the marines, finding the chain of command and discipline required was right up his alley.
Throwing off the covers , Ian stood and stretched the kinks out of his back. He would have liked to shift and run through some woods, but knew he couldn’t do that while staying in a strange city.
Instead, he dropped to the floor and started doing pushups. By the time he reached a hundred, he heard the bathroom door open. Ian continued, thinking another hundred just might take the edge off.
He saw Melanie’s feet a s she sat in a chair across from him. Glancing up, he noticed she had put on a purple t-shirt with clean blue jeans. The shirt was a nice compliment to her eyes. Ian moaned quietly, now he was getting poetic.
Melanie was staring at his chest and arms. His biceps bulged, straining to push his body up. His chest had great definition . She couldn’t help noticing he was ripped. Nice pecs too. She decided she was a lucky, lucky, girl. She couldn’t wait to run her fingers through that tempting brown hair. Maybe ask him to tie it back so she could simply stare at his face. The dark whiskers along his jawline screamed for her to run her cheek alongside his.
“We need to talk,” he said ominously.
Melanie jumped, her fantasy evaporating like a puff of smoke.
She wouldn’t let it show, but he intimidated her a little bit. He was just so huge! His height and width were impressive. She was picturing him in a kilt with a sword swinging above his head when he suddenly jumped up. She startled a little, scooting back in her chair.
“Okay, go ahead,” she said, smiling.
Ian ran his hand through his hair, growling.
“Not me, you. I want to know what’s going on. Why were you on that road? Why walk, and especially alone?” he barked.
Melanie hesitated, thinking about how to explain her compulsion to be on that road.
“ Don’t you need to go to the bathroom before we talk? I know most people do first thing in the morning,” she said innocently.
“Melanie!” he roared.
“Alright. Chill. You’re obviously not a morning person,” she sniffed dismissively.
Grinding his teeth, he looked to the ceiling for patience.
She took her time. Even though she was anxious, she tried not to show it. She rather enjoyed messing with him, she found.
“I felt a compulsion to hit the road. It pulled me south from Albuquerque. I knew I had to go. I didn’t have a choice. I also knew I was supposed to walk, not drive. Don’t ask me how or why, it’s beyond anything I’ve felt before. But it wasn’t a bad feeling and I was going toward my destiny,” she finished solemnly.
Ian sat on the edge of the bed. That was exactly what he had felt. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. His brother hadn’t said anything about feeling like this before he met Lisa.
“Your turn. Why were you on that road?” she asked, but knew the answer.
“Same as you. A compulsion guided me there. What I don’t understand is how your family could allow you to go off on your own with absolutely no protection,” he said grimly.
“ This is not the seventeenth century and my family has faith in me. They know I can take care of myself,” she stated, firmly.
“What I want to know is, how? What exactly are you? And don’t tell me that’s rude. You know I’m a wolf, yet I don’t know what you are. You use magic casually as if you’ve been doing it all your life,” he said.
“I’ve had magic all my life. As far as what I am, I’m a druid. I come from a family of druids. That’s as much as I can tell you right now, and that’s only because I understand you will be my mate, since I felt the connection to you.
“There is no ‘will be’. You are my mate. Obviously you know about shift ers and understand that you’re mine. Since you don’t need any time to adjust, we might as well do the mating right now,” Ian said, knowing
Aiden James, Lisa Collicutt