Page 6 of Twist of Fated Mates
“Come inside. I’ll light a fire.”
That sounds good. It’s chilly out. In my wolf’s thick fur coat, I didn’t notice, but in a bedsheet, it’s unfortunately quite apparent. Gooseflesh crawls across my nape.
I follow Nigel back inside the cabin and hover as he builds a fire. He’s quick, and soon the little spark snaps and pops its way into crackling flames. He drags one of the wooden chairs close and gestures for me to sit. He takes the second one, in the corner on the other side of the table, as far from me as possible.
“Ask again.” He steeples his fingers in front of him.
My question had been, “What happened to you?” And I still want to know that, very much so, but it doesn’t feel right to ask while Nigel’s obviously uncomfortable. So as the fire warms myhands, I let my thoughts tumble. We need something to lighten the mood.
“What would you do if I challenged you to dance under the moonlight?”
Nigel raises his brows and stares. “That’s what you want to know?”
“Mm-hmm.” I grin. “I bet you’re a great dancer.”
His lips quirk. Not a smile, exactly, but the frown fades. “You’d lose that bet, Charlie. I’ve never danced.”
“Never? What a shame.”
“So the answer is no. I wouldn’t accept your challenge for fear of further embarrassing myself.”
Further embarrassing? He’s done nothing of the sort. The hiss of burning wood fills the space between us. “Well then, I have another.”
“Challenge or question?”
“Question.”
Nigel visibly braces himself, jaw stiffening. “Go on.”
I fixate on his lips and let my gaze linger. “Have you ever stolen a kiss?”
He lets out a hint of a chuckle. “Afraid I haven’t done that either.”
“What if I stole a kiss from you?”
“That’s a bad idea.”
“I disagree, but you’re off the hook for now, seeing as you’ve sat yourself with a table between us.”
“You’re stalling, and it’s not that I don’t appreciate the effort, but you can ask what you really want to know. I’m ready to tell it.”
Pride swells. My mate is brave. “What happened to you, Nigel?”
He sucks in a breath, blows it out slowly, then flattens his hands on the table. “It began when our alpha’s second, Josie,needed my help. One of her duties is trading between packs. But her partner was ill, and she didn’t want to leave his side.”
The simple start makes me want to relax, but I know better. This story won’t have a happy ending.
Nigel continues, “I’d accompanied Josie on her route before to help out and be an extra set of hands. So I volunteered to go in her place so she could stay home. It should have been an easy run, just some letters and dried goods there, and letters plus a load of salt back. Nothing one person couldn’t handle alone.”
He twitches in his chair. I’m holding my breath, waiting for the sky to fall.
“I made it there fine. Stayed with an aunt on my mother’s side. Had a nice visit with younger cousins. Before leaving, my uncle patted my shoulder and told me to be careful. He said a rogue group of vampires had been causing trouble two valleys over.”
It isn’t often I think of other supernaturals, particularly vampires. Werewolves and vampires tend to coexist peacefully, mostly by avoiding one another.
We wolves are a tight-knit group living in forests as far from towns as possible, and vampires are primarily city dwellers. There’s not much overlap.
I’ve never heard of them causing us any trouble. Vampires have to be careful just like we do, lest their secrets be revealed to humans—a group that outnumbers both of ours by thousands to one.
