The wall in front of her looked like it was made of black stone. That's not right.

"You're safe now, Lindy," a male voice rumbled to her right.

She leapt off the bed as if it were on fire and slipped on a rug. As her legs went out from under her, strong arms prevented her from hitting the floor. He'd moved faster than her eyes could track. One minute he'd been in bed, and now he was setting her back on the bed.

"Calm down, Lindy. My name is Crimson, and I'm your truemate."

She looked at him in shock. "Excuse me?"

The corner of his mouth quirked up, and she forgot how to breathe. She'd never seen a more beautiful man in her life. He had short, dark brown hair, piercing green eyes, and a gorgeous body. Oh my. What a body.

"Did you really not hear me?" He raised one brow.

"I heard you. I just think you must be mistaken. I'm no one's truemate."

She shivered at his intense gaze and glanced down, quickly realizing she was naked as the day she was born.

Jerking a blanket around herself, she growled. "Just what the h.e.l.l is going on here?"

"Crimson."

"What?"

"My name is Crimson."

She blew out a breath. "Fine. Crimson, what the h.e.l.l is going on here?"

"Your truemate."

She clenched her teeth together. He was infuriating! She was naked and had no idea where she was or how she'd gotten here, and all he cared about was that she got his name right.

He smiled in a way that said he wouldn't tell her anything unless she cooperated.

"Look, Crimson, I'll say your name all you want, but I don't know you, and I don't know why you think I'm your truemate. We've never even met before. You can't possibly know."

He put his hands on his hips, and her gaze dropped without her permission to drink in his incredible body. Every inch of him was lean and muscular, and she couldn't stop herself from looking at his very erect c.o.c.k. It took all of her willpower not to drop to her knees and see how good he would feel in her mouth.

s.h.i.t!

Shaking her head to clear the wicked images from her mind, she scooted back on the bed to put more distance between them.

"I know that you're mine, Lindy, because I spelled for you. I'm fae, and the spells aren't wrong."

He moved to come closer, and she put her hand up. "Put some pants on, please?"

He grinned. "Are you sure? It's more fun to talk when we're both naked."

"I'm sure. And where are my clothes?"

"Your clothes are wherever you left them before you went hunting on the full moon." He turned his back and walked through an archway. She ogled his a.s.s while his back was turned and imagined how nice it would look with her fingernail marks on it. He came out of what must have been a closet with a pair of leather pants on. Instead of a zipper, the pants laced up the front and he'd conveniently forgotten to lace them closed.

"What do you remember about last night, ch.e.l.le?"

Even though her hand was still up to keep him from getting too close, he sat down next to her anyway and kissed the top of her hand. Jerking it away from him, she willed her body to stop being so turned on by the stranger and thought back to the night before.

"I was hunting with Faith and Tina," she said, chewing on her bottom lip as her mind replayed the full moon. She remembered that Faith had barked a warning, and Lindy had seen the metal glinting in the moonlight but hadn't been able to stop in time. She jerked the blanket away to look at her leg, certain that it would be mangled beyond repair. But her right leg wasn't injured at all. She touched the smooth, unmarked skin in confusion.

"I don't understand."

He told her that he'd cast the spell for his truemate, and when he opened the portal, he'd felt compelled to shift into his beast form and he'd found her unconscious, bleeding, with a broken leg.

"I brought you here, and a healer in my glen helped to fix your leg. You shifted into your human form, and I brought you back to my bed. Our bed."

He wiggled his brows and smiled.

She ignored him. He was delusional. There was no way a hotter-than-h.e.l.l guy like him was her truemate.

"Wait. You said you shifted into a beast? But you're a fairy, right?"

He nodded. "I'm a wulfen, which means I'm both fae and wolf. I am unique in this realm. And very lucky to find such a beautiful she-wolf to be my truemate."

"Why do you keep saying that I'm your truemate?" Hearing him say that word so many times was making her heart hurt.

"I already explained to you that I spelled for you. Besides the spell being infallible, I feel it in my bones that we're meant to be. My wolf wants to mark you and mate with you, and my fae side wants to follow the old ways and mate you in a grand ceremony."

She wasn't sure if she should blush at his bluntness or be turned on. Her body decided to keep going with turned on, and she cleared her throat and struggled to find something to say.

He chuckled. "I'm sorry if I'm being forward, but I don't believe in beating around the bush. When I decided to spell for you, I had planned to seduce you and convince you to come with me to my realm. But you're already here."

"So what, no seduction?" She slapped her hand over her mouth. Had she just said that?

He laughed, and she liked how it sounded when he was happy. He leaned forward slowly. His eyes shimmered, changing from green to red. "Oh, I'm going to seduce you, sweet Lindy, have no doubt about that. But not right now. I'm sure you're hungry."

