Page 3 of Ravaged Wolf
I blink over my shoulder at it. It’s a mid-size luxury sedan, the latest model year. My dad brags to his buddies about how he got the top-of-the-line trim level for less than asking price, and he didn’t even have to flash his fangs at the human salesman, so I guess it must be nice. I don’t know much about cars.
“Thank you,” I say quietly.
For a long second, we’re both silent. I stare at the ground. I can see his feet. He’s wearing tan work boots. There’s a streak of grease across the toe of the right one.
Are people watching us? Are they texting about this? Are their moms calling my mom already?
“Izzy—” he says. His voice is firm, but gentle. Respectful.
My cheeks are burning. They must look like when I was little and got into my mom’s makeup, and I thought blushwent on in perfect circles. “Apples of the cheeks” means you paint your cheeks to look like apples, right?
I’m such an idiot.
“You know—” he begins, falters, takes a breath, and then continues. “You know what we are. Right?”
I nod and force myself to look up. It’s not his fault that this is the worst thing ever.
He pushes a loose curl out of his eye. He doesn’t seem any more confident about this whole situation than me. For some reason, that gives me a shot of courage.
“We’re mates,” I say.
He smiles shyly, not much more than a slight lifting of the corners of his soft, generous mouth, but it makes my stomach muscles tense, and all of a sudden, I’m aware of my entire body in a way I never have been before. My small breasts weigh heavy. Blood pulses between my legs.
I don’t know what to do with my hands. I wish I could shove them in my pockets, but I’m borrowing my mom’s work slacks, and they don’t have real pockets, more like little slits where you can tuck a few quarters for the snack machine.
What is my brain doing? My thoughts are rolling all over the place like spilled marbles.
“If you don’t need a ride, maybe I can come by your place tonight after work? We can go for a walk or something?” His soft smile rises a notch higher, encouraging and hopeful.
“No.” The word comes out so much more emphatically than I intend, and his smile falls. His shoulders tense.
I hold up a hand between us, and I mean it like ‘wait a second,’ but his jaw tightens, and he takes a step back.
“I can’t tonight,” I say quickly. I don’t want to explain—and I sure don’t want to sound like a pup who has to pass everything by her daddy—but now I feel awful that I madehim feel bad, so I force myself to say, “I have to talk to my parents first. About what’s going on.”
His eyes darken until they’re more like a rainy, gray November sky than a clear, blue June.
“I get it.” His mouth twists, and there’s a bitterness that wasn’t in his voice before.
I want to argue—or lie—and say it’s no big deal. I just want them to hear the big news from me; they’ll be happy to meet him. But I can tell from his expression that hedoesget it. Everyone at Moon Lake is rank-conscious. He knows that everyone is going to think that he got lucky, and that my parents are going to think the opposite.
“Maybe tomorrow?” I offer.
“Yeah. Okay.” He exhales, blowing out his cheeks. “I guess I better—” He jerks his chin over his shoulder in the direction of his truck.
I nod and stand there numb, my brain buzzing, as he carefully takes my keys, opens my car door, and holds it open like the valet that greets the alpha when he pulls up in front of the Tower.
I blush. At least there’s no way he can tell since I’m already bright pink from the heat my body’s cranking like a busted boiler.
Once I’m settled in the driver’s seat, he hands me my keys. “If you need me, I’m in 521,” he says.
“I know.” I gasp, horrified that I let on that I know where he lives, and then doubly-horrified that I gasped.
Trevor’s eyes brighten, almost twinkle. “So you know where to find me, then,” he says without the slightest hint of teasing in his voice.
I nod, bite my bottom lip, and stare desperately ahead. I’m wildly grateful when he gently shuts the door and backs up so I can drive away. I sneak a peek in the rearview, and he stands there in the middle of the aisle until I turn out of theAcademy parking lot. His shoulders aren’t slumped now. He’s straightened to his full height, arms loose at his sides, his jaw set with calm determination.
My belly sizzles like a skyrocket. No matter how gentle and patient he was with me, he’s a full-grown shifter male. He’ll wait for now, but he’s not going to wait forever. He can’t. Neither of us can escape Fate. Even if we wanted to.
