Zena Wynn - Tameka's Smile

She answered while donning the shirt. “Yeah, you can help me into the bathroom.”

He frowned ferociously. “I’ll have the nurse bring you a bedpan.”

“Only if you want me to bludgeon you with it. Help me out of this bed or I’ll do it myself.” She scowled back at him.

He snatched her up and plopped her down on top of the toilet stool. Leaning against the doorjamb, he crossed his arms over his chest and waited.

“Get out and close the door behind you. I’m not peeing with you watching.”

He opened his mouth, probably to complain, but Tameka didn’t give him a chance. “Now! The longer I take, the more time Mr. Winky has to wait to come back home.” His mouth snapped shut and he stormed out, muttering about stubborn females lacking the sense God gave a goose right before the door closed.

“And put on some pants!” she hollered through the door.

Once he was gone, Tameka allowed the smile she was suppressing to surface. He was so cute when he couldn’t have his way. Imagine the big, bad werewolf throwing a temper tantrum.

An uncomfortable fifteen minutes later, she was no longer laughing. Sweat poured down her face and she was so weak it was all she could do to sit upright. Pee shouldn’t burn coming out. There was also blood. Not much, but enough to frighten her.

Having never been seriously ill, now that she wasn’t being distracted by Chad, she was worried and wanted nothing more than to go home.

Too tired for modesty, she called for Chad and allowed him to assist. At her request, he sponged the sweat off of her body, gave her a fresh shirt, and placed her back on the bed seconds before dinner arrived. She picked at her food, having lost her appetite.

“Chad?”

“Hmm?” He glanced up from the steak he was devouring.

“Are you sure I’m alright? I don’t have some fatal disease and you’re just too afraid to tell me, do I?” Chad choked, coughing and pounding on his chest to get the food to go down. “What! No, why on earth would you think something like that?”

“I’m never sick. Something must be wrong. People don’t just suddenly up and have seizures, unless… Did I have a stroke?”

“No.”

“Well, I know it’s not epilepsy and I didn’t hit my head, so there’s no trauma to the brain. Hypoglycemia? I did get dizzy for a while there. That’s one of the signs of low blood sugar.”

“Your insulin levels are fine.”

“Oh, God, is it meningitis?”

He dropped his fork and just stared, a horrible, hunted expression on his face.

Her heart clenched. “That’s it, isn’t it? How bad is it? Tell me. I can handle it.”

“It’s my fault, all right?” He pushed his food away and surged to his feet. “I did it. You almost died because of me.” There was a moment of stunned silence, then she quietly said, “I don’t understand.”

He stalked over to the window and parted the curtains.

From the way the light reflected off of the glass, she doubted he could see anything, yet he stared intently.

“That day at my house, when I bit you…”

“You gave me rabies?” She said it half-jokingly, hoping to at least get a smile.

The fingers clutching the curtains turned white. “When I bit you, I licked the wounds to heal them. In the process, I flooded your body with too much of my DNA. That’s why you got sick.

You system couldn’t handle it and reacted.”

“I see.”

He spun around. “Do you?” he asked fiercely. “I don’t think you do. If you did, you’d be yelling right now, kicking me out of the room.”

“Why? It was an accident. You didn’t mean to make me ill.

It happened. I survived and we know not to do that again.” Tameka didn’t understand why he was being so hard on himself.

He was a different species from her, and he’d already admitted he didn’t know much about his nature. Only what he managed to learn through trial and error growing up. Accidents were bound to happen as they adjusted to each other.

“Was it, Meka? Are you so sure? What if I told you I did it on purpose?” He stalked over until he stood three feet from the bed, almost within touching distance. His hands were fisted at his side and his body rigid with tightly leashed anger.

If all of that rage were directed at her, she might have been nervous. But it was clearly self-directed. “I’m certain of it.

Whatever your intent, it wasn’t to harm. You would die before doing anything to intentionally hurt me.” The quiet confidence in her voice deflated him like a balloon. He sank to his knees beside the bed, an earnest expression on his face. “I swear to God, Meka, I didn’t mean to hurt you. Alex was explaining to me about true mates, and he said that the more of my DNA you had in you, the quicker you would accept that I was your mate. Only he didn’t get a chance to finish. I took it from there and almost lost you forever.”

“You wanted me that bad, that you were willing to change who and what I am just to keep me? Without my permission?”

“Yes.” His answer was stark and honest, but the feeling in the depths of his eyes shook her right down to her soul. This green-eyed Viking didn’t simply want her. He craved her the way a drug addict lusted after his next fix. He gazed at her as though he would die if he couldn’t have her, like she was the very air that he breathed.

She scooted over and lifted the cover. “Come here. You’re too far away. And take off those jeans. I want to feel you skin-to-skin.”

He hurried to comply. Once he was in the bed, she fell into his arms, immediately tangling their legs together. When they lay face-to-face with the same pillow supporting both of their heads, she asked, “Does this mean I’m like you now?”

“Alex believes so.” His gaze searched hers, as though he were trying to decipher how she felt about him and the news he’d just given her.

Logic dictated that she be angry. After all, thanks to him she was no longer human, but strangely, she wasn’t. Though she’d been furious at the time and believed it to be one big joke at her expense, she remembered every word of what Kiesha explained about true mates, the mating fever and bond, and its effect on her body. If Kiesha was to be believed, her changing into a werewolf was inevitable as long as she continued her relationship with Chad, and she’d done nothing to end it. In fact, she’d welcomed him with open arms once she realized he was telling the truth about who and what he was.

On the basis of all she’d been told, she deduced that all Chad had done was speed the process of something that would have happened anyway. She couldn’t be angry with him for that, although he clearly thought that she would be. She could see the guilt and self-condemnation written all over his face. He expected her to reject him, maybe the same way everyone else he ever cared about had. Growing up in foster care couldn’t have been easy.

She’d deal with that in a moment, but while he was being so open, there were a few more things she needed to know. “What was in the envelope?”

He stiffened and tried to move away, but she held him tight.

“Chad,” she growled warningly. She was sick and tired of him trying to evade answering this question. Something was going on. Something that effected her and she was damned if she’d let him continue keeping her in the dark. “Talk!”

At her tone, he looked at her. She was pissed. Her wolf peeked out at him from behind her eyes. He couldn’t put this off any longer. He started talking before her wolf could grab control.

“Pictures of us.”

“Is that all?” She rolled her eyes. “What’s so bad about…wait a minute. We haven’t posed for any photos. Who took the pictures?” First she looked puzzled, then suspicious.