He stood, and he was close enough that she could have reached out and touched his muscular abs. She clutched the blanket tighter to keep her hands to herself. She still didn't know what to think, and she was afraid to believe that something so amazingly wonderful had actually happened to her.

"I'll go get you the meal I prepared." He smiled once more and walked out of the room. She slumped back on the pillows and covered her eyes with her hands.

Taking in a deep breath, she let it out slowly and tried to decipher what had happened. She recalled hearing gossip in the pack about how Jenna had cast a spell for Logan and it had enabled him to be able to find her when they were mated. If what Crimson said was true, and he had spelled for her, then it was possible that he was her truemate, that his spell had led him right to her.

Her stomach flipped as elation warred with wariness inside her. Was it a horrible joke? Could it be true?

She closed her eyes and touched her wolf in her mind. Her beast growled in happiness, urging her to find the male that was in the house with them. When Lindy heard footsteps coming closer, her wolf began to pant and growl. Crimson walked into the room carrying a large plate in one hand, a stone pitcher in the other, and a cup tucked under his arm.

He paused at the foot of the bed. "Your eyes are amber, ch.e.l.le. Are you all right?"

She forced the wolf down, worried that she was going to do something embarra.s.sing like roll onto all fours and wiggle her a.s.s. "I, um, my wolf was just scenting."

"She must like what she smells, huh?" He smiled broadly.

He put the plate down at the end of the bed and filled the gla.s.s with a green-tinted liquid. "It's sweet yumonmi. It reminds me of 7 Up," he said as he handed her the gla.s.s.

"You know what 7 Up is?"

"Sure. My uncle is mated to a human in a place called Orlando. I've visited them several times over the years. And when I graduated from the academy, a group of my friends and I spent a week in a place called Vegas and had a great time."

She took a long drink of the juice and found that he was right. Although not carbonated, it tasted like lemon-lime soda. He put the gla.s.s down on a side table and put the plate on his lap. Using a fork and knife, he cut a piece from a thick steak, speared a wedge of what looked like orange-colored zucchini, and held the fork up to her lips.

"I can feed myself," she said, reaching for the fork.

"I'm not done taking care of you, Lindy. You were seriously injured and unconscious for several hours. You're also my mate."

She considered arguing with him because she didn't want him to think that she was weak. But she'd never had a man feed her before. Or care that she was hurt. She opened her mouth, and he gently pushed the fork inside. The meat tasted wonderful, and the vegetable did taste like zucchini, even if it was oddly colored.

They didn't talk while he fed her both steaks and all the vegetables, but they didn't really need to talk. There was a connection between them that she was unable to deny. Her wolf wanted him, the darn thing wanted to roll to her back and let him scratch her tummy. Her human side was very attracted to him. More than the physical interest she had for him, she suddenly felt as if she couldn't handle being separated from him. He was definitely her truemate. When she'd finished the last of the juice, she leaned back on the bed and put her hand on her stomach. "I'm stuffed. That was so good, thank you."

He put the plate on the floor. "It was my pleasure. Are you ready to talk yet?"

Her heart began to pound. "About what?"

"Us being truemates. Do you believe me?"

"I don't know you, but I do believe that we're mates."

"Truemates." He insisted.

She smiled. "Truemates."

"You'll get to know me as we spend time together, the same way that I'll get to know you, too. But, first, let me give you the grand tour, and then we'll go take a bath."

Bath?

He stood and went back into the closet and came out with a tunic. She slipped it over her head and found it quite a bit too big for her but made of very soft fabric. It also smelled like him, an intoxicating mixture of spice and musk.

He pulled her to her feet and made a sweeping gesture with his hand. "This is our bedroom. You remember the bed." He tilted his head and wiggled his brows with a grin. "This will become your favorite room in the house."

She didn't think she'd ever liked someone so quickly before, but she honestly just liked him. She laughed. "You're very sure of yourself."

He hummed. "There isn't anything I want more than to strip you bare and touch every inch of you with my fingers and tongue. I want you sated and boneless from pleasure." He pulled her close, and one hand closed around her waist while he linked the fingers of his other hand with hers. He kissed her ear and whispered, "Your scent drives me wild. I want to know what you sound like when you fall apart. I want to hear my name on your lips and feel your body clutching mine." As his lips smoothed down the column of her throat, her knees went weak, and her body throbbed. She thought she might come from the sound of his voice alone.

He groaned, and it shifted into a light growl. He placed a kiss on her throbbing pulse and straightened. His eyes were a mixture of green and red, like emeralds and rubies.

"Your eyes," she said, staring into the mesmerizing color.

"My beast has red eyes. When I'm feeling emotional, they'll change color. The same as yours."

She looked at their linked hands. His skin was tanner than hers, and she liked the contrast. "That never happened to me."

"Your eyes going to your wolf when you're human?"

"When I'm angry, yes, but not when I'm..."

