Chapter 21
Twenty-One
Bailey
I wake up on my couch, ready to dismiss the entire thing as a crazy dream, when I see him.
Knox .
Knox, the enigmatic man I shared a fleeting connection with at Cassie’s wedding, is now perched in my living room chair, engrossed in one of my cherished romance novels. As I begin to stir, he peeks over the book’s edge. “Hey,” he greets, his deep voice resonating with warmth and familiarity. How are you feeling?”
I sit up, trying to make sense of it all. “Did I … Did you … Can you?—”
“Yes,” he says, seeming to answer everything at once, “but I need to show you. You need to see it with your own eyes, this time without the distraction of your dickhead ex.” He sets the book on the coffee table and stands, his nude muscular body delicious in the low light of a corner lamp.
“He is a dickhead,” I agree, hoisting myself a little more upright. “Okay. Show me.”
A flash of light fills the space. I shield my eyes, black dots soiling my vision momentarily. Then I see that Wolfie sits exactly where Knox had been .
“Jesus Christ,” I mutter under my breath. “So you … You really can?—”
Wolfie shifts back into Knox, my eyes once again granted the blessing of his full-frontal nudity.
I shield my eyes, unsure why I suddenly feel so shy, considering our encounter at the wedding. “Can you … I think?—”
“I can put something on,” he says. “Wait here.” He leaves for the bathroom and returns with a towel wrapped around his waist. “Better?”
“Better,” I say. “Thanks. It’s not that I don’t want … I mean, you look fabulous, it’s just that?—”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” he laughs. “I can only imagine how overwhelming this is for you—seeing all this. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I was just waiting for the right time.”
“I see.” He sits back in the chair, and I’m quite happy he keeps a bit of distance between us. Despite the wedding and my undeniable pull for him, I don’t quite know what to make of this situation. My mind is reeling with everything that’s happened. “So, what are you?” I ask.
He nods. “A shifter. I can shift between my wolf and human form at will. Well, usually.”
“Is it something you’re born with, or?—”
“Yes,” he says, nodding again. “It comes from a specific gene, more often passed down from the father’s side, but it can come from either. It usually manifests during puberty. Everyone in my pack had their shifting abilities by age twelve, except me. I was a bit of a late bloomer, you could say.”
“What age were you?”
“Sixteen the first time it happened,” he says, “and it was very inopportune. I was about to … Well, I was with this girl I liked, and?—”
“It’s okay,” I tell him, holding up a hand. “You don’t have to explain any more than that.”
“Thanks,” he says. “Anything else you want to know? ”
“I have a million questions, but how come you kept hanging around on my deck as a wolf? Why didn’t you initially show me that you were a shifter? And how did you find me all the way out here? Did you stumble upon my cabin one day and think I looked fun?”
He scratches his head. “Bailey, I … I have something I need to confess to you,” he says, those piercing gray eyes chock full of sincerity.
“Okay,” I say, “what?”
“You’re my fated mate. And … Well, I used some magic to find you. There’s a lady, the Witch of Bonds, people call her, but her name is Agatha.”
“Agatha?” I echo. “Why does that sound so familiar?”
“She’s a witch,” he explains, “and she specializes in pairing mates using a fated tarot deck.”
The words hit me like a brick in the chest. “The tarot reader at Cassie’s bachelorette party,” I say out loud.
“Sure, that’s probably how you met her,” he says. “I hired her to guide me to my mate, which led me to you. But I lost the ability to shift for a while as a result. I was stuck in my wolf form up until the night of the wedding. That’s why I didn’t show you the real me sooner. But I still couldn’t stay away from you. The pull was too strong. So I stayed and hung around as Wolfie.”
“Oh my gosh,” I cry, throwing my head into my hands. “I confessed things to wolf-you about human-you! God, that’s so embarrassing!”
“I thought it was adorable,” he says with a smirk. “Please don’t be embarrassed. You couldn’t have known.”
“No, I couldn’t have, but that doesn’t make me feel like any less of an idiot,” I groan. “And what about the dreams? It was you I kept seeing in all my dreams, wasn’t it?”
He nods, grinning sheepishly. “Yeah. Shifter mates can dreamshare, but I had no idea a shifter-human couple could do it! ”
“We’re not a couple,” I correct him, his face immediately flooded with hurt.
“I … You’re my fated mate, Bailey. I know you are. That’s why the tarot led me here.”
I pinch the space between my brows, and my head suddenly feels like it might explode. “I’m sorry, Knox, but I … I need time. I just got out of a relationship a couple of months ago, and… I don’t think I’m ready to jump right into something else. Plus I need to digest all of this. I’m sorry.”
He nods his understanding, head hanging as he sits there in silence. “Okay,” he finally says softly, “I understand. I can give you space if that’s what you need.”
“It is,” I assure him. “It really is. I’m sorry, Wolf—I mean, Knox. You have to go.”
“I get it,” he says. He heads to the kitchen and stands in front of the fridge. I watch as he takes the dry-erase marker and writes something on the magnetic whiteboard I use to scribble notes and grocery lists. “I wrote my number down,” he says, replacing the marker. “I hope you understand why, even though I couldn’t tell you sooner, I really, really wanted to. And that time at the hotel?—”
“Let’s not talk about it,” I say.
“Fair enough,” he says. He takes the towel off, and I avert my eyes as he folds it and sets it on the kitchen island. “I hope you’ll text me, Bailey.”
“Bye, Knox,” I say, and he shifts back into his wolf form and takes off into the night.