With his new eyes he could see that she that was staring up at him in wonder and he marveled at the trust she was instinctively showing him.  In these short few moments he had changed so much on the inside that it seemed almost impossible for there not to be some external change as well.

A wide-eyed Mandy reached her hand out towards him.  She did not know how it could be, but she had seen Tyler enough in his wolf form to know that it was his golden brown eyes staring back at her.  Resting her palm against his cheek, her thumb drew a circle under his one eye, lightly caressing the skin as she ran her thumb up the straight line of the bridge of his nose before sliding the digit along his thick brow.

“Tyler?”

Cupping her hand he smiled reassuringly down at her.  “It’s … me.”

In typical Mandy-like behavior, she rolled her eyes at him.  “I know.”  The one side of her mouth tipped into a cheeky grin but wonder soon wiped it away again.  “It’s you.”  A delicate frown appeared above her eyes and stayed there while she thought.  “It’s both of you?”

“Yes.”  The simple truth of the answer stunned the inner turmoil he was experiencing to an abrupt standstill.  Her perceptiveness as far as he was concerned always managed to catch him off guard.

While he marveled at her understanding of him, another; more instinctive part that he had not recognized as being part of him before took in every single thing about her.  The way her hair seemed to be a living thing around her head as it clung to her face and the pillow, gently swaying as his breath moved if.  The way her eyes flickered between both his eyes, as if she had to make sure about what she was seeing.  The way her body felt so soft and feminine underneath him.  The way her lips drew in each and every single breath; as if she were tasting the air as she breathed in.  But what he loved the most, right now; was the way her heart was hammering away so hard that it sounded like thunder in his ears while he could feel the pulsing beat against his own chest.

He had never felt as alive as he did right now, with her caged in his arms.  She was so breathtakingly beautiful that it tightened his chest until he could hardly breathe. “Heavens above Mandy; do you know how beautiful you are.”

“Really?”  A small frown knitted her brows together.

“Yes, you are.”  He said honestly, and instead of smoothing out the frown with his fingers the way he usually did, his lips peppered the frown with gentle and feather soft kisses until the angry ridges of the frown had disappeared.

Mandy watched him as he lifted his head just far enough for them to see each others eyes.  “My nose is too small and my eyes and mouth are too big.  And ever since I cut my hair it has been all over the place!”

Tyler smiled down at her; until he realized she was dead serious.  Shocked, he lifted his head further away so that he could see her properly, his eyes searching hers until she started squirming uncomfortably at the scrutiny.

“Mandy, your nose is not small; it fits your face perfectly.  Any bigger and it would be wrong.  I love the way it scrunches up when you laugh.  Your hair is simply stunning!  It catches the light and frames your face until I can not see anything else when you are around.”

He held his weight on one elbow and ran his free hand through the unruly strands until he fisted his hand in the unruly curls, tilting her head so that their lips were almost touching.

“Your eyes are like pools of water that I would gladly drown in.  When I look in your eyes, I see you; and there is so much of you that small eyes would not be able to show me who you are.  Your eyes reflect your mood; when you are happy, your eyes are so full with your inner joy that it shines through, and when you are angry, your eyes literally shoot lightning.  It is an amazing and wonderful sight to see and I will never grow tired of looking in your eyes.”

Mandy watched as his eyes grew heavy and dropped to her mouth, the intensity of his gaze had her suck in a loud breath.

“And your mouth,” he breathed, “your mouth was made for kissing.”  With those words his mouth claimed hers.  This kiss was nothing like his previous kiss.  It was nothing like the sweet gentle caress on her lips she had experienced before.  This kiss scorched her soul as he took every last bit of sweetness her mouth had to offer.  And with every bit of honeyed sweetness he took from her willing mouth and lips, he gave back so much more that it left her mindless.  His lips and tongue plundered, discovered and tantalized her until he had to break free from her hold to take in a deep and raged breath.

Her soft whimper almost had him kissing her again, but the warning bells sounding in his head made him stop.  The need for her that was now a living and breathing part of him ached to claim her and make her his, but somewhere within; there was an ancient knowledge that told him to wait.  She blinked her eyes rapidly and his chest squeezed tightly as he realized how much he loved her.

“You are so beautiful.”  He whispered softly before he sat up straight.

“OK.”

He chuckled at her breathless reply but made no move to get up off of her bed.

