Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

“I love you, too.” My voice didn’t sound any happier than his did.
    He stretched his neck and I heard the vertebrae crack. “So why aren’t I tearing that little geeky bastard into pieces right now?”
    I swallowed. Was this a trick question? Was there a right answer?
    â€œUhm. You don’t seem too angry,” I suggested.
    He hit the dash of his very expensive car so fast that I didn’t even really see his hand move. If his upholstery hadn’t been leather, he’d have cracked it.
    I thought about saying something funny, but decided it wasn’t quite the moment. I’ve learned a little something since I was sixteen.
    â€œI guess I was mistaken,” I said. Nope. Haven’t learned a thing.
    He turned his head slowly toward me, his eyes hard chips of ice. “Are you laughing at me?”
    I put my hand over my mouth, but I couldn’t help it. My shoulders started to shake because I suddenly knew the answer to his question. And that told me why it bothered him that he wasn’t in a killing rage. Like me, Samuel had had a revelation tonight—and he wasn’t happy about it.
    â€œSorry,” I managed. “Sucks, doesn’t it?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou had this great plan. You’d weasel your way into my house and carefully seduce me. But you don’t want to seduce me all that much. What you really want to do is cuddle, play, and tease.” I grinned at him, and he must have been able to smell the relief pouring off me. “I’m not the love of your life; I’m your pack—and it’s really ticking you off.”
    He said something really crude as he started the car—a nice Old English word.
    I giggled and he swore again.
    That he didn’t really consider me his mate answered a lot of questions. And it told me that Bran, who was both the Marrok and Samuel’s father, didn’t know everything, even if he and everyone else thought he did. Bran was the one who told me Samuel’s wolf had decided I was his mate. He’d been wrong: I was going to rub his nose in it next time I saw him.
    Now I knew why Samuel been able to restrain himself and not attack Adam all these months. I’d been crediting Samuel’s control with a dash of the magic that comes from being more dominant than most other wolves on the planet. The real answer was that I wasn’t Samuel’s mate. And since he was more dominant than Adam, if he didn’t want to fight, it would make it much easier for Adam to hold off.
    Samuel didn’t want me any more than I wanted him—not that way. Oh, the physical stuff was there, plenty of spark and fizzle. Which was puzzling.
    â€œHey, Sam,” I asked. “Why is it, if you don’t want me as a mate, that when you kiss me, I go up in flames?” Why was it that after the first rush of relief was over—I was starting to feel miffed that he didn’t actually want me as a mate?
    â€œIf I were human, the heat between us would be enough,” he told me. “Damned wolf feels sorry for you and decided to step down.”
    Now that made no sense at all. “Excuse me?”
    He looked at me and I realized he was still angry, his eyes glittering with icy fury. Samuel’s wolf has snow-white eyes that are freaking scary in a human face.
    â€œWhy are you still angry?”
    He pulled over on the shoulder of the highway and stared at the lights of Home Depot. “Look, I know my father spends a lot of time trying to convince the new wolves that the human and wolf are two halves of a whole—but that’s not really true. It is just easier to live with and most of the time it’s so close to being the truth that it doesn’t matter. But we’re different, the wolf and the human. We think differently.”
    â€œOkay,” I said. I could kind of understand that. There were plenty of times when my coyote instincts fought against what I needed to do.
    He closed his eyes. “When you were about fourteen and I realized what a gift had been dropped in my lap, I showed you to the wolf and he approved. All I had to do was convince you—and myself.” He turned to look me squarely in the eyes and he reached out and touched my face. “For a true mating, it isn’t necessary for the human half to even like your mate. Look at my father. He despises his mate, but his wolf decided that he had been alone long enough.” He