Green - a werewolf story

8. Sharp Teeth

Vanessa was horrified. Her apartment was her fortress. She hardly let her friends inside it, let alone some guy she had only just met. Plus, she had a sneaking feeling she had left it a complete mess. She shook herself. That should be the least of her worries.

"Of course I've been inside your apartment. I tracked you there as soon as I realized your story about not being a werewolf didn't make any sense, especially with the way I was feeling about you. You'd already left by then, but as soon as I got inside and was able to sense your true scent and realized what we were to each other I called everyone out to find you," he told her proudly, tracing the curve of her arm with his fingers.

Vanessa ignored the feeling of warmth that his touch sent through her. He had no right to break into her apartment and go over her stuff. Warmth or no warmth.

"You can't do that! That is such an invasion of my privacy!"

"Sweetheart, you don't have any privacy from me. I'm your mate," he stated matter-of-factly.

Vanessa stared at him with her mouth open.

"You are completely delusional," she told him, when she was able to speak again.

She tore her eyes from him to look back at the road.

"I'm not delusional! I wish you would stop fighting this bond!" he growled angrily.

Vanessa pulled the car over to the hard shoulder. She would obviously have to lay down some ground rules.

"Are you stupid or something? Even if I do agree to be your mate, which I won't, you still have to treat me with respect and let me decide how much of myself and my life I share with you," she told him while looking him straight in the eyes. His had narrowed into slits.

"I'm your mate. You have to share everything about yourself with me," he snarled.

"No, I don't. Because before being your mate I am a person and that means I decide what parts of me I want to give away. That's how relationships work, that's how love works," she explained slowly and carefully to the guy sitting next to her and looking as if he was going to wolf out at any second. "You can't just waltz in and start demanding things. No one likes to be treated like that," she finished.

"We're mates. That means you're stuck with me for life, whether you like it or not," he hissed at her.

His teeth had elongated, his nose was well on its way of turning into a snout and his ears were pointy. She could tell that he had a very thin grasp on his control and felt torn between wanting to soothe him and wanting to push him until he snapped.

Those sparkling green eyes were staring into hers, daring her to egg him on and face the consequences. Without noticing she had started to lean in towards him, his face now only a few inches from hers. The challenge seemed directed straight at her wolf and when she felt that side of her rise up and bare its teeth she realized she'd forgotten to put on the necklace again.

She dug her hand into her pocket. The second her skin made contact with the amulet she was able to lean back from him. With a sigh she turned to stare at the cars rushing past them on the other side of her window. While making him lose control would surely be an experience, it wasn't the smartest thing she could do. Especially not when they were both in a car. She'd have no means of escape if he turned on her.

"I don't want to fight with you," she said without looking at him.

"Then you shouldn't say things like that!"

She felt something within her snap. Smart or not, she couldn't let him get away with thinking he would be able to decide her future for her. She turned back to him and grabbed him by his collar to pull him closer to her. He growled.

"That's enough of that. You get your wolf under control right now, understand?" she told him, scowling.

He was still staring daggers at her, but the growling stopped and his face turned a little less wolfish.

"Good. Now you're going to listen to me and listen carefully. You wanted time to convince me to accept you and against my better judgement I gave you time, but that's ending right now if you don't stop being an ass," she said and forced her voice to be calm even though she wanted nothing more than to shout at him. "I don't want a mate. I've never wanted a mate and I'm telling you that if you don't start treating me like a person instead of your new favorite chew-toy then this... you and I will never work out. Do you understand?"

He growled threateningly at her and she growled right back.

"I don't like it when you talk about me like you don't want us to be together," he grumbled in a low voice that had her toes curling.

"I know you don't, but the truth is that you forced me to take you with me and now you're trying to force me to accept you and I hate being forced into anything."

"But we're mates! We have a bond! I know you feel it too," he said, sounding exasperated.

Vanessa somehow manged to not roll her eyes. The guy was like a broken record.

"Yes, and that makes me feel attracted to you, but you're asking me to settle down with you, to lo..." she had to take a deep breath here to force the word out. "... to love you. And that is something you can't force, mates or not. That's not how love works."

He looked at her for a long time, silently mulling her words over.

"How does it work then?" he asked sullenly.

Vanessa heaved a sigh of relief and let go of his t-shirt. Finally they were making progress! Even if she didn't want him for herself she might be able to turn him into something less of a giant douche before they went their separate ways. The next girl would appreciate her effort.

"First you get to know me, then you make me like you and trust you. Those are like the foundation in all relationships and they have to go both ways. This sort of thing takes time," she explained patiently.

He was looking at her steadily, his features almost back to normal and his wavy brown hair falling into his eyes again. She had to fight the urge to reach out and brush it out of his face.

"Okay, fine. I'll give it time," he said and nodded his head.

She smiled brightly at him. He looked so solemn when he said it, his lips pouting slightly and for an instant she wanted to lean in and kiss the seriousness off his face.

"Good! And if you realize that I'm not what you're looking for I won't hold it against you," she told him and he muttered something unintelligeble.

She smiled wider and looked around to get the car back unto the road.

"I already know you're what I'm looking for," he stated after a few minutes of silence.

Vanessa felt her shoulders tense up again.

"You don't even know me," she told him.

"I know more about you than you think, Vanessa Benson," he huffed.

Vanessa raised her eyebrows at the use of the name she'd lived under in Tell City. She couldn't help but smile. He might think he knew a lot about her, but he hadn't even been able to find out her real name. And he obviously hadn't listened properly when she tried to reject him. Not that she was going to correct him.

"I'm impressed," she said instead.

He grinned at her and her breath caught before she smiled back, relieved that the tension from before was gone. It was never good to be around an angry alfa.

"You seem to know an awful lot about relationships," he said casually after another few minutes of silence.

The tone was a little too laid-back and should have tipped her off he was up to something, but she was too pleased with being back on the road again to notice. She laughed and she threw a look over her shoulder as she changed lane to overtake a couple of cars.

"Well, I should," she said. "Lord knows I've been in enough of them to ..."

She stopped mid-sentence when she heard the feral growl from beside her. She turned her head just to come face to face with an enormous dark brown wolf sitting in her passenger seat, snarling at her.

Shit.