He slapped a hand on my biceps, stopping me in my tracks. “Cut that shit out. This is the most pity-partying bullshit I’ve ever heard. Do you know how many males out there would kill for a mate? A fuck ton. And here you are with a good one, head so far up your own ass, you can’t figure out how to lock things down before she wises up. Now listen-I’m not one to judge. Our path was rocky, but we didn’t have it as good as you do.”
I laughed bitterly, shaking my head. “You’re insane if you think we’ve got it good.”
“You’ve got mate marks. I spent months wanting Leigh, with not a damn sign that it was anything other than my imagination that she was mine. Then she got pregnant without a heat and still had fuck all to do with me. So you can take your self-pity and stuff it up your ass. I’m serious. You’ve got it good.”
He turned and stormed down the sidewalk, picking up the pace so I had to jog to catch him like a bad rom-com hero.
“Look, I wasn’t trying to insult you. You asked,” I muttered a few minutes later, when the worst of his annoyance seemed to have faded. “Okay, that was an eye roll that Leigh would have been proud of, but I’m serious. Mate marks aren’t the end-all, be-all.”
“They could be. They’re literally a sign from the Goddess herself.”
I chewed on that for a few minutes, until Gael stopped, sniffing the air and pointing across the street. “You hungry? I could eat a horse. That one looks tasty.” He pointed his thumb at a police horse down the street.
A woman walking the other way in a Toronto is for Vegans T-shirt shot us a dirty look at that. Pretty sure she mumbled something about crass Americans under her breath as she walked away. Joke was on her: we weren’t Americans. And also, horse meat didn’t taste good to a wolf. Mine preferred mutton, usually.
“Apparently, you’ve lost your native accent.” I gave Gael a smartass grin, and he cussed me out in fluent Castilian Spanish as we crossed the road to the Chinese restaurant.
Four whole Peking ducks later, we hit the streets again. We passed a whole day searching fruitlessly for any sign of goblins, but still I couldn’t get what he’d said off my mind.
When my head hit the pillow in Samuel’s spare bed that night, the question remained.
Could it really be that simple?
Olivia
The days dragged by like sloths on Xanax. I’d lost count of how many it had been, but I knew it was enough that Inez the witch had needed to refresh our protective spells twice already, and we were on the way to a third. The good news was, the shielding spells seemed to be working, since the ODL hadn’t pounced on us as long as Bri stayed inside.
The bad news was, I was sick to death of hiking the various patches of wilderness around Toronto, of the way my pack mates kept giving me little hugs and sad smiles, all of it. Done. And all the while, Lucien kept his distance, even while we lived under the same ugly pink roof. Again. It was downright insulting.
Infuriating was the word that came to mind.
Frankly? I was sick of it all. I wanted to light something on fire and watch it burn.
I scrubbed at an already clean plate with enough vigor, I was worried it might crack. But if I didn’t get some kind of physical release for all the aggression that was building up inside me, I was going to go shout at my stubborn-ass mate, and that would only push him further away.
I dropped the plate into the empty side of the sink to be rinsed and braced myself on the edge of the counter, letting my head hang as I took a series of deep, slow breaths and tried to shake it off.
We were leaving in five minutes to go searching again, and I couldn’t very well go out looking for trouble without having my head on straight. Someone would get hurt.
“Hey, girl.” Elodie floated into the kitchen with the lithe grace of a dancer. “I’m feeling a little under the weather today, so I’m going to hang back.”
I straightened up, narrowing my eyes at her. “Do you want me or Bri to check you out? I’ve got my herbalist kit. I’m sure between the two of us, we could get you feeling better in ten minutes flat.”
She waved the offer away. “Nah. I just need a good day in bed and some trashy TV, and I’ll be right as rain tomorrow. Promise.”
Her smile was a little too bright for someone claiming to be ill. But you know what? I couldn’t blame her for wanting to get out of what was starting to feel like the world’s dullest vacation. Maybe tomorrow I should fake being sick and watch some trashy TV of my own. There would be fewer bug bites that way.
“All right. Feel better,” I said with enough sarcasm to make my feelings on the matter clear.
“Oh, I will.” She whistled as she strode out of the room, the picture of feminine health.
I quickly rinsed the last plate and put it aside to dry with a weary sigh. It could be worse. At least Fiona and Reed were good company, and they never made me feel like a third wheel.
I was lacing up my new tennis shoes when the others arrived to get going.
“Where to today?” I asked Reed, as he’d been meticulously mapping and tracking every area we’d checked so we didn’t double up.
“Ah, new plan. We’re going a little farther south, toward Niagara Falls. It’s farther from Toronto, but we’ve pretty much covered every wild area around here and gotten not even a whiff of goblin activity. We’ve been focusing on less populated areas, but so far, we’ve got nothing. So… today, we’re playing totally out of left field. Worst case scenario, we get more nothing.”
I bobbed my head. Couldn’t hurt, beyond some new blisters. “Sounds good to me. Elodie’s taking a sick day, so we’re down a man. Woman. Whatever, you know what I mean.” I finished with my shoelaces and straightened. I really was going to play hooky tomorrow and stay in bed the whole day, eating cookies and watching reality TV. I’d definitely earned it.
He nodded, then shot a wary glance at Fiona before reaching up to fiddle with a shirt collar that wasn’t there. Instead of his usual button-ups, he’d switched to outdoor gear to blend in better. “About that.”
“You three ready to go?” Lucien stepped up to our group, giving me the same polite smile he would a stranger, making me want to punch him in the process.
“You’re coming with us?”
“Yep. Kane told me Elodie wasn’t feeling well, so…” He shrugged as if it was no big deal, and I growled.
I shocked myself in the process, but it was a downright decent growl.
Fiona’s eyes widened, and she looped her arm through mine a second later. “We’ll let the guys ride up front today. What do you say?”
“Good idea.” The words were said between gritted teeth, and I couldn’t stop myself from glowering at my obtuse mate.
Who was acting like nothing was wrong.
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