Echoes of Fire (The Mercury Pack #4)(33)
She snickered. “You mean you want a chance to snuggle up to her and win her over.”
“She’s mine too.” He nuzzled her neck, greedy for more of that scent that both soothed and drove him wild. “Always loved your scent. I smell you, and I’m hard. It’s been like that since minute one.” Pulling back, he tucked her hair behind her ear. “I should have paid more attention to that. Maybe I did. Maybe I just wasn’t ready for what it meant.”
“Are you ready now?”
“More than ready. So are you. You’re just a little wary.” He sank back into his chair. “But we’ll deal with that.”
Madisyn tapped her fingers on her cup. “What do you think it will take to clear the path for the mating bond?”
“Fears, secrets, and doubts about mating usually jam the frequency. I’m not keeping any secrets. You?”
She shook her head. “No secrets.”
“I don’t have any doubts about claiming you—I want it more than anything. But until you’re sure to your bones that I want you more than I want the bond itself, the frequency will remain jammed.” He let out a long breath. “We had no chance of initially sensing the bond, did we? You’re a private, self-contained person with sky-high walls. And I was always wary of mating.”
She cocked her head. “Why?”
“My dad was Beta male of his pack. He’d worked his way up from enforcer, and he was next in line to be Alpha. My mom wasn’t from his pack, and she had no interest in joining it—didn’t get along well with his family, didn’t like his friends. To be with her, he had to leave his pack, which meant giving up what he’d worked toward for so long: becoming Alpha. He saw less and less of his family and friends until, eventually, he rarely saw them at all. I don’t think she meant to isolate him from them. Not consciously. But she did. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dream of being an Alpha—it holds no interest for me.”
“But you’re close to Zander and Jesse, and you’ve already switched packs once. You’ve found your place with the Mercury Pack, and you don’t want to give it up.”
He nodded. “I also didn’t want to force my mate to give up her pack, family, and friends. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to find you. I just worried that I’d find myself in that situation. And that worry jammed the frequency.”
“I’m not going to ask you to leave your pack just because I’m wary of joining it.”
“I would leave if you asked. You come first. It’s that simple.” He doodled patterns on her thigh, adding, “I know enough about you to understand why you’ll find living on pack territory difficult. But we don’t have to live there, Madisyn. We can make a home elsewhere and still be part of the pack. Look at Roni and Marcus. Sometimes they stay on Mercury land; sometimes they stay at Phoenix territory. You could still keep your house. We can spend some time here and some time at my place. I think you’ll like my lodge. It’s quiet. Isolated. My point is that we can compromise.”
“Compromise” wasn’t a word she’d have expected him to use. “I’ll find it hard to answer to people.”
“You don’t have to tell me that, baby. I already know it. But Nick and Shaya don’t want a flock of sheep. They won’t try to rule you. Won’t try to steal any of your independence.”
Madisyn drained her cup and set it on the table. “But I would have to obey them in some respects. I’ll find that hard. And if they wanted to punish me for a transgression of any kind, I wouldn’t just take it. I’d fight.”
“Roni’s as highly dominant as you. She likes to go her own way, which Nick knows and respects even though it annoys him at times. He’s never tried to change her. Never threatened to revoke her status just because she disobeyed him. That’s not how it works. You’ll learn that for yourself if you spend some time on my territory. I swear, baby, if you don’t feel you can live there full-time, we won’t. We’ll just divide our time between here and there.”
Mouth curling, Madisyn shot him an accusatory, narrow-eyed look. “You’re sneaky.”
His brows lifted. “I am?”
“Oh yeah. Don’t think I’m not onto you. Even while you’re being reasonable and talking about compromise, you’re still smoothly in control. Telling me what you’ll so nicely do to make the situation work is effectively controlling it.”
Bracken leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “Did you expect any different?”
“No. I like that you’re being the real you.”
“We can’t build anything if it’s founded on something fake. People often show their best sides when they’re dating, which is understandable. But as I said, we’re not dating. This is far more serious. I may take you places and buy you things, but it will be because I want to—not because I’m trying to steadily charm my way into your life. I’m already in it. Firmly in it.”
“Some girls might have appreciated a little wooing.”
He smiled. “Not you. You wouldn’t want me jumping through hoops to prove myself to you.”
He was right about that. She didn’t want him twisting himself into a pretzel trying to please her. She just wanted . . . him.