How to Tame a Cat (ManxMan)

Chapter Thirty-Two: It's Over

[AN: As you most likely already know if you read my Author Notes, this is a chapter with graphic naughtiness. Normally, I would say that you can skip this chapter and message me for details, but this chapter has a lot of important content about their relationship and what is happening next. If you really must skip the scene, once you reach the first '------', skip to the second '------'. Enjoy!]

~Chapter Thirty-Two: It's Over~

"You're angry again."

Ryland turns his head to look at me, pausing in his pacing of the hotel room. He puts his index finger to his head, and since he has already done that twice in the past hour, I am starting to think it is an insulting gesture. "Sì, I am. You kept something like this – the start of our mate bond – a secret. I had a right to know!"

"I'm not going to apologize," I reply, even though my tone says the exact opposite. Even though I know it was wrong, I was doing what I felt I had to. This should never have happened.

But it did and there's no use crying over spilled milk.

"I figured that out already," Ryland all but growls, returning to his pacing. I stay seated on the edge of the bed, even though I really just want to run out the door and never return. However, the first time I tried that, he caught me and tossed me back onto the bed. It was not meant to be mean, just his way of making me stay put. When he continues in a much softer voice, I thought he was talking to me, but he is actually talking to himself, "Why does my mate have to be so stubborn?"

Even though I know he meant it to be nothing more than a statement of exasperation and I have no right to feel this way after what I did to him, I still feel let down when I ask, "Did you want a different mate?"

The lion's head snaps back to me, and there must have been something in my expression that clued him in on how I must have taken it. "No, no, amore mio. Of course not. I want you and all the troubles you cause me," he murmurs, sitting down next to me and pulling me into a sideways hug.

I know that the mate bond is making us feel emotions at a much higher level right now, and that there would not normally be so much emotion behind each thought, but it does not make any of this easier. If it would bother me to hear him say it normally, it would just about kill me to hear it now. There is no room for rational thought right after a mate bond. Things only get stable after...

After sex.

I must have made some kind of sound, because Ryland starts whispering soft words of reassurance into my hair as he pulls me into his lap. "Ti amo, amore mio, ti amo. I love you so very much," he assures me, pressing his chin against the top of my head. "Did you not want to be bonded?"

"I didn't. A large part of me really wanted it, yes, but I don't like change, Ryland," I answer honestly, and then taking a deep breath to steady myself. His expression turns carefully neutral, so I quickly add, "That doesn't mean I regret it. The thought of you leaving made me feel...it made me feel sick."

"It made me feel the same way," Ryland says, then lifts me off his lap and sets me down on my feet. He looks a lot calmer than before, but there is still a lot of tension in his shoulders that suggests he is not as calm as he is wants to be. "Get ready to sleep. We are going to discuss this, but not after a long day like this."

Since it seems he changed into something more comfortable – a pair of sweatpants – before taking a nap, I am the only one changing into something else. I can feel his eyes on me, but have no right to complain since I am his now. That thought makes me hesitate in pulling off my briefs, so I decide to leave them on until I find something to wear.