Page 11 of Her Second-Hand Mate

“Can we do no shoes in the house?” I blurted out.

“Sure,” he frowned. “That’s an odd request.”

“Is it? I just have a lot of nice rugs and carpets that I made and I don’t want them to get dirty.”

His lip twitched in what looked like amusement and he tugged on a lock of my hair.

“Of all the things you could ask of me,“ he shook his head. “No problem. I have to go to work now, but I’ll see you tonight, okay? Grace will come over with some groceries later, so we’ll be set for this week.”

“Who’s Grace?”

“Elliot’s mate. They live next door.”

“Oh, right. He told me about her. Thanks.”

“See you later,” he said and left. I was still in the walk-in, so I figured I might as well unpack.

I was also secretly happy that Dominic wasn’t here for this part.

My Nana was a female from a different time. She'd taught me many things, some of them useful, some of them bizarre. But all of them she absolutely insisted on drilling into my brain.

One of them was that a female had to have a collection of silver knives and daggers that would move when she moved house, and in every new home, she had to hide them around the house so she'd be able to protect herself in case of an attack.

It took me an hour to scout out the best hiding spots in the house. They had to be accessible to me but not obvious to my attacker. The knives had to be easy to pull out in case I needed them but not likely to harm anyone in the room accidentally. I had to think like a crawling pup. It was exhausting.

But I knew Nana would ask me if I did it, and I never outright lied to her. I’d tweak the truth sometimes to spare her feelings, or I'd omit things, but never direct lies, no ma’am.

Thinking of Nana made me remember another thing. I went into the kitchen and chucked the casserole that Heather brought into the trash. I normally hated wasting food, but another thing Nana insisted on was to never eat food prepared by wolves we didn’t know or didn’t trust.

Then I changed into a shirt and leggings and decided to scrub the floors before unpacking my trousseau.

As I worked, my mind kept wandering to Dominic. Would tonight be the night? I wasn't entirely clueless. I was a shifter, so witnessing nature and animals mating outside was normal for us. But growing up without a mother, without an older sister, in a conservative pack...

I’d read some of Nana’s books, usually the white ones with the red header and the diamond-shaped logo, but the authors kept using different words for different parts, and by the end, I’d just be hot and flush, and still no more informed than when I’d started reading.

I’d always imagined me and my mate would be equally clueless, and that we’d figure it out together. But this was the hand I was dealt, I thought, as I scrubbed the floors that Cassie must have picked out, and luckily someone knocked before I could follow that thought anywhere.

“Hi, you must be Grace!” I said as I opened the door.

“I am. Hello, Luna, and welcome to Greylock,” she bared her neck before smiling at me.

“Please come in, I’m so excited to learn more about the pack.”

“Well, I’m a transplant myself, so I probably won’t be the best source of information, but I’ll do my best.”

“In that case, I’d like to learn more about you,” I smiled. “Would you like some tea or coffee?”

“Tea is fine if you have it.”

“Perfect, I was going to make a cup for myself anyway. So where are you from originally?”

“Colorado, the Royal Pack.”

“You’re kidding! We’ve always been neighbors in a way, then. I’m from Utah!”

“Oh wow, that’s great, I’ve visited your pack many times growing up.”

We drank our tea and chatted about the area and the pack and, if I’m being honest, gossiped a bit.

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