Page 45 of Mate
My stomach drops. It’s unnecessarily mean, the way Koen holds my eyes for a beat, as if to savor the hurt in them. Then he fondly clasps Brenna’s shoulder, whispers something in her ear that has her smirking, and settles on the bench farthest away.
I hate him.
“Ready to start whenever you are,” Brenna says once he’s out of earshot.
I hate her, too. By extension. Which is unfair, but it does fuel me.
Misery and I have takena lotof self-defense, and I have some moves tucked away. Not sure how they’ll play out after monthsof poor sleep hygiene, a diet mostly made of stomach acids, and my currentcondom full of chicken stocklevel of fitness, but I don’t care.
Brenna expects nothing from me, and I can use it to my advantage.
“I didn’t think Weres went to the gym,” I tell her with a small smile.
“Weres do everything Humans do. But better.”
So maybe I don’t hate her. Maybe I sort of like her. It’s Misery’s fault if I have a thing for tall blondes who usefuck offhumor to shield their true selves. I’ll write my sister a strongly worded email of condemnation.
But there’s something I need to know, and I decide not to hem and haw over it. “You and Koen . . . ?”
“Yup.” Light on her feet, she moves closer. We start circling each other.
“Cool.” She throws a jab at my torso. I hop back and dodge it. For some reason, my chest hurts anyway. “How, um, long have you been together?”
“We no longer are.”
Oh.
I evade a few more punches and try a low attack, but she gets me with a leg kick. I fall on my ass but manage to roll back up before she can . . . I don’t know. When does this stop? Pinfall? Knockout? First blood? She’s not going to kill me, right? “You didn’t break up because of the mate thing, right?” I ask, already panting a little.
“As if. You’re not the hub of reality.” She snorts. “It was a million years ago, and there was nobreaking up. The fucking ground was falling from under our feet.” She aims a cross at my head, which I barely slip. I counter with a jab to her ribs, quickly followed by a light kick.
I land both. And they must hurt— if not her flesh, her pride. Brenna glares, and that’s when she begins to fight in earnest. I half expect the way she grabs my shoulders, and even her knee to my stomach. I block the latter, but she takes me down with a body lock that . . .
Fuckingouch.
“Listen.” She pins me to the mat. Holds me down as she whispers right against my face. “I’m not some jealous woman quivering at the sight of a pretty trophy girlfriend. But you knownothing. Things could get real tough here in the Northwest. Koen could use an adult, instead of a cute little ball and chain combo that only slows him down.”
Hard not to take what she’s saying personally when, if the mood were to strike, she could easily choke me. “I may be ignorant of Were and Northwest customs, but in my defense, people haven’t been forthcoming with information— ”
“What do you wanna know? Ask away, ’cause I’m not going to baby you. Your weird hybrid shit and that rosy-cheeked, wide-eyed look, they’re notadorableto me. I was thrown in the deep end when I was a decade younger than you are now, and no one tossed me a rope, not even a damn stick, and I’m stronger for it. You’d benefit from fewer gloves and rougher— ”
I jerk my hips and push against her neck, creating enough space to flip us around. I twist her hand, pull it under my armpit, and lock her in an armbar. “Why was the Northwest divided?” I ask. Since she’s so eager to talk, I’d rather it be about something that isn’t me.
“That’s a much smarter question than I expected from you,” she chokes out, failing to free herself.
“Yeah, well. I used to think of myself as a smart person.”
“Used to?”
“Not realizing what species I was for the better part of two decades had me reassessing,” I huff.
“That must fuck you up real good, huh? I don’t envy you.”
“Why? It’s been sofun.” I think she might be chuckling. I strengthen my grip and ask, “When did the pack split?”
“Forty years ago. Little less.”
“Why?”
