“Okay, back on track,” I began. “Tell me. Tell me one instance in your life where you actually behaved like a monster.”

“I wanna fuck you,” he snarled.

I stared.

“Yeah,” he ground out. “I wanna fuck you, Delilah. Consumed with the need and I have no idea why, but I can guess, seein’ as it’s like you’re a bitch in heat, I’m a dog that catches the scent and his mind is wiped…wiped of anything…but the need to mount you and”—he leaned forward—“rut.”

“Holy fuck,” I breathed.

“Yeah,” he said again. “That make you feel safe?”

“Abel—”

“I can smell your fear.”

I swallowed.

“It turns me on,” he kept going. “Makes me wanna tear into your throat and fuck you and feed from you. Now, does that make you feel safe?”

“No,” I whispered, because it really fucking didn’t.

“Right. No,” he bit off. “So I’m not a monster?”

“It’s…it’s…” I stammered.

“Yeah? What is it?” he asked when I couldn’t get it out.

“It’s you,” I said softly, because it was, even if it was scary as shit.

“You’re absolutely correct,” he clipped, then said with disgust, “It’s me.”

Then it hit me.

“You left yesterday because of that.”

“I did,” he confirmed. “I did, because if I spent another minute with you, I’d have you on your knees, takin’ my dick, you wanted it or not.”

“Abel,” I breathed, suddenly understanding, and my heart started bleeding.

Yes, he was protective of me, overprotective, wanting me to feel safe, struggling against his nature to keep me that way.

“Your heart’s beating so hard, it sounds like it’s about to tear out of your chest. I did that to you. And I’m not a monster?”

“My heart is beating hard because I’m feeling a lot right now, and not all of it is fear, Abel,” I told him.

“Then you aren’t very smart because, even as I sit here, all I can think of is burying my cock inside you.”

Oh shit.

Now I was getting turned on.

“Do you think other werewolves…do you think that they…?” I trailed off, but he got me.

“You’re not a werewolf. Maybe there are female ones who get the way it is, but you are not one of them.”

“But I’m yours,” I pointed out.

“You ever transform into a wolf?”

I shook my head, giving him the answer he already knew.