His voice was laced with a growl when he tugged her even closer, and she felt the hard ridge of his arousal against her stomach. "Turned on?"

She couldn't find her voice, so she nodded.

"They're amber now, mixed with blue. Beautiful. Just like you."

Her body was going to combust. He was going to keep on saying the nicest, s.e.xiest things she'd ever heard, and she was going to go up in flames and turn into a pile of ash on the floor.

He placed a soft kiss on her forehead, and she caught the hint of a smile on his lips. "Now for the rest of the tour."

He showed her the bathroom, which he called the bathing room. Like the bedroom, the walls were made of black stone. In one corner was a curtained area, and he pulled the curtain back to show her what looked like a primitive toilet. The base was carved out of the black stone and a wooden seat sat atop it. He showed her a lever in the wall next to the toilet, and when he pressed down on it, she could see the water rushing around the inside of the toilet base. He pushed up on the lever, and the water stopped. She'd never seen anything quite like it. The countertop was gray marble with the sink carved into it. Another lever allowed water to flow down into the sink.

"This is cleansing paste for your teeth. It's made from fairymint and is milder tasting than what you are used to." He touched the top of a small jar with a wooden toothbrush next to it. A mirror hung over the sink, and she saw the two of them together. He was taller than her five-feet-six by at least eight inches, lean and muscular where she was curved and soft. Her mind began to compare them, casting doubts on the truemating that he seemed so certain of. Her wolf snarled the worries away. Each minute that pa.s.sed made her more aware of a connection between them that was unlike anything she had ever experienced before.

He pointed out the tub. It was huge and oval shaped and appeared to be carved out of the wall. The black stone was polished so it shone like gla.s.s. It was at least big enough for two people. His fingertips skimmed down the backs of her arms as he whispered in her ear, "That's not where we're going to bathe today, Lindy."

She shivered from head to toe. "No?"

"Another time yes, but not today."

He pulled towels from a shelf along one wall and grabbed a bar of soap from the counter that was white streaked with pink, tucking the bundle under one arm. He took her hand and tugged her out of the bathroom, through the bedroom, and into a hallway. Another, smaller, bedroom was across the hall and was empty except for a rocking chair made of bent tree branches.

The main room had a sofa made out of an animal hide that she was betting was from an animal she'd never heard of before. A low table, made of a polished section of tree trunk, sat in front of the sofa. She noticed there were no lamps or overhead lights, only candles, lanterns, and sconces. When he showed her the kitchen, which contained another sink with a lever for the water source, a cook-top stove with some sort of oil underneath the burners, and a fridge carved of stone, she knew she'd never been inside a home like this before.

"You don't have electricity?"

He leaned against the small square table. "No. We don't have vehicles, either." At her confused look, he smiled and said, "We use horses and carriages. I've heard that women from the Mortal Realm tend to think of it as quaint."

At the mention of other women, her wolf growled in jealousy. Crimson's eyes widened, and he shook his head, pulling her into his arms and placing a kiss on her forehead. "I didn't mean that I've brought any women from the Mortal Realm here, sweetling, but there are women from your realm here that are mated to fae." His hands stroked up and down her back, and the tension eased from her. His voice lowered into a whisper, "Do you think I'd be so cra.s.s as to mention something of that nature so casually? There will be time to talk about our pasts, but not now."

She nodded as a knot of fear lodged in her stomach. What would he think about her past? The way that she had tried so hard to f.u.c.k her way into a mating with a highly ranked male? And, worse, the way that no male of worth in her pack had wanted anything to do with her? Shame filled her. She wished she could go back in time and save herself for Crimson, so she could be just his.

He tipped her chin up, frowning. She felt like he could read her mind, and she was ashamed of all that she'd done. He brushed his thumb across her lower lip, tracing the edge. "Your past doesn't matter to me, Lindy. Our life together began the moment I picked you up in my arms. Whatever you did before only matters in the sense that it shaped you into the beautiful woman in my arms and brought us together. Whatever is troubling you, let it go. Nothing - nothing - will ever change the fact that we are truemates and meant to be together. Do you understand?"

Relieved tears stung her eyes, and she blinked quickly and nodded. He kissed her, just once, a simple press of his lips to hers. Picking up the bundle he had set on the table, he took her hand and led her to the front door. He stepped into a pair of leather shoes that reminded her of moccasins and told her to do the same with a slightly smaller pair that he said he had purchased earlier in the week when he knew he was going to find his truemate.

"It's not far to the hot springs, I thought we could walk," he said, opening the door and ushering her out. The sun was setting, turning the sky a pretty gold color.

"How long was I unconscious for?"

"Past lunch, why?"

"It just seems early for the sun to be setting," she mused.

"I suppose it is for your realm, but things are different here in the Fae Realm. You'll get used to it."

She paused, and he stopped to look down at her. "What's wrong?"