Page 22 of Her Second-Hand Mate

“What?”

“I haven’t told any of them that I’m a Blessed Hansen,” I grimaced and Isaac mirrored it, hating the name as much as I did. “They know I’m from Uinta, they will know you’re an Alpha, and I’m afraid they will put it all together.”

“Would that really be so bad?” he asked softly.

What he meant was, “Is being part of our family really so horrible for you?”

“I just want to bejust Penelopefor a while. I don’t want them to ask questions about Mother, about Evangeline, I don’t want to be looked at like I work at the circus, okay? Just for a while. They will all know eventually, right? I just want to push that timeline a bit into the future.”

“I understand. I’ll meet them some other time. Now, let me enjoy this amazing food,” he said and we ate in silence for a while, with him occasionally letting out hums of approval. He made it seem like he hadn’t eaten in a week.

“This is nice,” I remarked between bites.

“What is?” Isaac said once he managed to take a break from stuffing his face, and he said it with his mouth full.

“Having someone to eat with,” I said without thinking and saw his brows furrow in anger.

“What?” he barked. “Why doesn’t your mate eat with you?”

I took a sip of water to buy myself some time.

“Dominic works a lot, you know how it is.”

“I don’t know how it is, Penelope, are you trying to tell me he works so hard he can’t eat dinner with his mate?”

“Look, Isaac, forget it. Forget I said anything,” I said and got up to rinse my plate.

With my back to him, I looked up to the ceiling and took a few deep breaths. Stupid. I was so stupid. Why did I have to run my mouth? He was going to hate my mate now.

“Penelope,” my brother said in what I knew was the gentle voice he used with pups and his sisters. “Is everything okay with your mate?”

That was a tricky question. I knew my brother very well, and I knew his nose, too. He’d be able to smell my lie even without seeing my face, so I had to tell him just the right amount of truth to appease him.

“Look, Isaac,” I said calmly, and I took a deep breath through my nose. “It has all been so much. Moving to a new pack which is so different from ours. Becoming Luna. Being mated. He works a lot, yes, and he travels for work often. But I couldn’t tell you one bad thing he has done to me, not one. He’s just... more like Father than he is like you, that’s all. And that’s fine, because I’m used to that.”

It was true. Dominic wasn’t a bad male. He just... wasn’t there a lot. Didn’t talk a lot. Didn’t take my feelings into consideration when he did things. None of those were offenses, not where I came from.

Isaac’s jaw ticked. He turned me around and his eyes were searching my face. He then hugged me tightly.

“But you’ll tell me if you have any problems?” he asked and something inside me raised its battered head a little bit.

“Of course I will. I love you Zac.”

“I love you too, Pen.”

“Now, will you tell me why you brought your suitcase for an afternoon visit?”

He gave me a sheepish grin.

“You have to help me do laundry.”

“Oh. My. God.” I said as I burst out a disbelieving laugh.

???

“Are you sure you don’t want to read along with us? We could have taken the class together!”

“Absolutely not, Pen. I will put off taking both of those classes for as long as I can. I will hold onto hope that they will stop being mandatory until I’m in my last year.”

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