As the kissing induced fog slowly cleared from her mind, Mandy remembered what had happened before he had kissed her and her hand reached out to trace around his eyes.  “Is it going to change back?”

“Is what going to change back?”  He had a lazy smile on his face that almost resembled a smirk.

“Your eyes.  They are not green anymore; they are golden brown, like your wolf.”

Quicker that lightning he was standing in front of her dressing table, staring at himself in the mirror.  As he stared at his reflection, he felt only marginally surprised that he was not freaking out right now.  “That is going to take some time to get used to.”

Mandy barked out a laugh.  “You could say that again.”

With a half smile, he turned back to her and sat down next to her.  She allowed him to hold her until she could not keep quiet any longer.

“So, what happened?”

“I think …” he started explaining before he stopped and flashed her a wry smile.  “I think we melded.”

A quick flash of concern washed over her face as she sat forward and examined his face.  “Melded?”

“Hmm.  The wolf side of my nature is now a part of me.”

“But you seem to be the same?”

“Yes.”  For the first time a sliver of uncertainty showed.  “Perhaps the wolf side of my nature was not that strong.”  Even as he said the words, he felt the wrongness of if.  His wolf had been powerfull.  He knew that, and everybody else who honestly knew him, knew that as well.

A knowing glint sparked in her eyes.  “Perhaps it is because both sides were more alike than you realized?”

A tiny frown started up on his face and grew as he tried to puzzle it out.  “I always thought that the human part of my nature was more dominant.”

“What ever would make you think that?!”

He shifted uneasily under her intense stare.  “Because I was able to hold off shifting.”

Mandy shook her head at him as if she could not believe what she was hearing.  The way she sat up and straightened her shoulders told Tyler that he was in for a very interesting discussion.

“OK.  If that is what you think, tell me when you first …” her eyes darted as she looked for the right words to use.  “When you first sensed or experienced you wolf?”

“The first time?”

“The very first time.”  She insisted.

Tyler looked down at his little mate.  It took a lot to remember that she was barely sixteen years old.  At the moment she sounded and looked anything but sixteen.  His mind wandered back as he tried to remember when it had happened.  Further and further back he went as he kept on recognizing incidents where his wolf was involved.  When he reached the day Mandy was born, he could not find any earlier incident and he had to conclude that it was then that the wolf part of his nature had made itself known.

“The day you were born.”

Her surprised expression reminded him that he never told her about that, because he knew he would end up telling her about them being mates.

“You did?”  In her excitement she jumped up onto her knees, making him bounce around on the bed.  “Tell me everything!”

Throwing his head back he laughed out loud.  When he had stopped laughing, he took her hands that were clasped together in his.  Strangely, he felt relieved that he would be able to share this with her now, after all this time.  Making himself comfortable, he wondered where he should start.

“Your mother was having a hard time.  You were being very stubborn and refused to co-operate.  When I put my hand on your mother’s tummy, I could sense you; and boy; were you angry!”  He smiled at her eager face.  She had never heard this part of the story before.  “I sort of got you to clam down a bit, but then I realized that your mother was also tense and I told her to stop worrying.”  Chuckling at the memory, he twirled her hands in his.

“She snarled at me and I immediately growled right back at her.  I felt so bad about it straight away, but then she apologized and my dad explained a bit of how it is just before a person shifts for the first time.  The volatile temper and mood swings.  Then, after you were born, when we saw you for the first time, my dad saw you first.  When he made way for me, I spoke to you and you stretched out your hand to me.  I took your tiny hand in mine and at that very instant; you looked at me.”  He sighed and rubbed his thumb along her wrist.  “I know they say that babies can’t really see things at that stage, but I like to think that you saw me then too.”  After a short pause and a deep breath he carried on with his story.  “It was at that instant when our hands and eyes met …”

Mandy bit her bottom lip as she waited for Tyler to carry on; anticipation building up in her as she wished she could remember that far back.  With a breathless ‘yes?’ she prompted him further.

“I don’t quite know how to put it in words.  I guess the best way to describe it would be to say that it was as if everything seemed to fall in place; like I could see all my tomorrows.  Our tomorrows.  And it just clicked.  Just like that I knew you were meant to be mine.  Mine forever.”

“Wow.”  She spoke softly, reverently; the amazement shining brightly in her whole face as she stared at him with rapt attention.  For a long time she could not remember why she wanted to know when he sensed his wolf for the first time; until he blinked and drew her attention to his eyes again.

“So, that was the first time?”

