Chapter 9 NINE

Clyde took a brisk step backwards, letting himself sit comfortably on her bed. "You might want to sit down for this...."

"No, thank you..."

"It's your bedroom, Emma Watson..." He replied with an injured expression. "You should sit..."

"No. I. Don't. Want. To. Sit. On. The. Bed..." She replied firmly. "Or close to you..." She finally breathed.

"Why? You think I'm a monster?..." He was amused. Did she think backing away from him could stop him if he desired to kill her? She would have been dead the minute she walked in if he intended to kill her.

She blinked. "You killed those men..." It wasn't a question. He didn't think so. It was an affirmation that she did think of him as a monster.

"Did I commit a crime?..."

"The murders are being investigated..."

"Are they now?..." The air in the room seemed to drop a few degrees. There was a slight tone of mockery and mischief in his last question.

Her words were clipped. "I ask again..." She drew her breath. "What are you doing here?..."

"I need you to drop the case and keep your nose out of it..."

"What?..."

"I need you to drop the case..." He repeated, his eyes focused on her.

"That's impossible..."

"Why?..."

"I'm a detective if you haven't figured that out..."

He snorted. "You are a low-ranking detective who can barely work on a case alone, so I want you to keep your nose out of the case..." He watched as the effect of his words spread across her face.

"You killed those men in my presence..." She breathed, hurt evident in her eyes.

"Well, I'm glad we are finally on the same page..."

"No, we're not..."

"They would have remained alive if you hadn't been snooping around..." He pointed out. "So yes, we're on the same page, Emma Watson...."

Silence settled across the room. Misery etched out Emma's features as Clyde observed her. She was terrified. He hadn't intended to bring back the memories of the past night and make her feel worse than she was feeling already. But she was a naive stubborn girl who managed to think she was brave enough to save the world.

"I didn't ask for you to save me..." She said.

"Well then, you should have learned to mind your business. If you intended suicide, there are better ways to achieve that..."

Her eyes shot up. "How did you find me? And why did you save me?.." From her facial expressions, Clyde could see she had struggled to answer these questions within her mind. She had probably dedicated hours of mental torture to the mystery of her survival.

He licked his lips. "Those are questions I would give you answers to only when you have promised to step down from the case..."

"I have everything to do with the case..." She slowly mustered. "The autopsy would probably reveal my presence and I would go down..."

Clyde remained silent, his gaze focused upon her for a poignant moment. "The autopsy wouldn't reveal anything beyond my identity..."

She turned her piercing brown eyes to him immediately. "Why? You don't know how these things work, do you? Callus would probably have my fingerprint and blood all over him..."

He was lying on her bed, his hands folded behind his head, looking completely at home. "I see you're persistent on being caught...."

"No..." She flipped out. "Unlike you, I'm being very realistic. You don't just break into my house and tell me to stay away from a case that has everything to do with me...."

Clyde sprang up at once and she stumbled back. "You don't speak to me that way. Ever again..."

He was relieved that she look terrified, that she was a trembling mess of confusion and turmoil on the inside.

"If you're here to kill me, why don't you go on with it?..." She whispered, her lips trembling as the words danced off.

"I'm not here to kill you..." Clyde said collapsing back on the bed. "I didn't come all the way here to do that..."

"Then why?..."

His lips tightened with annoyance. "You've not heard a word I have said the entire time...." Clyde watched her with a strange expression on her face as if trying to figure out if she was ok in the head.

"The autopsy....."

"The autopsy will reveal nothing but animal blood...." He cut her out.

"How's that possible? There was no...." She paused, the realization of what he meant striking her sharply. Clyde watched as she opened her mouth to speak but closed them back rapidly. Trembling, she had looked at his face, then at his hands, her face cold from terror. "You're-You're not ...."

"I'm also here to introduce myself properly..." Tension flirted with the air around them as he rose from the bed.

He was about to do what he had been pushing back for six years. For the first time, true concern washed over him. He had been too scared, too angry to truly grasp the reality of their situation.

It was sinking in as he stood in her bedroom and it wasn't good. She didn't know who he was. She had no idea that creatures like him existed.

Though he had planned to mark and mate her soon, he didn't hold out much hope that she would want to have anything to do with him if she realized who he was. But he needed to tell her.

Not that it would do him much good, but she needed to be aware that creatures like him existed and she would soon be running into them often. He had thought of the very moment he would reveal himself to her but hadn't prepared for it.

His voice had deepened. "I want you to watch me. Don't be terrified, I won't hurt you..."

But she was. Right there as she stood, he could hear the pounding of her heart.

The atmosphere around them changed as Clyde made an effort to shift without scaring the crap out of her. His eyes were focused on her, ready to run off after her if she tried to run away from fright.