Chapter 12: Stay

The lights came back on after about a minute, one lamp at a time.

I was sitting up against the headboard with the sheet pulled to my chin.

Cade sat at the foot of the bed with his elbows on his knees, and he hadn't touched me since the dark.

"Say it again," I said. "What you called me."

"It slipped out."

"Cade."

"Alpha," he said. "I didn't choose it. It came out of my mouth before I could stop it."

"I'm wolfless."

"You aren't."

He said it flatly, as a fact.

I looked at my hands, which had stopped glowing.

"Prove it," I said.

I said it as a challenge, not a test, and then because I was frightened I said the next thing without thinking.

"Stay."

He had been halfway to his feet, reaching for his jeans on the floor.

He stopped.

He stopped completely, with one hand outstretched and his knee half bent, and not a muscle in his body moved.

His eyes found mine, wide and furious and stunned.

"Cade," I whispered.

He couldn't answer.

I could see his chest rising and falling, and the cords in his neck standing out.

"Oh God," I said. "Release. Go. Move."

He came out of it so fast he nearly fell.

He caught the bedpost and stood there breathing hard.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean it. I didn't know."

"I know you didn't."

"Does it hurt?"

"No." He let out a rough laugh. "That's the problem."

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