“Yeah, it was.”

“So I think if you knew your wolf going that far back, it is because he was so strong.  Just as strong as you were.  I know daddy says that our wolves are never stronger than we are so that we can always be in charge; but if your wolf was not that strong, you would not have felt him then, would you?”

“I honestly do not know Mandy, but what you are saying makes sense to me.  All I know is that now I am the two halves made whole.  It feels strange to think that there was a time when it was mostly the wolf or mostly the man.  I am both now and everything is crystal clear to me.”

Her eyes still held wonder as she looked at him.

“Will you be able to share that with me, show me?”

A puzzled looked crossed his face as he thought about her request.  Tentatively he tried projecting the clarity to her, but the link between them was only the most basic one-way street that it always had been.  “I think that when you change, I might be able to show you a part of it.”

“But you don’t think you will ever be able to show me all of it?”

The sadness in her voice cut through him and he gathered her into his arms.  Finally he could not keep from admitting the truth.  “For now.”

Mandy lifted her head so suddenly she banged it against his chin, but she didn’t waste any time worrying about the bump on her head.  “For now?”  She asked with wide eyes.

Tyler gritted his teeth and did his best to not feel cornered.  As his mate she deserved the truth and no matter how much it cost him in the future, she would always get the truth from him.  “When we are fully mated I might be able to share more with you.”

Blinking her eyes rapidly Mandy tried to process what he had just said.  To her it made perfect sense.  Mates were supposed to be able to share things on a much more intimate level than members of the same packs.  She was dying to ask when he would claim her, but decided to stick to a safer subject.  “Can you tell when I will shift?”

With a perplexed frown, he stared at her while he tried to see inside her mind.  Mandy held very still, not wanting to break his concentration, and at one point, she thought she felt something stir inside of her; like something tickling inside her mind.  When he blinked and looked at her, she knew he was looking at her now and not trying to see inside her mind anymore.

“Well?”  She waited in anticipation and then almost did not see it when he turned slightly redder in his face.  “What?!”

Her no-nonsense demanding tone made him wince.  This promise he made to himself to always tell her the truth was going to come back to bite him on his backside one day, he was sure.  Just look where it had gotten him now!

“Well?”

“Most likely within the next two weeks.”

At the expression in her face Tyler decided that is was so worth telling the truth.  The picture on her face was worth a thousand words and he felt so smug he had to fight to hide it from her.

“Dad thinks it will be at least another two to three months!  What makes you think it will be so soon?”

All the smugness vanished.  He had just gotten bitten in the ass.  “Umm, it’s just a feeling I have.”  He tried to shrug it off as nothing more than that.

“Uh-uh, tell me Tyler!”

Briefly he wondered whether running away very fast would help.  Then the determined glint in her eyes caught his eye and he knew he would have to spill.  So he went with the ostrich approach and closed his eyes as he rambled his theory to her.

“I could sense your wolf, she is there, just under the surface and when it is  ... you know … that time of the month, and it will trigger the change.”  A huge sigh of relief ended his brief explanation and he sat back, feeling relieved that he had managed to say it all without sounding too much like an idiot.

“What did you just say?”

The incredulous expression on her face had him going pale and he crossed his arms over his chest, there was no-way he was going to repeat that.

Mandy was too busy trying to figure out how soon her life would be changing to notice his embarrassment.  It was only when she looked to him for comfort that everything was going to be alright that she noticed his stiff and aloof body language.  A small giggle burst from her lips and she tried hard to keep it in by jamming her hands in front of her mouth.  It didn’t help at all; it only made Tyler frown at her darkly.

“It’s not funny.”

Collapsing onto the bed she let the laughter bubble out of her.  “Oh but it is.”  She insisted as soon as she was able to speak.

“No it isn’t.”  Tyler told her.

Mandy saw the small smile threatening to appear at the edge of his mouth.  “It is.  You grew up in a house full of sisters, how does something like that get you all flustered?”

“Because you are not one of my sisters, OK?”

His heated look made her shiver.  ‘How is that even possible?’ she wondered as her gaze dropped to his lips.  “I know.” 

Her soft whisper breathed over his face and his senses swam when her scent hit him.  A low growl tore from him as he stood up and put some distance between them.  If he didn’t, he might just demonstrate how much she was not one of his pesky little sisters.

“Get dressed Mandy.  We can go into town and you can show me what you think we should get for out house.”  It was a much saver way to spend the day.