Chapter 26

Chapter 26

“Why are you being so fucking difficult about this?” Kale asked, dropping his hand away from his face to find the woman that was driving him crazy still glaring at him instead of doing what he’d asked her.

“Because you told me to climb onto a roof,” and this is where Ashley paused so that she could raise her hands and make air quotes as she said, “and float.”

“Which doesn’t explain why you’re still standing here glaring at me,” Kale pointed out even as he couldn’t help but notice how fucking adorable she was when she glared.

“Because I’m not insane?” Ashley countered with a look that he did not appreciate.

Not one fucking bit.

“We need to find out what your abilities are,” Kale bit out as he narrowed his eyes on the stubborn woman that was making this more difficult than it needed to be as he pressed his hand against his side with a wince. That fucking silver bullet was making it harder for him to heal.

“By having me climb onto a roof and jumping off?” she asked, blinking up at him.

“You’d heal,” he reminded her through clenched teeth.

Nodding slowly, Ashley said, “Pass,” as she gestured for him to move on to the next item on his list.

So fucking stubborn, Kale thought as he found himself looking for the biggest tree that he could find, wondering if it would be easier if she just climbed up a tree instead and-

“Not happening,” she said, apparently guessing where his thoughts had gone and dragged his attention to find her taking a healthy step away from him.

“We need to find out what you can do,” he said evenly, folding his arms over his chest as he glared down at her.

Mimicking the move, and god, was she fucking adorable, Kale thought, biting back a smile, Ashley said, “No,” further pissing him off.

For a moment, Kale stood there, glaring down at his stubborn mate as he waited for her to do as he asked only to end up sighing heavily with a muttered, “Fine,” deciding that they should move on since she was being a pain in the ass about this. He would have caught her before she hit the ground, but that hadn’t been good enough for the woman waiting for him to get on with it.

“Can you control your eyes and fangs yet?” Kale absently asked as he considered finding a pit and dropping her in it to see if she could float, as the Pytes living at the mansion called it, back up.

There was a telling pause before Ashley mumbled, “No,” letting him know just how much fucking work they had to do, but that was fine. They’d get through the basics today and then focus on the real reason that he was here tomorrow. Not that Kale thought that she would be happy to find out his plans for her, but at the moment, he simply didn’t care.

She needed to learn how to protect herself.

It was as simple as that.

Not that he planned on letting anyone near her, but he wasn’t about to take any chances with his mate. They lived in a very dangerous world and Ashley…

Was too fucking nice, Kale thought in disgust as he watched her pick up an acorn that a small squirrel dropped and placed it on the branch below it with a warm smile and softly murmured, “Here you go,” making his eyes narrow on the move. He had no idea how she’d managed to survive this long without him, Kale thought as he slowly exhaled and tried to figure out how he was going to teach her how to control her eyes and fangs.

For a moment, he considered making the short trip to the mansion to ask one of the Pytes in residence a few questions only to decide against it since that would only invite questions that he didn’t feel like answering at the moment. Besides, he didn’t need their help with this one. If there was one thing that he should be able to teach her, it was how to control her eyes and fangs.

“Let your fangs slide down,” Kale said, gesturing for her to get on with it.

Frowning, Ashley said, “How am I supposed to do that?”

“Just let them down,” he said, once again wondering why she was being so fucking difficult about this.

“They don’t want to come down,” she pointed out, making his eyes narrow.

“They will if you just let them,” Kale told her, once again, gesturing for her to get on with it.

Worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, she glanced back at the driveway with a hopeful look on her face as she said, “Maybe we should wait until Jacob comes back to do this?” further pissing him off.

“We don’t need his help,” Kale bit out.

“We really do, though,” Ashley mumbled sadly as she gave up sending the driveway wistful fucking looks that were going to get her ass spanked to look back at him with a resigned sigh.

“Your fangs aren’t down yet,” he pointed out, wondering why she wasn’t fucking listening to him.

“Because you haven’t showed me how to do it yet,” Ashley pointed out, blinking innocently up at him and god, did he want to spank her adorable fucking ass.

“Because you’re too goddamn stubborn to listen,” Kale said evenly. “Just let your fangs slide down.”

“I really don’t think that’s how this works,” Ashley said with a sad shake of her head as he stood there, glaring down at her.

“You’re a pain in the ass,” he informed her.

Nodding solemnly, she said, “I have heard that a few times over the years,” making his lips twitch.

“Fine. Then let’s move on to your eyes,” he said, knowing that it was pointless to argue with the little pain in the ass.

“Let’s,” Ashley said with a firm nod, once again gesturing for him to get on with it.

“Let them shift,” Kale said, biting back a sigh as he waited for her to do it.

When she only stood there, frowning up at him, he said, “This really isn’t that fucking difficult.”

That was followed by her continuing to stare at him through green eyes, he’d like to point out, instead of red eyes like he’d asked for. This was going to be harder than he’d originally thought, Kale realized as he sighed heavily. When he’d decided to help her, he figured that they’d spend a few minutes on the basics before shifting their focus on how to kill a man with her bare hands and calling it a day, but apparently, his mate liked to be difficult.

He wondered if Madison had been this fucking difficult for Ephraim after her transition, only to frown when Ashley gestured awkwardly back towards the house. “So, umm, I’m just gonna go on back inside and leave you to your glaring.”

“We’re not done yet,” Kale pointed out.

“All you’re doing is glaring at me, which I’d like to point out, you can do inside where it’s warm,” Ashley said, making him frown as he looked around them, noting the dead grass covered in frost and the thin layer of ice covering his windshield before glancing back at his mate to find her wrapping her arms around herself, shivering, and was reminded of the fact that his mate wasn’t a shifter.

