Aric’s hard laugh forced his head back. “Okay. Fair enough.” He cleared his throat, trying to quiet. “As weres, we’re born resembling human babies. We obtain our first change during a full moon before our first birthday. The younger we are when we first change, the more powerful we’ll be as weres. The strongest usually change between six and nine months of age.”
“How old were you when you first changed?”
“How old do you think?”
“Considering you’d make the Hulk your bitch? I’ll go with not a day past six months.” He didn’t answer. “Babe, how old were you?”
Aric smirked before answering, “Not even two months old.”
I didn’t move, or breathe, or blink. “Okay. You are a freak. Welcome to the club. We have a secret handshake.”
Aric slid his hands slowly down my back, immediately warming my body. “Can’t wait to learn it.”
I placed my chin on his chest. “So you really are the big, bad wolf. Aren’t you?”
Aric’s voice turned distant. “I suppose. But unlike you, my strength didn’t come with any special gifts. I’d have given it up for the power to see the future.”
I shook my head. “That can be more of a curse than a gift, love.”
“Maybe. But at least it would have saved my father.” Aric drew me closer. “When I was fifteen, my dad and Martin, our current Alpha, were sent with a team to Africa. Martin’s mate, Nala, also accompanied them. Their mission was to dispose of an extremely powerful witch in Lesotho protecting diamond smugglers. In exchange for protection, the smugglers paid her well and gave her sacrifices. When my father and his team caught up with her, they weren’t prepared for how powerful she’d become. She bespelled Nala with moon sickness and disappeared.”
My stomach churned. Bren once told me moon sickness was the equivalent of bloodlust for weres. I didn’t want Aric to relive such a tragedy and thought I should interrupt. But he continued. Maybe because he had to.
“My father was one of many weres killed that day before Nala was finally destroyed. Martin’s strength allowed him to live, and so did his guilt. He felt obligated to raise me since his mate killed my father and because he failed as my dad’s Warrior to protect him. My mother didn’t fare as well. She was literally on her deathbed the moment she felt my father pass. I kept her alive by making her a foolish promise she continues to expect me to fulfill.”
“What did you promise her?”
Aric swallowed hard. “I promised to give her grandchildren.”
This time it was my turn to tense. “Oh.”
We held each other in silence, our beating hearts syncing in strength and rhythm. Birds sang outside and the warm breeze passed hard enough to billow the drapes. In the distance, cars swept along the highway, once, twice, three times before I finally spoke again. “Whatever happened to the witch?”
“I found her six months later. She was my first kill.”
CHAPTER 21
I jerked up. Aric had avenged his father at such a young age. Aric sat up, cupping his large hand on my shoulder. “You weren’t expecting that, were you?”
“No.”
He kissed my forehead. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t ever hurt you.”
“I know,” I whispered. My lips met his to prove my lack of fear for him. But then he pulled away and left our bed. He adjusted the vertical blinds so they allowed light in, but veiled us from the outside world.
I adjusted the sheet against my breasts when he returned to bed. He knelt in front of me. “Will you tell me about your first kill?”
I turned my face away from him. “Trust me when I say you don’t want to know.”
His fingers rubbed the base of my skull, gently playing with the fine hair beneath. “I want to know everything about you. Even the hard times you’ve endured.”
I didn’t say anything, choosing to listen to a car pull in next door. Doors flew open and a little girl squealed. Mrs. Mancuso’s great-grandchildren had come for a visit. It was the only time she semibehaved around us.
Aric waited patiently for me to speak. He didn’t seem to realize how opposed I was to discussing my past, so I offered him an explanation, hoping it would be enough. “Your opinion of me will change if I do.”
My reasoning didn’t deter Aric like I wished it would. He shook his head. “No. It won’t.”
“It should.” Long drawn-out seconds morphed into agonizing minutes. I finally stole a glance at his eyes. While they maintained the same fire, there was something different about them, a level of compassion I’d yet to discover. I don’t know why, but at that moment I felt like I needed to be honest with him. I waited, though, until the last of the children’s voices muffled behind the door of Mrs. Mancuso’s house. It was silly. It wasn’t like they could’ve heard me, but somehow their innocence made everything I had to tell Aric that much harder.