of the highway. She groaned and pulled away from where she really wanted to be and put herself at arm’s length, or at least as far away as she could get within the confines of the truck. Her breath came in shallow pants and she knew her eyes must be glazed over.

He smiled at her. He knew exactly what he’d done to her.

“If we take this any further it might lead to our arrest.”

At least she wasn’t the only one thinking along those lines.

Touching her fingers to her swollen lips, Tieran cleared her throat and twisted forward in her seat. Damn but the man could kiss. Almost as well as he could compel her to talk about things she didn’t normally. She hadn’t realized before now what he was facing by having her as a mate. Of course, she hadn’t truly come to terms with being a mate yet herself. Or having a baby.

She rested her hand on her flat belly. There couldn’t be one there. Could there? A tiny spark of something flared to life inside her. What was it though? Hope, want, need? When was the last time she’d felt this way? Too long ago, for sure.

Caelan gunned the truck onto the highway while her thoughts continued to race. If everything he’d said was true, then despite his vow of love, she was an inconvenience to him right now. Should she leave him to whatever it was he needed to do? Maybe if she weren’t in the way, he’d be free to catch the killer. She didn’t want to be a detriment to him.

Her chest hurt with the thought of not being close to him.

“So, you gonna talk, or do I have to torture it out of you?”

Tieran smiled at Caelan’s attempt to lighten the mood. She had to give him more credit than the Florida Police. So far he hadn’t gone running around laughing at the mere mention of her abilities. He’d listened.

Yes, he’d jumped down her throat about Eli, but he still wanted to know more. The thought made her feel used. Doubts flooded her mind. Was Caelan claiming all this mate stuff just to use her abilities? Had he wanted to make her think she was pregnant just so she would stay with him?

Every uncertainty she felt with Peter came swarming to the forefront. No way would she go through that again.

“If there were any other way, I wouldn’t make you go through it again, baby. I can see what it takes out of you.”

Oh, good Lord! She’d said that out loud?

“Yes, my dear, I believe you did. You should feel ashamed of yourself for even thinking Caelan could be so callous.”

Damn it, her gramama was right. Caelan hadn’t known she was clairvoyant when he met her or, if what he told her was true, even before they made love in her kitchen. She sighed.

“Can you describe the wolf to me?”

Of course I can,
she wanted to scream. Tieran swallowed back the fear and frustration choking her. Somehow she had to find a way to tell him what he wanted to know without adding her own opinion about who she thought the killer was.

“Which one,” she grumbled.

“Either one.” He sounded so harsh it was all she could do not to cringe.

“Doesn’t matter. They were the same.”

“Okay,” he said clearly exasperated with her. “What did it look like?”

She sighed. “It was big and hairy and looked just like you did in
your
wolf get-up.”

His fingers were so tight on the leather-wrapped steering wheel they made a creaky noise. She saw how frustrated he was by her less-than-forthcoming attitude.

“Anything else? Maybe eye color, fur color, size? Anything might help whether you think so or not.”

If only he knew what she thought. Somehow Tieran didn’t think “Have Eli change and I’ll be able to tell you exactly what it looked like, scar and all” would win her any Brownie points. Besides, then they would have to go over the damn scar again. Maybe she’d get away with leaving that part out.

“Don’t keep things from him, Tulla. Didn’t we just have this conversation?”

“All right already.”
She cleared her throat. “It was dark brown. I can’t tell you the exact shade because it was night and the only light out there was the full moon.”

“Okay. That’s a start. Compared to me—darker, lighter?”

Jesus, the dog with the bone was back and tonight’s bone was pulling Tieran’s teeth until she spit out the truth and nothing but the truth. Didn’t he understand how hard this was for her?

Groaning, she rubbed both hands over her face. “The same,” she mumbled into her palms.

“What?”

She felt him lean over and half-expected to find his hand cupping his ear when she looked up.

“I said,” she huffed, “he looked like you. Same color eyes, same color hair, same pointy white teeth.”

“My pointy white teeth are going to sink into your soft white ass later if you don’t watch it, my own.”