Fuck!

Perhaps he’d been going at this all wrong, Kale wondered as Ashley mumbled, “I’m gonna go now,” as she turned around and headed back inside, leaving him to follow her. He’d been looking at this from a shifter’s perspective, but clearly, that was the wrong fucking thing to do. As he closed the front door behind him, he once again found himself tempted to go get answers from the Pytes down the road, only to once again decide against it.

Now that he realized where he’d fucked up, he knew what he had to do.

* * *

“Shit!”

“What is wrong with you?” Ashley demanded as she pressed another kitchen towel against Kale’s hand, wondering why it wouldn’t stop bleeding.

“Many things apparently,” Kale bit out, trying to pull his hand free, but she wasn’t having it, not after he’d just scared the living hell out of her.

One minute, she was pulling out everything that she was going to need to make lunch from the fridge and the next, she was watching as Kale calmly walked over to the counter, grabbed a knife and sliced his palm open only to follow that up by telling her to drop her fangs. That was followed by her standing there, staring at him in horror for several minutes while he glared at her until it became obvious that his hand wasn’t healing as fast as it should and her trying not to panic while the big jerk tried to refuse her help.

“I’m fine,” Kale bit out, his eyes turning silver in warning as he moved to take his hand back and-

“Goddamnit, woman!”

-snapped at her when she had enough of this and gave him a gentle shove that had the man that was wobbling unsteadily on his legs dropping down on a kitchen chair with a grunt. When he moved to get up, she gently pushed him back down, grabbed another towel, a bottle of water, the first-aid kit that she made Jacob run out for a few days ago, and decided that the only way to get through this with her sanity intact was to ignore him.

So, that’s what Ashley did as she carefully pulled the kitchen towel away only to sigh when she saw the gash running across his palm. As she carefully cleaned his cut, she ignored his glare and focused on getting through this without throttling him. He’d almost died and now, he was determined to find new ways to drive her crazy.

“Why aren’t your eyes red?” Kale asked, sounding confused as she squeezed antibiotic gel on his cut that was slowly starting to heal.

“Why aren’t you in bed?” Ashley countered even as she considered asking him to shift, but she knew better than to waste her time trying to convince him to do anything.

For whatever reason, he refused to shift and she had no idea why. Not that she expected him to tell her anytime soon, because she knew better than to expect anything other than glaring from the shifter watching her every move. She was just a job, one that only took up a few hours of his time every week and-

“Look at me,” Kale said softly as he cupped her face in his other hand, gently pulling her gaze up to meet his. “What aren’t you telling me, Ashley?”

“Nothing,” she said, swallowing nervously as she struggled to hold his gaze.

“Liar,” Kale whispered as he gently caressed her cheek with his thumb while he searched her gaze for answers that she couldn’t give him.

“What makes you think I’m lying?” Ashley asked, forcing herself to stay where she was, praying that he dropped this. She didn’t like lying and for some reason that she couldn’t quite understand, she hated lying to him.

“Why didn’t you lose control that night?” Kale asked as he watched his thumb move over her skin.

“What night?” she asked, struggling to focus as Kale continued to caress her skin, looking lost in thought while she knelt there, fighting the urge to lean into his touch.

It felt so good to be touched, Ashley thought only to amend that a moment later as she admitted that it felt good to be touched by him. This made no sense. Why couldn’t it be Jacob that made her feel this way? Ashley wondered as she allowed herself to enjoy his touch. Jacob was sweet, funny, and kind, and Kale was…

The only one that made her feel like this and she had no idea why.

“The night you saved my life,” Kale said softly as he continued making it difficult for her to think. “You never once lost control.”

“I was terrified,” she admitted.

Kale nodded, his gaze never leaving hers as he said, “You were in control. How did you do it?”

“I-I don’t know,” Ashley said, licking her lips nervously as his gaze followed the move.

“With all that blood, you should have lost control,” he murmured, letting his thumb glide over her bottom lip. “Why didn’t you?”

“I…”

“How are you staying in control?” Kale asked, his thumb continued to caress her bottom lip as everything slowly turned red as she felt her fangs slide down, cutting through her gums and-

Was reminded that the man that she couldn’t stop thinking about hated her as a flash of anger lit his eyes before he was able to pull it back. Clearing her throat, Ashley pulled away from his touch as she grabbed the roll of gauze and pressed it into his hand with a murmured, “Here,” before getting back to her feet and went back to making lunch.

“You shouldn’t be able to stay in control this early in the game,” Kale said as Ashley focused on getting everything that she needed out of the fridge.

“According to you, I shouldn’t be able to do a lot of things,” Ashley couldn’t help but point out as she grabbed the milk out of the refrigerator.

“True,” Kale murmured, sounding thoughtful as he watched her. “The question is, how are you doing it?”

“Maybe I’m not really a Pyte,” she said, unable to help but feel like they were wrong.

So far, the only thing that they’d told her that seemed to point to her being a Pyte was the fact that they could supposedly smell it on her and…that was it. She was female when she should be male, couldn’t drink human blood, hadn’t lost control when she went too long without blood, couldn’t float, whatever that meant, and had spent the majority of her life trapped in the body of a ten-year-old girl when she should have transitioned into her immortality at sixteen. It really made her wonder what else they were wrong about.

“Maybe you’re right, but we won’t know that until we can figure out what your abilities are and the only way that we’re going to be able to do that is if you trust me,” Kale said, drawing her attention to find him watching her. “Can you trust me, Ashley?”