Her emotions were all over the place. Even as she brandished her knife at him, she couldn’t help but think she was overreacting.
He held his hands up in surrender. The smile on his lips made her even angrier.
“What did your mother say about mating? Why did you bite my neck, and how did you explain your lack of control?” she asked.
“Let go of the knife,” he said, reaching for it. Handing him back the knife, heat filled her cheeks.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” She touched her cheeks, wondering what the hell she’d done wrong.
“You’re going through something.” He stopped, looking down at the floor in front of him.
“What? What am I going through?” she asked, confused.
“My mother wasn’t wrong. We’re mated. Last night, I lost control.”
Mary stared at him. The silence in the room was deafening.
“There’s a lot of things you do not know,” Zeke said.
“Well why don’t you start telling me about all those things I don’t know.” She was tired of being kept in the dark about everything. Touching her neck, she felt the raised skin and wished there was something more she could do.
“I’ll tell you. Can we do the dishes without you trying to kill me?” he asked.
Glaring at him, she finished doing the dishes as he dried them before putting them away. When she was finished Mary walked over toward the windows staring out over the city. She wasn’t due back at work for another three weeks.
Running fingers through her hair, she tried to focus on the three weeks, but she was starting to think her time wasn’t nearly over.
“You’re not going to let me go after the month, are you?” she asked. She saw his reflection in the window.
“No, I’m not. I can’t let you go.”
Nodding, she felt tears sting her eyes. Mary knew she should be upset about his news, yet part of her was relieved to hear him not getting rid of her.
“What do you need to tell me?” she asked.
“I was the dog you saw down the alley,” he said. His arms wrapped around her waist holding onto her tightly.
“What?”
“I’m the one who smelled you, Mary. I was the large black dog that couldn’t resist you. I’d been scenting you for some time, and then you were coming out of the building and I couldn’t stop. I was the one who bit you,” Zeke said.
Her heart pounded as she recalled the black dog approaching. At the time she reached out, in an attempt to touch him. He’d struck, sinking his teeth into her arm. The pain had been excruciating. Afterward all she remembered were Roger and Dani. They’d taken her away from him.
“I had every intention of finding you. In fact, I never gave up trying to find you,” he said, surprising her.
“You were looking for me?” she asked.
“Yeah. I asked Roger and Dani if they’d ever seen you before. They always told me no. I could never smell you. We believe the injections you were given were an attempt to mask your scent. They fucking succeeded as well.”
“Why are you telling me all this?”
****