Gavin smiled a little and dropped a kiss on his lips, causing his eyes to spring back open. “Oh,” he said, laughing. “Now I can’t kiss you? Better get used to it, because I don’t plan to stop anytime soon.”

“Shit. Let me up, Gavin. Just let me sit next to you on the sofa. I won’t try to run.”

“You wouldn’t get very far if you did. If you somehow managed to get past me, two of my men are in the hall.”

At Tucker’s panicked expression, he shook his head again. “Just as a precaution in case you tried to run, honey. They know better than to ever harm a hair on your head. Not that they would hurt you in any case.”

Gavin sat Tucker beside him, keeping a hand on his thigh, not so much to guard him, but because he couldn’t stop touching him. He had to mate with Tucker soon—really mate with him—or this thing was going to kill him for sure. “Are you ready for me to go on, honey?”

“Hell, there’s more?”

Gavin smiled a little. “Well, yes. Your mother was human, of course, and your father, my beta, is like me. You know, a member of our pack. He really wants to meet you, baby. I told him I’d get you to come home with me to visit him.”

“Oh my God.”

“Tucker, from the first moment I saw you, I knew that you were my mate. My bloodmatch. Wolves only get one bloodmatch, and it’s for life, baby. You’re it for me, forever, and I want to take you for my mate.”

Tucker looked up at him in confusion, shaking his head. “I-I don’t know what to say. Your mate? This is all too fucking weird.”

Tucker leaned forward and dropped his head into his hands. Gavin sat beside him quietly, trying to let him absorb some of it, not wanting to push him too far. “Uh,baby,” Gavin said after a moment. “There’s smoke coming out of the oven.”

Tucker’s head jerked up. “What? Oh shit, the pizza!” He jumped to his feet and ran over to the oven, jerking it open and grabbing a towel to pull out the pan and dump it in the sink. He turned back to the stove to turn off the oven, then slumped against the counter, glaring at Gavin. “Damn it! Am I going to turn into some kind of creature? Is that what you’re telling me?”

“No,” Gavin said firmly, shaking his head. “You’re a non-shifting member of the pack.” He shifted his gaze downward and cleared his throat. “We-uh…we call the non-shifters our pets, along with the human mates. You see, at puberty, each pack member either turns into a wolf, shifting at the full moon sometime around his twelfth birthday, or he or she stays…more human.”

“So how am I different from all other…humans?”

“Well, you’ll live a lot longer for one thing. Maybe two hundred years. And you won’t age much at all after your thirtieth birthday or so. I mean, you will eventually, but it will take a long, long time.”

“So is the fact that you’re a -a wolfman…is that why you have that thing on your dick?”

Gavin smiled. “The bulbus glandis. Yes, it’s a gland that’s used when we mate, mostly for the first time. It secretes a hormone, I guess you’d call it, that helps create the bond between mates. I’ll use it on you when we mate for the first time.”

Tucker narrowed his eyes, noticing that Gavin had said when and not if, but choosing not to make an issue of it for now. He huffed out a long breath. “So explain this pet thing to me again.”

Gavin took a deep breath, as if he knew this would be a sticking point for Tucker. “It’s just a name, honey, to differentiate non-shifters from the wolves. Pets are usually not as aggressive as the wolves. I guess you would say most of them are submissive to the wolves.”

“Oh, hell no.”

“It’s not anything we make them do—it’s just their nature, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Some of the pets have very strong personalities. Take the North Carolina alpha’s pet, for example. He’s become damn near legendary in a really short time for some of his battles with his mate. He was a human, like your mother, before he became a member of the pack. Of course, ultimately, the wolves are their masters, but…”

Tucker made a little choking sound and pushed away from the counter, his eyes dark with fury. “And you think I’m one of these-these pets! Not on your life! Forget it! Look, if you tell these people they’re submissive from the time they’re little kids, then of course, they believe it! Nurture over nature, you know?”

Gavin stood up, looking nervous and came toward him. “What are you talking about? Just give yourself a little time to get used to the idea, baby. I’m sorry, but you are a pet.” He held up a hand as Tucker started sputtering again. “At least in name, if nothing else. Non-shifter, remember? If you’d been a wolf, you’d have shifted way before now. Besides, you’re my mate. Mates are always pets.”

“Bullshit! Like I said, nature versus nurture. Surely you’ve heard of that debate. It’s one of the oldest in psychology. You know, whether your genes or the way you’re brought up adds the most to your development. Some people think everything is determined by your experience. Including me! You’re not making me into one of those little drones! I mean it!”

“Okay.”

“What the hell do you mean, ‘okay’? Don’t try to humor me! I’m not going anywhere with you and that’s that!”

