A Werewolf at the Falls

Chapter Six

Kian closed his eyes and took deep breaths to calm himself. He should have known Brad would do something like this. The prick loved to get digs in with him, Soren and Atticus whenever he possibly could. Kian could kick himself for ever letting Jorja serve the bastard. Of course Brad would have been able to tell from her scent she was a claimed mate, and who had been the male to claim her. But he wouldn’t have known Jorja knew nothing about their kind.

“Can somebody tell me what is going on, and what Brad meant?” He heard the strain in Jorja’s voice.

Kian opened his eyes to find Soren giving him a look of sympathy before he said quietly, “Sorry, my man, it looks as if you’re going to have to have that chat with Jorja sooner than you would have liked.”

Soren stepped away and Kian saw his mate looking between the two of them as if they had both lost their minds. He got off the barstool and stood in front of her. “I’ll explain everything.”

“What was with your eyes?” she whispered.

“Not here,” he said. “Up in my room. Right now.”

She shook her head. “I can’t. My shift isn’t over.”

“Tell them you suddenly don’t feel well. I need to talk to you now before Brad comes back and decides to cause more crap between us.”

Jorja searched his gaze, then nodded. “Okay, but I’m going to lose out on a lot of tips. And since money is kind of tight, it’ll hurt.”

“Forget about the damn money,” he said, a little shorter than he’d wanted. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. I just want to get you out of here.”

She seemed to hesitate before she went off to tell whoever she needed to that she was leaving. Kian spotted her talking to a man at a door that led to an employee-only section of the casino. He rubbed a hand over his face, dreading what was to come next.

“Do you want me to stay with you when you tell Jorja?” Soren asked.

“Actually, yeah, I do. Maybe if the two of us explain it we can get her to accept it easier.”

“Hopefully that shithead Brad didn’t fuck things up too much.”

Jorja returned, carrying her purse. “My supervisor let me go, since I’ve never left early like this before, so he believed me when I said I wasn’t feeling well. If I don’t want him to think I lied, I need to get out of sight before he comes back into the casino.”

All three of them hurried over to the bank of elevators and were soon on their way up to their floor. At Kian’s door, he used his keycard to open it and pushed it open for Jorja to step in first. He followed with Soren bringing up the rear.

Jorja only waited until the door shut behind them before she asked, “Why did your eyes glow like that? And don’t tell me it’s because you’re a werewolf. That’s utter bullshit.”

Kian looked at Soren before he turned back to Jorja. Yup, this was not going to be easy. “Take a seat, Jorja, then Soren and I will do our best to explain.”

She sat on the leather couch in the conversation area and looked up at them, waiting. Kian paced back and forth in front of her as he tried to get the words straight in his mind. He thought it best just to stick with the straight facts.

“Okay,” he said. “The reason why my eyes glowed was because I was pissed off at Brad.”

“Because of the things he said?”

“Yes.”

“So he pissed you off when he said I was your mate and that you were a werewolf? Please tell me it made you mad because he fed me a line of crap.”

Kian stared at her, wishing this part was over and done with. “Yes, I was pissed with what he told you. Jorja, what he said was the truth. He made me angry because I hadn’t had the chance to tell you those things myself.”

“In other words, you believe you’re a werewolf and I’m your mate? You can’t expect me to accept that as the truth. I don’t know what world you live in, but in mine they don’t exist.”

Kian sighed. “In my world they do. My kind keep what we truly are well hidden from the mortals around us.”

“Do you know how crazy you sound? No one in their right mind would believe it.”

He squatted in front of Jorja and took her hands in his. They were cold to the touch. “I know this is hard for you to accept. But you have to. You are my mate. I claimed you the first time we made love. Now that the mating bond is in place, we need to stay together. If we don’t we’ll go through separation anxiety. You’ve already felt what it’s like.”

“Last night, when I thought I would lose my mind if I didn’t come back to you?”

“Yes. It’s worse in the beginning of a mating. After a year or so, mates can stand to be apart a lot longer without suffering from it.”

Jorja held his gaze and he saw in her eyes that she didn’t want to believe what he’d told her.

“I’m trying here, I really am,” she said. “I’ll admit I felt this separation anxiety, but the rest, I don’t know, Kian. It’s all so farfetched. And why did Brad keep referring to me as a mortal?”

Kian squeezed her hands. “Because to us, to werewolves, you are. We’re not exactly immortal, but are extremely long-lived compared to your kind. We can live to be up to three thousand years old. I’ve already seen nine hundred years, the same with Soren.”

