His to Claim by Alice Cain Page B

he
hadn't really grown soft yet— yay , for bear
shifters—so every movement was a delicious reminder of what they'd just shared.
    "I thought I heard you say you loved me
and promise that one day you would say it out loud."
    Alex stilled as he tried to remember if he'd
actually said any of that out loud. He knew he'd thought it, but he'd been
panting so hard at the time he was pretty sure he'd been too busy breathing to
try and whisper something he'd not actually intended to say today. In the future yes, but not right here and not right now.
    An explanation occurred to him that was so
outrageous he wanted to squirm away in embarrassment.
    "Telepathy?" Kyle asked as if Alex had spoken the words.
    Alex shifted awkwardly to try and see his
lover's face. "Now I know I didn't say that out loud."
    "But I heard it anyway," Kyle said
in a perplexed tone.
    "So this is…what? A side effect of sex
with you?"
    "I don't think so," Kyle replied,
tightening his grip on Alex slightly when the idea to leap out of bed and pace
the room occurred to him. "Yeah, I heard that thought too."
    "Well this kind of sucks," Alex
said as he tried to wrap his mind around the idea that Kyle might be able to
hear everything he thought. He was well on his way to a full-on rant when he
realized the connection went both ways. Kyle was already worried this would be
a deal breaker.
    "Not a deal breaker," Alex said
quickly, unable to stand the worry passing through his lover's mind.
"We'll find a way to adapt."
    "Do me a
favor?" Kyle asked in a voice that wobbled with his worry. "Remember
that I'm bad with words, even inside my own head. Often what I think instinctively, isn't really what I mean."
    "So the idea to go foraging for berries
and honey right now isn't really what you mean?"
    Alex smiled when he realized he'd said the
exact right thing. He wasn't sure he was interpreting anything that he was
sensing correctly, but he did understand the risk of wayward thoughts. Not
everything that passed through a person's mind was indicative of the person
they truly were.
    "Thanks, babe," Kyle said as he
breathed out a soft sigh of relief. Alex could already sense the man's chaotic
thoughts settling down just a little.
    They lay together quietly for a few more minutes
and calmly—well as calmly as they could both manage—explored the unexpected
connection between them. Alex relaxed when he realized the man he'd begun to
love really was the same on the inside.
    His lover's quiet laugh followed him into
sleep.
     

Chapter Eleven
     
    "So you can hear everything each other thinks ?" Tyler asked curiously.
    "Not quite," Alex answered calmly.
He knew Kyle wasn't comfortable talking about the connection they had—mainly
because he was worried he'd inadvertently think of something inappropriate
while Alex was close enough to listen in—but it seemed important for them to
know what was happening between them.
    "But only each
other?" Tyler asked. "Not anyone
else?"
    "No," Kyle answered gruffly.
"Just the two of us and only when we're within arm's length of each
other."
    They'd come to Adrian's home, rather than
the head office of Alateeka Protection Services in an effort to try and keep
this among immediate family only. If books and movies were anything to go by,
most people were uncomfortable with the idea of coming face-to-face with a
telepath. They couldn't hear anybody else, but not everyone was going to
believe that.
    Kyle had nearly blown a fuse when Alex had
suggested they talk to his siblings, but Alex was pretty sure that had more to
do with Kyle's prior infatuation with Tyler rather than his reticence to
explain what was happening to his brothers and sister.
    The irony of it was that Alex already knew
what Kyle had once thought he felt for Tyler was no longer relevant. These days
Alex's mate was very clearly attracted to only one person—Alex.
    " Relax, Ky , nothing that happens here is going to make me
love you less, " Alex said inside his head, hoping that