Page 43 of Feral

He froze, his gaze snapping to mine. I expected him to be angry with me making demands, or frustrated. I did not expect him to look chagrined.

“My apologies,” he said, “yer right.”

“Thank you. Now, what did you want to say?”

“I wanted to apologize for my behavior last night. It wasn’t right to take advantage of the situation. I’m also sorry that I hurt ya and if I scared ya at all. I’ll never touch ya like that again, ya have my word. I’m not the kind of Werewolf that thinks I have any right to yer body just because of…of the mark.”

He stumbled a bit on the last few words, his voice going hoarse and soft as if it were hard for him to get the sounds past his throat.

“Thank you for all of that but it is really unnecessary.”

He tried to speak and I cut him off.

“I imagine that the bite is meant to arouse physical reactions in order to encourage procreation. Therefore, what we experienced was merely physiological and signifies nothing other than that. Am I correct?”

It took him a moment to speak, his lips working a little bit before the sound came out.

“Aye, that…that about sums it up.”

“Now, may I say something?”

His lips quirked up into a grin behind his beard.

“By all means, lass.”

“This is going to be a challenging week, and it would be easier if we could be friends. Not the braid our hair and talk about boys bestie kind, but friendly at the very least. And that can’t happen if you’re growling at me and obviously can’t stand to be around me all the time.”

He ran a hand through his hair.

“Aye, yer right but it’s…I’m not a very social person. I prefer my own company.”

“Well, I understand that and you don’t have to change it, but when we’re in the same room could you at least pretend to not hate me?”

“I don’t hate ya,” he said, his gaze sharpening. “I just…I have my reasons.”

I sighed.

“I don’t need to know them but we have to be able to convince your clan.”

“Aye, we do. So…give me the train ride. I’ll relax around ya but I just need a little time.”

It was the best I was going to get so I nodded, even as my heart sank a little. I was sure now that it wasn’t really me he didn’t like, but instead, something in his past that was causing this tension. And, in that case, I would have to find a way to make this convincing while I searched for the artifact, in spite of Fraser’s stand offish nature.

“And there’s one more thing,” he said. “Last night I ran into an old friend, one of your fellow agents. I helped him apprehend someone who mentioned that this rogue organization was usin’ my clan as a test for an artifact.”

My mind kicked into gear as I ran through all the things I’d both heard and been told about the group that had splintered from the Archive.

“Did he say why?” I asked.

“No. But he did say that whatever artifact is causin’ all of this, it was an accident, that it wasn’t supposed to end up in our hands.”

“I need to tell Director Dearborne about this when I check in. Perhaps when I get to your clan tonight I can narrow down what it might be.”

“Oh, we’ll not be gettin’ to them tonight. It’s too long a ride. We’ll be stoppin’ for the night before reachin’ Dublin.”

My stomach flipped. A night in a hotel room with Fraser?

“I reserved two rooms,” he rushed to say.

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