Bonded

Chapter 24

"Come on. Come back to bed with me, Kama-Love. You can rage at me with renewed energy later." He stroked his thumb across her forehead.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" An adorable crease appeared on her forehead in her confusion.

He smiled softly at her and kissed her forehead. "Come to bed and I'll tell you."

She allowed him to lead her back to the large bed. She crawled in first, he quickly followed. Once she was once again settled in his arms, once he was satisfied that she was warm enough in his hold, once he was satisfied that they had enough skin to skin contact, once he was satisfied that she felt safe in his arms, he began to answer her question.

"All Alpha Werewolves go through years of training. During my training, I traveled the world learning from different Alphas. I was in India studying under Alpha Onay. He taught me a lot of things, but one of them was about Kama. It's Sanskrit. It means pleasure of the senses, it means desire, a longing, a wish. You are all of those things to me. You are my every desire, my every fantasy, my every dream made real. If we were Hindu, finding one's Kama is a lifelong goal. And here you are, in my arms. You are mine. You are my love. You are my Kama. You are my everything."

After a long silence, Rebecca asked, "How am I supposed to respond to that?"

Greyson kissed her temple. "I know you aren't there yet. I know you aren't ready. And that's okay. I don't want you to say anything or do anything you aren't sure about. But I can't not tell you, I can't not want to hold you in my arms, I can't not want to make love to you in hundreds of possible ways. Ignore me. Thank me. Tell me to shut up. Do whatever it is that you feel comfortable doing." Greyson took a deep, bracing breath. "Rebecca, you have been through a lot. Not just the last couple of days, but the last six months. All of it has been my fault. You have been sick and suffering because of me. I'm not sure how I can ever apologize enough or make it up to you. But I will try. Every day of my life I'll try and make it up to you."

Wanting to change the subject, Rebecca finally asked, "What's wrong with me?"

"It's called Bonded Sickness. It's when a mated pair is separated for too long. Becks, there has never been a case when the mates were apart for less than a year. I didn't know you were sick. If you had answered any of my emails, text messages or phone calls and told me, I would have come straight to you. I called you every single day, Becks."

"I know," Rebecca sighed. "I know you called every day. And every time, I was too chicken to answer." She came close so many times. Her finger hovered over the answer button on her phone. But she didn't trust herself. Not when it came to him.

Greyson didn't want to dwell too long on this topic. "We will have plenty of time to talk about all of that later. For now, we need to get you well."

"How? What is the treatment for...." She had forgotten what he called it. He had spent so much time convincing her that she was sick with this werewolf illness, he never told her how she was supposed to get better.

"Bonded Sickness," he supplied.

"Okay, so what is the treatment for Bonded Sickness?"

"This actually. Skin to skin contact with your mate. For this first week, we're going to need to be together almost all the time. Not just both of us in the apartment or in the same room, we need to be together, like this, with as much of our skin touching as possible."

"Wait," Rebecca interrupted him. "Exactly how much of our skin should be touching?" Of course, they had had their one night in Norway, but she didn't think she was ready to sleep with him again. It was far too complicated.

He smiled at her question and smoothed his hand up and down her back in a calming gesture. "As much, or as little as you are comfortable with. We're taking all of this at your pace, Becks. After this week, Dr. Tyler is going to work up a plan to see how long we can be separated before any of your symptoms come back. She is also working up a meal plan. You need to eat. You're underweight. The doc is worried and so am I."

Rebecca shifted slightly so that she could look at his face. "You are telling me that the cure for this is snuggles and snacks?"

He saw the glint in her eye and laughed. "Yes, I guess, I am."

"Huh, I guess I can handle that." She snuggled closer to Greyson and let her eyes drift closed as a wave of tiredness came washed over her. "I think I'm going to close my eyes, for just a few minutes."

Greyson chuckled at her. She was still so exhausted; she was going to be asleep for hours.

"Greys?"

"Yes, Kama-Love?"

"Later, I need to call Michael. I need to tell him where I am." She wasn't sure how long she had been gone, but any amount of time was going to be too long for him.

"Of course, now rest, my love." Internally, Greyson seethed. Her last thoughts before sleep were of another man. She wanted to reach out to him and tell him where she was. He understood, of course, he did basically kidnap her, and he didn't need any sort of police or law enforcement issues. But she was his. She needed him, not Michael. He would let her call, but she was staying here. She was staying in his apartment, in his bed. She was his and she would not be going back to Michael, she just didn't know it yet.

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