Heart of a Beast

Chapter 10 | Tiberius

Tiberius had to remind himself to back off. To give her space.

As much as he wanted to hold Crystal and gaze into her eyes all morning, he knew her family wanted to return home quickly.

They were all calmer now. Her father and brother still gave him side-eye glances when they gathered in the hallway a minute before she left the bathroom and while they ate a generous breakfast, but the males didn't give him a hard time. They didn't say much to him and talked mostly with his mate. He didn't mind since he couldn't entertain anyone with conversation himself.

But when she snuggled in beside him in the van, he knew everything was going to be okay. She had accepted him as her mate in front of her family and strangers, now he needed to obtain her affections to free him from the curse—and most likely herself as well. He was certain that her inability to shift was connected to his curse.

As they drove, Crystal slept against him, and he contemplated where to go from there.

She would be more comfortable in her pack, but he would be the outsider and regarded as a threat since word about him had spread and he acquired the title of "rogue."

Should he let his family know where he was and that he had found his mate?

Given what happened when his brother found his mate, his parents would probably demand his return home. The transition might be hard on Crystal and hinder his success of obtaining her affections. She'd be further regarded as an outsider as a werewolf unable to shift into her wolf and that would hinder her happiness and ability to fall in love with him as well.

But what if his parents didn't demand his return? What if they denied it because he went rogue? Packs didn't accept former members back in if they left. The very idea was absurd.

He closed his eyes and willed himself to not over-think the "what ifs" and instead remembered the way his mate looked into his eyes.

He smiled. She was starting to see him. He could feel it, hear it in the way her heart skipped, and the wonderful scent that lifted from her flesh.

But it was the skipping of her heart that worried him. He had to be careful not to overwhelm her. He didn't want to trigger a seizure. He managed to relax her before one could start when her family was stressing her about him, but would he be able to stop all of them if he stayed close to her?

She was worried about you.

That thought played his heart like a drum, an erratic beat that flushed him with warmth.

Her family would come around to their bond in time. The males were just protective, a natural instinct. He'd be worried if they hadn't been immediately protective. It wasn't every day a lycan and a werewolf shared a matebond—especially when he was seen as a rogue and stank of vampire blood at their first meeting.

It was a miracle she was even asleep with him now and he sent a silent prayer up to the Goddess.

The moment they entered the edges of the big city, his hackles raised.

He had avoided the human world for so long, he wasn't ready for the sounds and scents to wash over him like a tidal wave, overwhelming and drowning him in his strongest senses.

The edge of Chicago was already more intense than the tourist town close to his family's pack house at the Grand Canyon. He didn't know where his mate's pack was located, but he didn't know how he was going to be able to survive living in such a big city like Chicago either.

His muscles tensed and when he noticed, he relaxed them only to tense back up a few minutes later. The constant shifting of his muscles roused his mate from her nap.