She pulled her mouth from his and pushed him away. “You’re a wolf!”
“Yeah. I’m a werewolf. That’s what I’ve been telling you.” He moved to pull her close again, but she braced her hands on his chest.
“No. I mean you really are a wolf; a furry, four legged, howling-at-the-moon wolf!”
“So?”
“I saw you. At the river. And those were your paw prints around my cabin. And... Oh my God! You snuck into my cabin one night, didn’t you?” When he looked away, she shrieked and hit him. “Pervert!”
Ryne winced and covered his ears. “Hey! No screaming. My ears are sensitive.”
“But you molested me in my sleep.” She smacked him again and he caught her hands holding them to his chest.
“I just stopped by to check on you because you’d hit your head. I didn’t like the idea of you being by yourself, but when I arrived, you were having a bad dream. My wolf sort of took over and tried to offer you some comfort.”
“Comfort! Is that what you call it?” She struggled against him, glaring. “I could have you arrested! And don’t give me any of that ‘he made me do it’ stuff. That’s so juvenile.”
“When your wolf is fully formed, you’ll be amazed at what it can do, if you don’t keep it under control.”
“So control it!”
“I’ve been trying, but you have me so twisted into knots that it hasn’t been easy.”
“I do?” She stilled her struggles and studied him.
He gave a half smile.
Mel pursed her lips as if considering the information, then shook her head. “No. You’re trying to distract me from the main point which is you invaded my room while I was sleeping and...and...touched me!”
Ryne zoomed in and planted a kiss on her lips. “You liked it. You had an orgasm. Don’t deny it.”
“Well, yes. But—”
He silenced her with a long, slow kiss. When he finally moved back, he whispered against her ear. “When we get out of here, I promise to give you a lot more orgasms.”
Mel shivered at the wickedly erotic images that his words brought to mind. “But back in Stump River you said—”
“Shh...” He laid his finger over her lips. “I said lots of stupid stuff, trying to get you to go away so you wouldn’t get caught up in the Keeping.”
The statement quickly sobered her mood as she recalled parts of his earlier lecture. She shifted away from him. “Is it really that serious? You have to kill people if they find out your secret?” He nodded. “So...what about me? I know. Are you going to kill me?”
“Well, we do let a select few know of our existence, if it benefits the whole pack. And we screen those people very carefully.”
She gulped. “Do I qualify?”
“In normal circumstances, probably not. But given the fact that you’re transforming into one of us—”
Mel started to protest that there was absolutely no way she was becoming a werewolf, but then stopped. If he believed she was transforming, then that meant she was safe. Okay, she’d deny it in her head, but outwardly... She pasted a smile on her face. “So I’m immune to the law.”
“Unless you refuse to accept your transformation and start telling everyone or go rogue, letting others see you changing, things like that.”
“Nope. Not me. I promise to keep mum.” She put her hand up as if making an oath and then mimed zipping her lip. After all, even if she told people, who would believe her? “So what happens again, if Aldrich and Greyson tell other people?”
“If it appears the secret has been spread to others, the pack that has been discovered enters into something akin to a suicide pact.”
Mel shuddered as the import of what was going on finally sunk in. “So basically, I’ve endangered your whole family by interviewing you?”
Ryne stood up and began to pace again. “I started it by taking that photo of Kane in his wolf form and then not guarding the picture closely enough. When Greyson bought it, he must have examined it closely and discovered certain anomalies between Kane’s wolf form and that of a real wolf.”
“But Greyson must have suspected that werewolves existed ahead of time. Most people don’t look at an unusual picture of a wolf and say ‘Hey, there’s something different about this one. It must be a werewolf.’ Normal people don’t think that way.”
“Well apparently Greyson does because that’s the only reason I can think of for him to be searching for me. My pictures are good, but not that good. Not good enough to spend thousands of dollars on finding me just to interview me.”