Page 25 of Her Second-Hand Mate

What surprised me were the varying levels of modesty, depending on where someone’s from. Some of them just disrobed right there, in front of everyone. I would have felt better if I’d had Dominic with me, but he had a charity obligation in the pack that he just couldn’t postpone.

There, not a lie. When Heather showed up at our door the morning of the picnic, it took all the strength I had not to show my surprise or annoyance.

Dominic explained that, because of the accident, she needed a lot of physical therapy for her leg, and the rehab clinic that had the hot pool she needed was near campus.

“Poor” Heather was too scared to drive after her traumatic accident, but she was also afraid to be driven by others. Due to Dominic having been there for her in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy and him being her Alpha now, she only felt safe with him.

The hatred I felt for her in that moment made me want to vomit. But I also felt like the most horrible she-wolf in the world. What did I know about what she had gone through?

Now that Dominic had mentioned it, I remembered how something about her gait had seemed off the few times that she’d passed me by in the pack offices.

Had she also ingested wolfsbane that night? Is that why the injury never healed properly? I couldn’t exactly ask Dominic about it since I wasn’t sure if the gossip about Cassandra’s death was true.

So the two of them drove off together, whereas Hank and I would leave and come back on our own schedule. I was informed this would be happening every two months.

In the evening, I was still so wound up about the whole thing that I went for a long run, and when I came back, Dominic was in the kitchen, wearing his workout gear as well. He must have just returned from the gym. I watched the way his hair kept getting in his eyes, and I thought he needed a haircut. I could envision him sitting in a chair in front of me, the back of his head digging into my lower stomach, my fingers gently combing through his wet strands as I cut them...

As my shoulder brushed against him on my way to get some water from the fridge, his erect appendage emerged from the waistband of his shorts. I couldn’t stop staring at it. Did he get excited just from that touch? A drop of clear liquid glistened atthe tip. I licked my lips unconsciously and he stepped towards me.

Without words, we devoured each other on the kitchen floor, salty and hot, until neither of us could move. After we showered in separate bathrooms, I didn’t feel like putting on “real” clothes, and it was too early for my nightgown. I still needed that water, so I just slid on his sleep shirt that was on our bed and a pair of clean underwear to go get it. I heard Dominic jogging down the stairs and I was about to offer him a glass as well, but I noticed how angry he looked, so I didn’t. He squeezed his eyes shut and took a few deep breaths.

“Why are you walking around like that? Put some clothes on,” he said between clenched teeth.

It didn’t even hurt. It was what I imagined frostbite was like. A cold feeling that spread until you were numb. And then the affected tissue died.

I just nodded, like the mute he was turning me into, picked up the sweaty and torn clothes from the kitchen floor, and went upstairs to change. I put on my nightgown and went to do a load of laundry, and didn’t go back upstairs until I was sure he was asleep.

???

Since I know how much you loved hearing about my trip to Concord, this time I decided to have some of Anthony’s photosdeveloped and I’m including those with my letter. Of course, Orchard House is among them, as is the replica of Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond. However, most of them are photos from our second trip to Montague, MA.

You will particularly enjoy the photo of me with my friends at the Bookmill, the most amazing bookshop I have ever been to. You can easily deduce that the only male in the photo has to be Anthony; I will tell you that the tall black female is your fellow Georgian, Lynn, which leaves the curvy brunette to be Charlotte.

The bookstore nearly bankrupted us, but we still had some money left over for lunch at the café that it houses. It was such a unique experience for me since I'd never spent much time among humans, but we sat there for two hours, just observing (and smelling) all the humans who came through the place. We wondered what life was like for them, but I don’t think our imagination did it justice.

“Do you think we’re better off with our fated mates, or are they with their freedom of choice?” Charlotte asked, her mood unreadable.

“I think having a fated mate beats just picking someone you like,” Lynn said and Anthony groaned.

“Of course you’d say that, you’re mated already.”

I didn’t say anything. I was mated too, and yet here I was, unable to claim it was undoubtedly better than sifting through dozens of humans to find one you’d want or like.

“I can’t even imagine what the process would be like,” I said honestly. “The possibilities are endless. Do you choose based on sight or smell? Do you approach someone on the street? Do families choose for their pups? If you can grow to love a person, does it also mean you can grow to unlove them? It is just all so different from our ways.”

“True,” Lynn replied. “I feel like human mating and our mating are two different languages, and we simply don’t speak theirs. It would be like telling a blind person to imagine what letters look like based on how they sound.”

“Exactly,” Anthony said and pointedly looked at Charlotte, “so there’s no use in thinking about it.”

“I’ve read a lot of their romance books, and choice seems wonderful,” Charlotte continued, ignoring him completely.

“I think that is because they’re books,” I pointed out. “I don’t know that real life always works out like that.”

“Don’t mind me, I’m just in a mood today. I started next month’s reading already, so it got me thinking about things.”

“The Age of Innocence? Is it any good?” Lynn asked, seeming relieved at the change in topic.

“It’s wonderful; I can’t wait to discuss it in class and see which woman everyone will side with.”

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