Chapter 162: Feral Was Maverick’s Protector

For the first time, Aria truly understood just how unfair the difference in speed between a wolf and a human was.

She had barely thrown herself off the bed and made a dash for the door when the room seemed to blur around her. One second, freedom was only a few steps away. The next, her back was pressed against the wall with Feral standing directly in front of her, blocking every possible escape.

Aria stared at him, her mind struggling to catch up with what had happened. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, yet Feral hadn’t even broken a sweat. If anything, he looked amused by her pathetic attempt at escape, those gray eyes carrying that strange purple glow as he leaned closer.

"Are you trying to run from me, little prey?"

Aria gulped. What in the world had she gotten herself into?

Feral reached out and tapped the tip of her nose with one finger, almost playfully. "Such a bad mate."

It was safe to say that Aria was utterly and completely flabbergasted. She hadn’t even recovered enough to think of another escape plan before Feral caught her around the waist and lifted her effortlessly off the floor. Aria instinctively wrapped her legs around him, grabbing his shoulders to keep herself steady as he carried her back toward the exact same bed she’d tried so desperately to escape from.

He lowered her gently onto the mattress, a tenderness completely at odds with the way he’d just chased her across the room. Before Aria could catch her breath, Feral leaned over her and pressed his lips against her neck, trailing slow kisses along her skin like he had all the time in the world.

"Wait..." Aria told him, but the word came out embarrassingly weak. It didn’t help that his lips found a sensitive spot on her neck that sent a shiver down her spine, making her fingers tighten against him before she could stop herself.

Her traitorous body wanted nothing more than to melt beneath his touch, but the reminder lingered at the back of her mind that, however much he looked, sounded and felt like Maverick, the man touching her right now wasn’t entirely himself.

"Stop!" Aria said with more force this time, bringing both hands up to push Feral away from her.

Feral actually froze. The disbelief on his face was almost comical, like it had never once occurred to him that his own mate might actually push him away.

"Why?" he asked, and damn it, he actually looked hurt.

"That’s no way to treat your mate," Aria blurted out, only to feel her face heat the second the words left her mouth.

"What other way should I treat Mate?" Feral frowned, genuinely confused. "Why doesn’t Mate want to mate with me?"

Father Lord above. Aria could feel her face getting hotter by the second. Was sex all he could think about?

"Of course I want you," Aria confessed, biting the inside of her lip.

It was taking everything in her to navigate this very, very tricky situation without making things worse. After her failed attempt at a relationship back home, if anyone had told her she would one day be lying in bed confessing her feelings to not only her professor, but Violet Purple’s son, she would have laughed in their face.

The instant she said she wanted him, Feral’s eyes lit up. And that was all the permission he needed because he immediately leaned toward her, clearly intending to continue exactly where he’d left off, but Aria quickly said, "But..." while inching away from him.

"But?" Feral repeated, his patience clearly beginning to wear thin.

"We can get to know each other," Aria added quickly. "I can get to know you." She hoped to God she had made the right decision, because she was beginning to suspect reasoning with him required an entirely different set of survival skills.

Immediately, like a child on Christmas morning, his entire face brightened.

"Mate wants to know me?"

"Yes, I want to know you." Aria gave him a smile she hoped was convincing enough. "For starters, if you’re not Maverick, who are you? What’s your name?"

"Feral," he answered almost immediately.

"Oh." The word slipped from Aria’s mouth as everything finally clicked into place.

Maverick’s wolf.

"Feral," she repeated, remembering the way Maverick had panicked over him that night, warning her that his wolf was dangerous.

"How is this even possible?" she muttered, reaching out almost hesitantly to touch his face.

Her fingers traced his cheek, expecting to find something different there, some small feature that belonged only to Feral and would make it easier to separate him from Maverick. But there was nothing. It was still Maverick’s face beneath her hand, his skin, his voice, his body, and yet the person looking back at her felt completely different.

Feral leaned into her touch. "I am he, and he is me."

Aria could barely wrap her mind around it. She knew werewolves possessed both a human and a wolf side, but she’d always assumed the wolf was exactly that—a wolf, an instinctive part of the person that emerged when they shifted.

She had never imagined the wolf could think for itself, speak for itself, want things Maverick might not want, and then take over his body as if two different people had been living behind the same eyes all along.

A strange pang of sympathy struck Aria.

"How did this happen?" she asked, still stroking his cheek.

Aria didn’t know enough about the human mind to understand exactly what had happened to Maverick, much less how the mind of a werewolf worked, but she knew that sometimes, when someone endured more than they could handle, the mind found its own way of protecting them. Perhaps Feral had been Maverick’s.

"He called me when he needed someone to protect him," Feral answered, rubbing his cheek against her palm with an almost feline affection that seemed completely at odds with the dangerous wolf Maverick made him to be.

"Protect him from who?" Aria asked, her curiosity immediately getting the better of her.

But Feral merely shook his head. "He wouldn’t like it if I told you. It would bother you." He paused before adding, almost grudgingly, "I agree with him for once."

Aria groaned in annoyance. She had never wanted to hear a story so badly in her life. Nonetheless, if there was one thing she understood, it was having parts of your past you weren’t ready to share, so she decided to respect his decision.

"Did he hurt that much?" she asked instead. Guilt suddenly twisted inside Aria for all the times she’d assumed Maverick had lived some ridiculously perfect life and couldn’t possibly understand real hardship.

He had four fathers who adored him, after all, and the most powerful woman on the planet for a mother. He was powerful in his own right, wealthy beyond anything Aria could imagine, and had probably never wanted for anything material in his life. Yet none of those things meant he couldn’t have suffered. Who knew Maverick Nightshade had been fighting demons of his own long before she ever met him?

"I protected him," Feral answered casually, as though protecting Maverick from whatever had hurt him had been the simplest thing in the world.

"And what about you? Who protected you?"

Feral went still, his eyes meeting hers with an intensity that made Aria’s chest tighten. "That is what I do. I protect." He pressed his cheek more firmly into her palm. "The same way I’ll protect Mate."

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

Aria’s heart suddenly began to race, warmth spreading through her chest at the simple declaration. There were no conditions attached to it, no hesitation or uncertainty. Feral spoke of protecting her like it was something she didn’t need to earn or ask for, but something he had already decided she deserved. Aria couldn’t remember the last time anyone had made her feel so completely cared for.

Feral suddenly clicked his tongue in distaste. "Too much talking. I want my mate."

"Oh no, you don’t." Aria pressed her fingers against Feral’s lips the moment he tried to move closer. Unfortunately, that did nothing to discourage the wolf. He simply caught one of her fingers between his lips, his eyes fixed mischievously on hers as he gave it a playful suck.

A sharp breath escaped Aria. This damn wolf was going to be the death of her.

At once, Aria pulled her hand back with a gasp and, gathering every bit of strength she possessed, caught him off guard long enough to flip their positions so that Feral was beneath her while she sat astride him.

Feral grinned up at her with immediate expectation. Finally, some action. As far as he was concerned, there was no way he was leaving this bed without at least a little affection from his mate. Sucked to be Maverick.

Aria, however, fixed him with the sternest look she could manage.

"Now listen up. It’s late, and unlike you, I actually need some sleep. So this is how it’s going to be. If you’re going to stay in this bed, then you’d better behave yourself. We can cuddle and go to sleep, and that is all. Otherwise, you can leave through the balcony door. Am I clear?"