Jorja’s gaze shot to Soren. “You’re a werewolf too?”

His friend nodded. “Yes, and so was that asshole Brad. We’re all from the same pack.”

Jorja’s gaze landed back on him. “This just seems to get weirder and weirder. Let me get this straight. I’m supposed to believe you’re a werewolf who is nine hundred years old, who could live to be three thousand and I’m mated to you, for life?”

Kian nodded. “Yes, it’s for life.”

“Whose lifetime? Yours or mine? Because if you live as long as you say, I won’t be around for even half of it.”

“Our friend, Atticus, has a mortal mate as well. He’s decided to have the same lifespan as her. Just as I’ll choose yours.” He gazed into her eyes. “I love you, Jorja. Where you go, I go.”

Jorja surged to her feet, almost knocking Kian on his butt as she brushed past him to stand a little way away from him and Soren. “Too much, too much, too much. And here I had been worried about you leaving tomorrow and not wanting anything more to do with me,” she said shrilly.

Kian rose to his feet. “I know this is a lot, but there is no going back. We’re mates. There is no breaking the mating bond.”

“So basically we’re married. Is that what you’re telling me?”

“That would be the mortal way of describing it, I guess. Only there is no divorce.”

“And you said this mating bond formed the first time we made love. You knew it would happen yet you did it anyway, taking my choice away from me.”

Kian groaned inside. Now he’d have to tell Jorja he fucked up. “I was drunk. I wasn’t thinking straight. I just acted on instinct.”

“So in other words, I was a mistake.”

“No, never. Jorja, if you weren’t the one meant for me, my mating urge wouldn’t have been set off the instant I saw you. Being drunk, I sort of lost control of my wolf side and acted on what instinct demanded I do. I’m sorry I took your choice away, but I don’t regret doing it.” He tried to take a step toward her, but Jorja backed up. He stopped in place.

“Soren referred to your wolf downstairs, now you have. I’m going to be blunt here. You really don’t look any different than me. And I haven’t seen any evidence of you going ‘wolf’. Other than your eyes glowing, that is.”

She still didn’t really believe he was a werewolf. There was only one way to give her the irrefutable proof she so obviously needed. He shifted. He held out his hand and saw it shimmer and blur as he took on his wolf form. Jorja’s eyes widened, her breathing growing ever more rapid. Once he was completely wolf, he looked up at her and held his paw out. Still she didn’t move. Hoping he could get her to touch him, to show her he was not a figment of her imagination, Kian took a step toward her.

Jorja’s eyes rolled back inside her head and she collapsed.

Able to move much faster than any mortal, Soren was there to catch her before she hit the floor. His friend looked at him and shook his head. “I don’t think that was a smart move on your part, shifting without giving Jorja any warning.”

Kian shifted back to his human form, willing his clothes on at the same time. He gently took Jorja from Soren and held her close to his chest with her head resting on his shoulder. “I didn’t know what else to do to get her to believe.”

“I think I’ve helped out here as much as I can. I’m going to my room. At least you got the hard part over with.”

Kian watched Soren leave the room before he went to the bed and placed Jorja on it. She was still out cold. All he could do was wait until she woke up.

Jorja opened her eyes to find herself lying on the bed in Kian’s hotel room. Everything he’d said, what she’d seen him do—actually shift into a wolf—all came rushing back. She sat up and scanned the room, finding Kian nowhere in sight. Then she heard the sound of the toilet flush. Her gaze landed on the bathroom door as he opened it and stepped into the room. His steps faltered a bit when he saw she was awake.

He slowly crossed to the bed. “Are you okay with what I am, Jorja?”

“I don’t know.”

And honestly she didn’t. She’d gone from thinking he and Soren were a couple of loons to having the truth practically shoved down her throat when Kian had taken on his wolf form. All he’d told her had to be the truth. He was a werewolf and she was his mate, bonded to him for the rest of her life. She needed to think everything through, order her thoughts. And she couldn’t do that very well with Kian nearby.

She slid off the bed, making sure she kept some distance between them. “I have to be alone. Please don’t stop me from leaving.”

Kian gave her a pained look. “If you leave, we’ll both suffer for it.”

“I don’t care,” she snapped. Jorja took a deep breath to calm herself. She felt on the verge of hyperventilating again. One fainting spell was enough for her. “If you don’t let me go I’ll never come to grips with this all. I need some time away from you to get this all straight in my head.”

