Crystal pulled away, her face heating up. She didn't have to be a wolf to know the intimacy of his gesture. Touching foreheads was one of the most intimate and meaningful gestures to make with your mate and closest friends and family.
She wasn't comfortable with that level of intimacy—mate or not.
She couldn't deny the butterflies that fluttered within her, though, as she turned away from him to hide the blush warming her face.
"Can you please... not do that?"
She raked her teeth over her bottom lip as she rubbed her arm that was closest to him.
He was only a few inches away and it made her nervous. He could grab her and hurt her, force himself on her and claim her—
If he wanted to use force on you, he would have by now, she told herself.
She gave her head a little shake and from the corner of her eye, saw him rubbing his own arm that was closest to her, his head lowered.
Pulling air into her lungs, she held it for a few seconds before slowly releasing it.
She was too tense. She had to loosen up and relax her muscles. Calm her mind and clear it of all stressful thoughts.
Sitting up straighter, she closed her eyes and took a few deep cleansing breaths.
Inhale. Exhale. Cool. Calm. Collected.
As her pounding heart eased up on its rapid tempo, her whirling thoughts calmed, and her tight muscles relaxed.
The smoldering campfire filled her senses as the heaviness in the air lifted.
When she opened her eyes, she brushed a loose strand of hair that kept falling in her face back behind her ear and looked down at her crude drawing and the word he'd written over it.
'Where?'
How could she find her way back home when they had no idea where they were?
She bent forward and rubbed her palm over the dirt, smoothing it out. "So, when should we go?"
Afraid to look at him still, she saw his claw point to the cleared earth. "Yeah, go ahead and write."
He pressed his claw into the earth and she watched the words form.
'Are you okay?'
She peeked at him from the corner of her eye to see him watching her, his posture casual, if not slightly hunched forward as he sat a few inches away from her. Her stomach knotted.
"Yeah, I'm okay. When should we get going?"
He quickly wiped the message away with a swipe of his paw before writing more, his printing scratchy and tight, not loopy like her own.
'Soon, once darkness sets in.'
"Okay," she replied.
He smoothed over the surface of the ground and started writing again.
'Please give me a chance. I know I scare you and I don't mean to'
He ran out of space and had to erase his message to continue.
'but you are my mate. I'm just stuck right now in this form.'
She pulled her legs up to her chin and wrapped her arms around them in an effort to put more distance between them as he leaned in closer to write.
"Yeah, we established that before. You can't shift, but you couldn't tell me why."
He huffed, clearing his previous message and writing, 'I was cursed by a witch many years ago.'
YOU ARE READING
Heart of a Beast
Werewolf[COMPLETE] "There's no love in coercion." --- Crystal was an omega born of beta blood. A werewolf without a wolf. A burden on the pack and unworthy of love. Tiberius was a rogue on a rampage. A lycan trapped in his beast form. A curse bound to destr...
