My heart was racing, pounding against my rib cage. I could still feel his gentle kiss on my stomach, his warm lips caressing the sensitive skin that covered my abdomen.

"What is going on with me?" I questioned in shock and exasperation.

"He is your mate. There is nothing going on with you, you're just learning to accept your true feelings" Memerat interrupted.

"But... I can't stand him" I mumbled.

"Maybe that was true a few days ago but he is not the man he was last week. You are not the same woman either. Things change, you yourself said you would not give him a true chance until he showed you that he could be different... a kind spirit. Has he not been kind? He has taken care of you and controlled his urges just for you. You should be honored by his effort"

"He has been but... why? Why is he being like this? Why am I acting like this?!"

"Natural instinct?" if I could mentally roll my eyes at that comment, I would have.

"Alright I will concede that perhaps I push you to do rash things, but nothing you have not desired to do in your inner thoughts"

" They're my inner thoughts for a reason... They're not supposed to come out!" I yelled, slapping my wet hand against the wall of the shower.

"Do not take that tone with me"

"I'll take whatever tone I want" I mumbled. She never responded to me, so I finished my shower and dried off. I went to my closet and grabbed a pair of black Capri tights and a long, sleeveless, white top. My lavender tennis shoes followed and I left my hair down with the hope that it would air dry. As I placed my hand on the bathroom door, I took a deep breath and prepared myself for whatever anger or fury would be on the other side. What else could I expect after I threw him to the ground. A colder rush of air greeted me as I opened the door. Alex had just hooked his fingers into the edges of a black shirt and was pulling it down over his muscular chest as I entered my room. I attempted to be calm and cool by pretending like I hadn't noticed or didn't care. He looked at me intently then chuckled to himself and turned away.

"What's so funny?" I asked, still caught off guard by the sight of his smile.

"You" He answered vaguely while he ran his hands through his hair.

"Thanks" I responded with a blank look.

"You're welcome. Hurry up, we need to go to the Pack House."

I shot him a sneer, showing him I did not like being bossed around.

"Why?"

"Yogi's little mate has information on the shifters that attacked us" he said, his expression growing dark with anger.

"Yogi? Are you talking about Nate?"

"...Maybe..."

I gave him a dry look and went to the bed to search for my phone. As I was throwing pillows and blankets around, I felt Alex staring at me.

"What?" I asked, shooting him a side glance while I continued to rummage.

"I was just thinking about your tattoo and how it keeps expanding... and what you're looking for" he explained.

"My tattoo? I've had my arm expansions for a while now... actually, we never figured out why I got my new arm ones" I explained. Why was he just now noticing them?

"Well, I meant your leg ones. But what do you mean you never figured out why?"

"What leg ones-" I began, but when I looked down at my exposed calves and feet I realized that my tattoos had grown to cover my feet.

"What? What?!" I whispered to myself loudly. How could I have not noticed these? Have I really been that distracted that I had not noticed the new twisting spirals?

"You really haven't realized they're there have you?" he asked incredulously.

"I-no. I hadn't" I responded in a hush as I touched them.

"Well now that you know they are there... explain what you meant" at my confused look he continued, "about how you never 'figured' out your arm ones".

"Oh" I said, standing up straight. "my tattoo grows as I gain new abilities. The moon emblem appeared on my back when I found out about my telekinesis, the lower back spirals after force field, and my shoulder ones after fire. But then they stopped growing for a while because I stopped receiving new abilities. That is until a few days ago. New ones just appeared on my arms for no reason" I explained nonchalantly. I found my phone with a victorious smirk.

"Well these on your legs showed up after you shifted. I know that for sure. What happened the day of or the day before your arm tattoos appeared?" he asked.

I sat on my bed and fiddled with my phone as I tried to recall what happened. I had woken up the day after the beach party with the tattoos. So it must have been something at the beach that...

"You" I gasped quietly with my mouth open in disbelief.

He gave me a look is misunderstanding.

"You. It was you. You're the reason I got the tattoos. It didn't make sense then because I didn't know you were my..." I struggled with the word mate, so I chose to just skip over it," but now it does" I could feel my brow furrowed in conviction.

"I like how you blame everything that happens on me" he said with a teasing tone. I shot him a condescending look and he smirked and looked down. "But I still don't understand, how would your body know to grow more tattoos if you didn't know I was your mate?"

"I don't know" I mumbled and headed toward the door.

"Hey" he said with a quiet but stern voice as he grabbed my upper arm.
I glanced at his hand then my arm and back again with an quizzical expression. "Say it" he murmured.

"I don't know-" but I stopped mid sentence as I realized what he meant.

"Say I'm your mate" he clarified.

"I-I can't" I replied, pulling my arm from his grasp. "We need to go" I mumbled, quickly turning to avoid the look on his face.