“Maybe my ego,” I muttered, still stretching. When I straightened again, the floor seemed an inch or two farther away as my spine unclenched. “I always told myself I was decently fit, that in a fire if I had to, I could haul a man out of harm’s way. But now …”
Lincoln smiled, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “I am … larger than most men.”
Don’t look. Don’t look.
I was so tired and sore, I managed to follow through with my mental process. I didn’t look at his groin from the obvious double entendre. I did, however, end up having to tear my eyes away from his biceps. His gouged and bloodied biceps.
That recognition brought me right back to the present, snapping me out of whatever spell his voice had tried to cast on me.
“What you are is a man who is no position to make jokes,” I said, my hands on my hips, glaring down at him. “You need to offer up some straight answers, or I’m calling an ambulance right now. No hesitation. I’ll tell them to send the police too.”
Lincoln’s eyes had never left mine, but now they darkened, his face tightening into a straight-mouthed stare that reflected the mood change. The ice in his blue eye hardened. The fires in the other danced higher.
“You don’t have to call them,” he said slowly. “I told you that already.”
“No?” I said, crossing my arms. “Maybe I should call the pound instead.”
There it was. I tossed the crazy idea out into the air between us, finally vocalizing it.
Lincoln didn’t seem shocked by the suggestion. He did blink, very slowly, taking his time. “Why would you call them?”
Anger surged up, burning away the tired ache in my muscles and sending fresh frenetic energy to my brain. “No,” I snapped, stabbing a finger at him hard enough he leaned backward.
“No?”
“Yes. I mean, no. No more of that, Lincoln. You aren’t going to do that to me, not anymore. No more gaslighting. No more distraction. No more avoiding the question, hoping I’m too stupid to push it. I know what I’m seeing.”
Lincoln rubbed his jaw, wincing as his fingers found yet another bruise. “What are you seeing?”
It was another question, not an answer, but perhaps it was fair I answered it.
“First, there’s this, thisthing that comes out of the damn tree in my yard after a lightning strike from a storm that never actually existed. It kills the tree dead. Doesn’t burn it, just turns it to dead black wood. Then of course the trunk splits apart, the monster you fought comes out and chases me into the forest. That’s thefirst fucking thing I’m seeing.”
His lip quirked ever so slightly as I swore. I couldn’t help it. I was worked up. I was angry. Most of all, I wasterrified. Of the monster thing. Of the wolf. Possibly of Lincoln himself. The thing I was the most scared of, however, was that I was losing my mind.
“Don’t you laugh,” I snapped. “This isn’t funny to me, so don’t act like it’s nothing. This is insane enough on its own. Then you can add in the giant, or bigger than normal, I know that, maybenot giant, wolf, that came out of nowhere to fight it. To save me. Which isnot the first time it’s done that.”
I paused to take a breath, to organize my words better. I had started to ramble there and get sidetracked, and I needed to stay on track.
“Okay.” That was all he said, giving me that time to continue.
“Now this is the extra super insane part. If the whole thing isn’t mega-nuts. Maybe the tree-thing is more insane. It’s not human or normal in any way. A giant wolf is weird, but it’s still a wolf. At least I know of those. But Lincoln, that wolf has the same eyes as you. It has the same wounds. In the same places. Call the white coats on me if you have to, but I don’t think you do. I’m not losing my mind, I know what I saw, so don’t tell me I am!”
I was yelling by the end. Lincoln didn’t interrupt. Didn’t make a face. He stood there, and let me unload my emotions on him. Supporting me, like he always had.
“I’m not crazy,” I repeated in a forceful whisper.
Who was I trying to convince more of that? Him, or myself?
“What aren’t you crazy about?” Lincoln said, his mismatched eyes boring into me.
I hesitated.
“Say it,” he pressed gently. “Let it out. Voice what you’re thinking.”
Taking a deep breath, I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Frustrated, I clamped my jaw shut. Lincoln was as patient as ever. Waiting. Watching. Letting me work through it. I took two more breaths, preparing to try again.
“The wolf-” I broke off in a high-pitched laugh. “No, this is crazy. I’m insane. I have to be.”
“Do you feel insane?” he pushed, again in that gentle, calm, encouraging voice.
“Not at all. But also completely.”
“Then say what you’re thinking. It’s got to come from you, Vee. You have to speak it out loud. Acknowledge it.”
“Fine. I can do that. I can say it. I’ll just, speak the words.” I bit my lip. Fuck it. “The wolf. It’s … you. Somehow. Isn’t it?”
There was a long pause. Lincoln’s eyes all but glowed. Then so slowly I could have missed it, his head moved up and down.
“Holy. Shit.” The whisper filled the room. “How? What? What is going on here, Linc? What does it allmean?
The tree-thing? You? Are you all related somehow?”
Lincoln’s growl banished my whisper to the ether as it ripped from his wounded chest. It filled the room and then the entire house to the point the nearest windows rattled. “I wouldnever want to hurt you,” he snarled with such extreme emphasis I stepped back, stunned by the outburst. “
Ever.”
The possessive, protective desire embedded in those words reached out past the shock of the outburst and found its way past my defenses. The words reached into my center, curling around one another to light a warmth fueled by the memories of his wolf protecting me. Saving me.
“Whatever that thing is, and I did not lie when I said I had never seen or heard of such a thing, it is foreign to me. I’ve not come across its like.”
“Right,” I said, still trying to work past the pit of warmth his words had evoked. I cautiously sat down on the chair behind me. “That first time with the bear. Thatwas you. Right?”
He nodded.
“I never got a chance to thank you for that.” I started to laugh, but cut it off at the brittle, hysterical notes entering it.
“Are you okay, Vee?”
I looked down, noticing my hands were continually wringing and twisting within one another. “I don’t know. Physically, I’m fine. You ensured that. But … whatis okay, Linc? How can one be okay after all this?”
I ran my hands back over my hair, settling it into place. “Does anyone else know? About whatever you are, I mean?”
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