Page 44 of Examining the Bond

“No mates,” I assure her. “No girlfriends. Nada.”

If I wasn’t drowning in suppressants, I’d be pumping my scent into the air to reassure her, the way I would if she was my omega. Being that I can’t, I reach over and place my hand gently on her thigh, rubbing my thumb back and forth over her fuzzy blanket. She relaxes beneath my touch, which has my drowsy alpha instincts fighting in vain to break free.

“What about you?” I ask, not wanting to pry too much, but also wanting to know every damn thing about her all at once. “I take it you’re not seeing anyone.”

“Well, it’s complicated.”

My heart drops at her words, and I'm already conjuring a hundred worst-case scenarios. Does she already have prospective mates? Does she have someone waiting for her back home?

My throat tightens as she keeps going, “There’s this hot doctor I banged this morning, but I’m not really sure what’s going on between us.”

A nervous chuckle escapes me, the ball of tension unravelling in my chest.

Thank god.

I would have felt guilty if I’d fucked someone’s girlfriend without asking first.

But only a little.

“I’ll stop joking about it,” she whispers, obviously picking up on my discomfort.

“No, no. It's fine.” Shaking my head, I roll onto my side to be face to face with her. “If I wasn’t so worried about getting firedand losing my license, I’d think this was all hilarious. It’s just a little…”

“Complicated?” she offers.

I nod.

She reaches over to trail her fingertips lightly down my arm, making me shudder as she traces my tattoos. I watch her movements, warmth sinking through me at the contact.

A tiny voice at the back of my head is screaming that I shouldn't be here, that this is a terrible idea. I should be working on figuring out her symptoms, taking her blood back to the lab to start extracting her DNA.

But, fuck, this is nice.

It's been so long since I've been this close to anyone, and the peace is overwhelming. My mind is at ease, my heart pounding a steady, content beat, and for a moment I'm almost able to forget everything outside this hotel room.

I'm not putting on an alpha mask for the outside world, I'm not trying to fit in somewhere I don't belong.

At the thought, what's left of my walls come tumbling down.

“Do you have any tattoos?” I ask, my eyes tracking to her unmarred skin. I saw most of her earlier, but that doesn't mean she’s not hiding one somewhere.

“Not yet.” She grins wide. “Maybe one day. Do yours all have some deep meaning behind them?”

I laugh, immediately thinking about the matching gummy bear tattoo I got with Lana on a drunken spring break.

“Some do.”

“Hmm…” She props herself up on her elbow and points to a hooded woman with horns on my bicep, her face streaked with tears. It's about eight years old, but the black shading is still pretty saturated. “What about this one?”

“I was quite the edgelord when I was eighteen. That's when I got most of these.” I twist my arm this way and that, showingoff my collection of ink. “I'd just presented as an alpha, and I was trying to figure out who I was. This,” I point to the tattoo she chose, “is from a movie that became my entire personality for about six months. It's a horror film about a female alpha who takes it upon herself to right the wrongs of the world. Even though she punishes monsters, she's?—”

“—still painted as the villain.”

I cock a brow at her, impressed. “You've seenThe Rise and Fall of Belladonna?That movie is older than you, isn’t it?”

“Yep. We studied it at the academy last year.” She pokes me in the abs. “In our Ancient History class.”

She bursts into a fit of giggles at my expression—I can't control what my face is doing anymore—and wipes a tear from her eye.