Moving so fast Tucker couldn’t even see him, Gavin was suddenly in front of him, grasping his forearms. “Calm down. You’ve had a lot of shocks this morning, and this is the least of them. I think you’re just seizing on this issue because the other idea—that I’m not a human being—is something you can’t wrap your mind around right now. I never said the bloodmatch was perfect. Hell, two wolves got the match over in one of the other packs. Anything is possible, but we can work it out as we go. I’ve already shown you I’m willing to be flexible, haven’t I? I’ll do anything for you, honey, except one thing.”

Tucker raised his eyes to Gavin and waited, his stomach doing flip-flops.

“I can’t let you go, Tucker. You belong to me, and you are coming with me. Make no mistake about that.”

Tucker tried to wrench away from Gavin’s grip, but his hands were wrapped around Tucker’s arms like iron bands. It occurred to him just how much Gavin had given in to his needs earlier when he allowed Tucker to fuck him. His strength must be four times greater than that of a human’s.

“I don’t belongto anybody!”

“That’s where you’re wrong. You’re mine, whether you want to admit it or not. Damn it, I’m yours too, don’t you see? I can’t make it without you.”

Glaring up at him, Tucker hated the little thrill in his stomach when Gavin said things like that to him. Damn him!

“You can fuss and squirm and make all the noise you want to, but you’re still coming back to Tennessee with me. At least for a visit. Pleasedon’t fight me, baby. I need a chance for you to see that I can make you happy if you’ll let me.”

“That’s probably what that wolf you told me about says to his mate. But he keeps fighting him, you said.”

“Nicky and Marco are very much in love, from what everyone says.”

“Then how come the mate battles him so much? Maybe he’s intimidated by the wolf.”

Gavin shook his head sadly. “What is it you’re so afraid of, sweetheart? Are you intimidated by me? Do you think I’ll force you to do something you don’t want to do? Or are you afraid you’ll like following my orders too much?”

Tucker glared at him. “Fuck you. I hate you. And stop calling me baby.”

Gavin pushed his groin gently into Tucker’s, and when Tucker almost unwillingly pushed back into him, he put his lips next to Tucker’s ear. “You are my baby, my sweetheart, my lover. AndI’m yours. You own me. You don’t hate me. Not at all.” He leaned toward him, but Tucker leaned back, turning his head and biting his bottom lip. Gavin didn’t force him, but stayed where he was, breathing gently against Tucker’s skin, until with a sigh, Tucker turned to face him, letting his lips barely touch Gavin’s. Gavin pressed his lips softly into Tucker’s and licked his lower lip with the tip of his tongue.

“All right,” Tucker said in a whisper, his shoulders slumping. “I’ll go with you. But only for a visit.”

Tucker was sitting at the kitchen counter, finishing his lunch. “Okay, so what exactly happens now?” The pizza was a lost cause, but he’d still been starving, so Gavin fixed a stack of sandwiches for them, making Tucker sit down at the counter while he bustled around the unfamiliar kitchen. So much had happened, so many shocks had occurred in such a short time, Tucker still was afraid to think about it too much. He’d pinched himself till he was almost black and blue and this thing wasn’t going away and he wasn’t waking up. The only other explanation, as utterly crazy as it seemed, was that it was absolutely true.

“So this -uh-Tommy thing on the beach that night. That was all real? I had convinced myself it was a hallucination or some kind of hypnosis.”

Gavin nodded grimly. “No, I’m afraid not, honey. He was very real, and he came way too close to hurting you, though it wasn’t his fault. If he’d been in his right mind, he never would have hurt anyone.”

“But how did this happen to him? Why did Tommy suddenly go crazy? More importantly, if I accept that these things—these werewolves—really do exist outside of horror movies, and I guess I have to believe my own eyes when it comes down to it, then how come no one knows of your existence?”

“To answer the last part of your question first, we do a good job of hiding, I guess. There are humans who know about us. A few. Until recently, there was a group of humans who called themselves the Hunters, led by a fanatic named Elias Winters. They were dedicated to hunting us all down and killing us. We’ve dealt with them now, but there will probably be more enemies in the future. It’s a fact of life we have to deal with, but we only want to be left alone to live in peace. We feel no antipathy toward humans at all. As to what happened to Tommy, that’s something we’re still trying to figure out. His fiancéeis still missing, and there’s been no trace of her. Who or what is doing all this is a mystery and one we have to solve quickly. That’s another reason I need to get you home to Tennessee. Away from the pack, you’re totally vulnerable to whatever this is. At least if I have you at home, I can try to protect you.”