Hunger's Mate by A. C. Arthur

senses.
    She’d been afraid when he’d first stopped her in the parking lot, but this was different, this was a soul-deep fear that made him want to kill the bastard that rooted this emotion in her.
    â€œI don’t know you,” she said quietly. “And I don’t want to. I don’t want to trust you or anybody else.”
    â€œBecause of what he did to you,” he replied and watched knowingly as her head instantly shot up. She turned around to face him.
    â€œYou don’t know me,” she stated, her voice louder than before.
    Ezra stepped to her then. She tried to back away but her legs hit the steps that were right behind her. Reaching out he caught her again, one arm wrapping around her waist, the other going up to her head to pull the wig away. “Do you know yourself?” he asked.
    Ezra backed away from her, holding the wig in his hand, watching her lift her hand up to touch the short strands that were naturally hers. His mind screamed for him to back off, to drop the weird-looking patch of hair and get the hell away from the female and whatever her troubles were, but he didn’t listen.
    â€œIt’s just an accessory,” she told him, making a point to meet his stare. “Like the belt you have holding up your pants. If you take it off you’re still the same person.”
    He liked how fast she could think, how quickly she rebounded after what was an assault to the persona he figured she’d worked so hard to build. Ezra was positive that this was more than just an accessory, it had become a part of her life, a necessary part. The question was, why?
    â€œAre you the same person, Jewel?” he asked. “Without this wig, without those contacts, are you the Jewel Jenner everybody here thinks you are?”
    There’d only been one other occasion that Ezra had seen the look Jewel now wore on her face. It had been just before the cat had taken form and subsequently taken a life. The other time, place, and circumstances may have been drastically different but he had done something he now regretted. That was then and it was a place he didn’t want to go, hadn’t gone to in years. Now, thankfully, Ezra was certain that his eyes hadn’t changed to that of his cat, and his human form was still very much intact. So why was she looking like she’d just seen a ghost?
    â€œIt’s none of your damned business who I am!” she yelled at him. “None of your business at all!”
    This time when she turned he knew she’d run up the stairs. She probably knew every corner of this resort, Ezra thought as he stood there fingering the wig and not going after her. She’d parked in the shipping parking lot, where he just happened to be after enjoying a run in Bas’s secluded wooded area. He’d watched her pull up as he dressed in the shadows of the building. Then she’d climbed out of the car and run as if she actually thought someone was out there with her. Ezra hadn’t seen anyone, only her.
    Even now as he walked back outside, retracing her steps to her car, he still didn’t see any signs of another person and the only scent he picked up was hers. The fear was so thick it could possibly choke him, if it wasn’t already making him angry as hell. His fingers gripped the wig as he made his way back to the building. He tossed it into the Dumpster just before going through that same back door once more. This time trying like hell not to remember how hot and wet Jewel was beneath his fingers. The fingers that still carried her female scent, which if he lifted them to his nose right now would have his dick growing even harder than it had been when she’d been there with him.
    More energized now after his run, senses overloading his mind, dick hard and ready to sink inside her hot, sweet … By the time Ezra came to the resort lobby his mind was definitely where it should not be. Still, he made his way to the