Page 39 of Her Second-Hand Mate

My grip on the mental coat was slipping, I could feel it. I took a deep breath as a disappointed tear escaped my eye. My nose was burning, and my throat felt scratchy.

“Penelope?”

“I’ll see you at home.”

Neither Hank nor I spoke a word during the drive, though he kept shooting me concerned glances in the rearview mirror.

I quickly changed out of the fancy dress and hid it in the back of my closet. I felt such shame and humiliation when I looked at it. I braided my hair and washed my face. Never again would I try to pretend to be something I wasn’t. A sob left my mouth and I covered it with both hands.

By the time Dominic came home, I was fast asleep. I’d left his presents on the living room table downstairs. The next morning, he kept glancing at me as I made breakfast, but I remained silent.

“Thank you for my presents,” he finally said.

“You’re welcome. Happy birthday.”

“Thanks. Did you make the sweater?”

“I did.”

“When?”

I turned my back on the stove and leaned my behind on the counter. I crossed my arms on my chest, careful not to touch my clothes with the eggy spatula I was holding.

“I must have been 19, why?”

“Did you think about me while you were knitting it?” he asked in a tone I’d never heard from him, or any male, before.

I didn’t know what it meant.

“In a way, yes,” I finally replied, giving up on deciphering the puzzle of Dominic’s feelings.

He frowned.

“What do you mean, in a way?”

I looked at him like he was crazy.

“I didn’t know who you were. So I thought about my mate, an unknown entity with no face. So, in a way, it was you, but in a way, it wasn’t.”

His shoulders relaxed.

“What are your plans for today?”

“I’m going to the city with the females.”

His eyebrows asked for further clarification, so I added, “Lynn, Mira, Charlotte, and Grace.”

“Have fun.”

Mira had gotten us all an appointment at Edoardo’s, but instead of using his niece, this time, she used my Luna position. I didn’t mind; on the contrary, I was happy to help my friends enjoy themselves and they all seemed excited for this beauty day.

Lynn said she wasn't going to let him anywhere near her hair, she was going only to keep us company and prevent us from making bad hair decisions. Mira was going to get highlights, whereas Charlotte and Grace wanted completely new styles.

I wasn’t going to do anything but get a wash and maybe a trim, but after last night I was buzzing with pent-up resentment and some other foreign emotion, so when the friendly she-wolf finished washing my hair, she sat me down in a chair and I met my own gaze in a mirror, before deciding to cut half of my hair off.

“You look so different!” Lynn exclaimed for the tenth time as we were having our coffee after the salon.

I grinned. I felt lighter in more ways than one. I told my friends about last night, and they were all disappointed together with me. They knew how much I had looked forward to this. They were also aware that this was my second attempt to get closer to my mate and that, in a way, this one had failed, too.

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