He sighed and stepped to the side. “Fine. Go. The only thing I ask is that you don’t let the separation anxiety get too bad. It will defeat the purpose of you wanting to be alone. It will play tricks on your mind. You’ll think something bad has happened to me, making you desperate to return. Remember what it was like when you saw me again the last time. I can guarantee that will be the end result.”

Sex. That’s what Kian meant. They’d end up having hot, desperate sex like they had in the early hours of the morning. Which meant when she returned, she’d better know exactly how she felt about him, and be willing to accept the new life they would have together.

Jorja gave a short nod and walked past Kian. She didn’t look back as she opened the door and stepped into the hallway. With no idea where she’d go, but just knowing she had to get out of the resort, she took the elevator down to the lobby. A minute later, she was outside breathing in the night air.

Fishing her keys out of her purse, she headed for the parking lot. She’d go for a short drive and come back. Surely she could handle that much. She got in her car and drove away from the resort.

Already she felt as if she missed Kian. She pulled everything she’d learned to the forefront of her mind and quickly sorted through it. Kian was a werewolf. Could she accept that? More than likely, yes. Not once had she felt threatened by him. Obviously, his type of werewolf wasn’t the snarling, bloodthirsty beast movies portrayed them as. She would just need time to get used to him in his wolf form. By nature, she adapted to change easier than some people.

Then there was the issue of them being mates. Were her feelings for Kian strong enough for her to spend the rest of her life with him, even though they’d just recently met? Only earlier today she’d admitted to herself she’d fallen for him. Now that she knew he loved her, was happy to have her as his mate, her feelings for him were a bit stronger. The only thing holding her back from actually saying she loved him was how fast everything had happened. In a normal relationship, it could take months, if not years, to reach that stage in a long-term commitment. Hers and Kian’s had formed the first night they’d met.

She’d been gone fifteen minutes and the need to return to Kian was more than noticeable. As he’d told her, she felt as if something terrible had happened to him. She did her best to ignore it. She wasn’t ready to go back just yet.

Jorja pulled up the last thing she needed to make a decision on. If she did love him, could she give up her life in Niagara Falls? There was no question Kian would want to return to Toronto. And to be honest, why would he want to stay here? It wasn’t as if she had much in her life to offer him. He was the one with the wealth and family. She was all alone, had been for a long time. After her parents had died in a car crash when she’d been fifteen, and no relatives had surfaced to claim her, she’d been placed in the foster care system. Once she’d reached adulthood, she’d left to strike out on her own, and hadn’t looked back since.

The need to be with Kian increased even more. She thought of the way he’d been with her today. She’d felt protected, cared for. And when she’d caught him staring at her, she’d seen the love he’d professed lurking in his eyes. Then she’d thought maybe it had been wishful thinking on her part. Now she knew those emotions had been real. No man had looked at her like that before.

Jorja roughly wiped a tear out of her eye as she thought about all Kian offered her. She had a gorgeous man who would never leave her, would never cheat on her, would always be there for her. She’d have a real family again, something she’d missed. And she’d never have to worry about money again. Did she love him? As sudden as it was, she thought she did.

Having finally sorted out her feelings, and made the decision to not make Kian suffer anymore, Jorja turned the car around and headed back to the resort. And back to her man. She would jump into her new life with both feet and hit the ground running.

By the time she arrived at the resort, she desperately wanted to feel Kian’s arms around her, holding her tight. There were going to be some adjustments for both of them, but the main thing was they loved each other. They could work out the rest as they went.

It seemed to take forever for the elevator to arrive, and for it to reach Kian’s floor. With no keycard to get in, she knocked on his door. He opened it, his gaze seeming to eat her up where she stood.

She looked into his eyes and said, “I want you. All of you.”

With a groan, Kian wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into the room. As his lips took hers, kissing her as if he were a starved man and only she could save him, he let the door close behind them. Jorja kissed him back, the tears that had threatened finally falling.

Kian pulled back and wiped them away with his thumbs. “Don’t cry, Jorja.”

She gave him a watery smile. “I’m fine. It’s just I love you. I haven’t had someone in my life who has loved me in return for a very long time. Right now, you’re all the family I have.”

He kissed her again. “I’m never going to leave you, Jorja. Ever. I’ve waited a long time for you, my mate. The love I have for you will always be.” He picked her up and carried her to the bed. “Now I intend to make love to you until neither one of us can move.”

Jorja surrendered herself to her werewolf mate’s arms, knowing she couldn’t ask for a better start to her new life with him.

The End