“Oh fuck,” she whispered, turned her head before he caught her watching him like the voyeur she was, and stared at the wall. Her heart pounded, her body tingled, and her clit throbbed. Wrath was so sexy that she felt warm all over.

She figured he had been affected by the violence too since he obviously had gotten turned-on. Of course with men it was probably caused by the aggression of fighting but her arousal was totally his fault with the peep show he’d given her.

Her feelings were slightly wounded. Why hadn’t he hit on her if he wanted sex? She glanced down and stared at her body. Wrath was perfect and she wasn’t. Tears burned behind her eyes and she fought them back. She knew it was stupid to feel the way she did but it hurt. She knew her emotions were running rampant after all the stress she’d gone through. Don’t go there and feel rejected, damn it. She forced her thoughts away from her weight. Men like that don’t go for women like you. They date those skinny chicks with big boobs that a plastic surgeon perfectly aligned.

She heard the water turn off, the shower door opened, and she sat there staring at the wall while she imagined Wrath using a towel to pat all over that sexy body of his to get dry. Seconds ticked by into a good minute.

“I’m done with my shower.” His husky voice startled her, sounding close.

She twisted her head to stare at him over her shoulder. He had a towel wrapped around his waist but wore nothing else. He stood by the dresser, bent and pulled out a fresh pair of boxers. Their gazes met when he straightened and faced her.

“I’m going to drop this and put on my boxers. You might want to close your eyes.”

She gave him her back instead, stared at the wall once more and heard him rustling around. She counted for thirty seconds and shifted her body as she changed positions to sit facing him again. Wrath had put on loose black boxers and picked up the towel he’d dropped. He gave her a half smile, returned to the bathroom and threw the wet towel over the top of the shower. He stepped back into the room.

“I’m going to grab that sleeping bag and pillow from the hallway where I dropped them when I heard you scream.”

He opened the door and stepped into the room. She saw his back there were multiple scratches with fresh blood running from them. The blood he’d washed away hadn’t just been Vengeance’s. She gasped. He turned and frowned as he stared at her.

“Your back is bleeding.”

He shrugged. “I was lucky.” He walked out of sight.

Lucky? Did he really just say that? What is so lucky about having deep scratch marks on his back? He returned carrying the bedding, used his foot to close the door, and tossed everything on the floor. He crouched and unrolled the sleeping bag.

“Aren’t you afraid someone will open the door and hit you with it? You’re kind of close.”

He shook his head. “Vengeance will leave first thing in the morning but we have a few hours before they’ll be able to transport him. He won’t get past me if he manages to escape from Brass and wants to try to claim you again.”

“Oh. Do you want me to bandage your back for you?”

He tossed down the pillow and straightened to his full height. His dark gaze swept the room before he walked to retrieve the small first-aid kit he’d used earlier to clean and bandage her wrists. He moved closer to her with the box in hand.

“That would be nice if you tend my wounds. Thank you.”

She accepted it when he held it out. He sat on the floor in front of the bed. She scooted closer and put her feet on each side of his hips. Her hands trembled slightly when she opened the kit, placed it on the bed next to her, and removed what she needed to clean and bandage the injuries. One look at them made her wince. They looked painful but weren’t bleeding too much.

“He scratched you badly.”

“It is our way when we fight.”

“What did it mean exactly when he wanted to claim me? I get that he wanted sex but it was more than that, wasn’t it?” Lauren wanted to be distracted from the fact that she was about to touch him and he was so close.

Wrath tensed. “It is always something that should be agreed to by both parties. What he did was try to force it upon you and it’s wrong. He wanted to claim you as his mate.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s similar to your human marriage but in Species’ terms it means for life. You only mate with the one you have strong feelings for. Species commit until one of them dies. After a time we scent imprint our mates. With some it happens very fast while in others it may take a few weeks.”

“What does scent imprint mean? I’ve never heard of that before.” She blew on the cuts she cleaned in case they burned. He didn’t flinch and his voice remained calm when he spoke.

“It is to help form a bond between mates. A male who scent imprints a female will only want her scent around him and she will only want his scent around her. It comforts each of them, smelling like their mate. Once it happens they can’t stand the way others smell.”

“They stink?”

He chuckled. “Not exactly, but others smell wrong or bad to a mated couple. I don’t know how else to explain it. They just need each other and no one else.”

“I read that a few women married a few of your guys. Did it happen to those women? You know, like me? Did they get all weird about the men’s scents?”

He glanced back and flashed her a grin. Amusement twinkled in his dark eyes. “No. They don’t have our sense of smell or memory of scents. We are strongly dependent on our sense of smell. The couple you would have heard about the most is Ellie and Fury. She loves him and he loves her. When we mate we are very caring of our females. He will make sure she never has a want or need he will not fill.”

Lauren was impressed. “That sounds kind of cool.”

“Do you want Vengeance to claim you?” Wrath turned his head toward her, the look in his dark eyes almost scary, his expression downright pissed.

“Hell no. I can tell you right now that if he’d claimed me it sure wouldn’t have been for the rest of my life. Well, maybe the death do us part would have worked because I would have killed him the first chance I got.”

Wrath relaxed. “I would have killed him if he’d forced you to mate with him. You could not kill one of us unless you got your hands on a gun. We are too big, fast, and strong for someone your size to do any damage otherwise.”

Lauren couldn’t disagree. “Yeah. I saw that. Thank you for fighting him and saving me. I was terrified.”

“I know. I smelled it on you strongly.”

Lauren finished putting on the last bandage. “Well, I shouldn’t smell like fear anymore. I feel safe with you.”

Wrath inhaled deeply and his body tensed. His gaze dropped to her lap to stare between her thighs. He inhaled again slowly and a soft growl burst from his parted lips. His eyes widened when he met her gaze.

“You’re aroused.”

She felt the color drain from her face. “What?”

He rolled to his knees, gripped the edges of the cot, and sniffed again. The color of his eyes seemed to darken as she watched. His lips parted, a deeper growl came from him, and she saw those sharp fangs of his when he bit his lower lip.

“You’re scaring me,” she admitted.

“You’re aroused. I can smell you, Lauren. Why?”

Shit. He can smell I’m turned-on? She wasn’t about to tell him she’d been watching him while he touched himself in the shower or admit what a turn-on it had been to see him masturbate.

He tilted his head and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. Another growl eased from his throat. He moved closer to lean down and Lauren gasped when Wrath dropped his face onto her sweatpants-covered thighs. He inhaled again as his face pressed tightly against her lap and a low rumble came from him.