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eat.”

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

    Caleb's entire body jerked at
her words. What did he want to eat?
    God, there was only one thing
he wanted.
    Her.
    He wanted to eat her, in the
most decadent, erotic way.
    “Prisha,” he
growled, trapping her against his body with his arms.
    She blinked up at him, her
hands slowly moving up his chest to his shoulders.
    Caleb felt her shiver in his
arms. Her eyelids fluttered and her nails dug into his shoulders as
she clung to him.
    “Caleb...” she
stammered. “I...I shouldn't...”
    “Shouldn't?” he
growled.
    “I shouldn't...want you
so.”
    Caleb held her steady as she
fidgeted and fretted. “I...I don't know why I have all these
feelings for you. I've only just met you, but it feels as if I've
known you forever. I trust you, and..I feel for you.” She
shook her head, as though trying to clear it. “I...I've never
wanted anyone like this...”
    She took a shuddering breath
and pushed feebly at him, but he refused to let her go. Her head
fell forward to rest on his chest.
    “I don't know why I
feel this way,” she whispered. “This is not just a
crush. I've never felt this way before. I'm attracted to you,
but...this is more than just an attraction. I...want you, Caleb.”
There was a plaintive note in her voice, a quiet tremor of confusion
and fear.
    Caleb swallowed and ran his
hand gently up and down her back, trying to soothe and assure her.
Even to shifters, the startling recognition of a mate and the intense
pull and possessiveness towards a mate could be overwhelming. Their
beasts could drive them mad with the animal need and instinct to
mate. It took strength of heart and spirit to be a shifter's mate.
    Humans could fall in love and
mate with shifters, but only very few humans had an instinctive,
immediate connection with their mates. Prisha recognized him as her
mate, but her rational mind couldn't find an explanation for the pull
of her heart and body. She was trying to fight the attraction,
rationalize it, explain the unexplainable. How do you explain a soul
connection, an intuitive, instinctive tug of the heart?
    It was a bond, an emotion and
attraction too powerful to be denied.
    She was his mate, his heart,
more precious to him than his own life. He would gladly give his
life to protect her.
    Prisha was his. There was no
doubt. She could feel the same deep connection and attraction, but
not being a shifter, she was scared by her own explosive,
uncontrollable feelings. He could feel her overpowering desire for
him, and her fear and bewilderment at her own heightened passion and
lust.
    “Prisha,” he said
softly. “I know that you are confused and scared, but your
want and hunger is perfectly natural. What we have between us is
real and eternal. You are...”
    She looked mortified and
tried to struggle out of his arms. “I...I'm not that kind of
girl...”
    “What kind of girl?”
    “I...I don't jump into
bed with strangers...” she babbled.
    “I'm not a stranger,”
he gritted out. “I'm your mate!”
    “I...what?”
    “You are mine, Prisha,”
he said raggedly, his head falling to rest against hers. “My
mate, my life.”
    “How…how do you
know?”
    “I just do.” He
stroked his thumb across her cheek. “My heart knows. My bear
knows. My body hungers for you. I want and need you. And I care
for you, very deeply.”
    She was silent for a long
while. Finally, she lifted her head and gazed deeply, searchingly
into his eyes.
    Pressing her palm over his
heart, she whispered, “You feel me here...in your heart?”
    “Yes.”
    “And you...desire me?”
    “Yes, very much. And
the desire will only grow stronger. I will desire you forever.”
    Her expression was unreadable
as she touched his face. Finally, she said very quietly, “I am
your mate.”
    “Yes. And I am yours,”
he told her, holding her gaze unflinchingly.
    Prisha nodded as her eyes
took on a faraway look. “I recall my Nanni telling me about
this.”
    “Your grandmother?”
    “Yes. Nanni