He hadn’t responded to me before when I’d tried, so there was no small measure of relief that he was back despite the pain jerking around had caused my fresh wounds.
But mate
? What the fuck did he mean by that?
Maybe I was hallucinating. It made more sense than my wolf trying to tell me my mate was in this room. I was ninety-seven percent certain that my not finding her in hundreds of years meant I didn’t have one, or maybe she’d already died before I got to meet her.
Life was a bitch like that sometimes. But I didn’t want a mate when it boiled right down to it. That was just another person to lose.
“Shh, it’s going to be okay. Try to hold still. You’re really banged up, and moving is going to make everything hurt worse.”
No shit.
I didn’t lash out at her, though, sending angry thoughts to my wolf instead.
We don’t have a mate. What’s wrong with you?
I didn’t expect an answer, not really. But his response would have knocked me on my ass if I weren’t already lying down.
The red-haired female is our mate. She bears our marks.
Holy hell.
The red-haired female could only be??
“Olivia?”
“Yes? Do you want a pillow? Hang on.” She set my hand carefully at my side, moving slowly so as not to jostle me, then jogged over to a cabinet, pulling a plain white pillow from inside.
I watched all of this in silent shock, barely remembering that I should lean forward a bit and help her tuck it behind me when she held it up for me with a soft smile curving her lips. I shifted a few times to get it settled, and the pillow actually was better than lying flat on my back on the barely padded exam table, but my brain was too scattered to focus on it.
There was no way. My wolf was desperate to latch on to a female because I was bad off or something. This sweet, young female couldn’t be mine. She practically radiated innocent, never-been-kissed energy. I rode a motorcycle and fucked like a demon every chance I got. Not to mention, I was old enough to be her great-grandpa, times a few extra greats, and she was what, maybe twenty-five? Goddess’s tits, if my wolf was right, something had gone cruelly wrong in the universe.
Brielle returned with the water, wordlessly proffering the cup and bendy straw. I took a few pulls, but my gaze was fixed on Olivia.
My mate.
The thought was strange even inside my head.
It just couldn’t be true.
I spat out the straw, needing information more than hydration. “How old are you? Twenty-five? Thirty?”
She blinked at me as if I’d sprouted a third eye. “Twenty-four. Why?”
I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the pillow with an ungraceful thunk.
This had to be a joke. A very sick joke. Twenty-four? She was barely out of her teens.
“My wolf is just confused, that’s all.”
“Your… wolf is confused. Okay. Well, confusion can be normal after the kind of beating you’ve taken. A concussion can make you forget a lot of things. What are you confused about? Maybe I can fill in some details.”
Nothing but kindness, despite my off-the-wall reactions to her. Typical healer. What the fuck was I going to do with a healer as a mate? Was she going to be happy with my lifestyle? No, and there was no way in hell I could change enough to make her happy.
I chuckled, the sound too dark to be real humor. “I must have cracked my head pretty damn hard for him to be insisting that you’re my mate. Right? You’re practically an infant.”
Judging by the crushed expression and slump of her shoulders, not to mention the way my wolf snarled his displeasure as soon as I saw her reaction, I’d put my foot in my mouth. I instantly hated myself for it.
But maybe it was for the best.
It was flippant and probably rude for me to say it like that, but that was who I was. Nearly four hundred years into my existence, I wasn’t changing anytime soon. And maybe, just maybe, the part of me that was pissed off at the world right now wanted to lash out at someone.
Even if that someone was young and beautiful and innocent.
She didn’t answer right away, her eyes fixated on her linked hands as if they held the secrets of life, and the whole room grew so still, you could have heard a flea jump.
“It is just a concussion, right? There’s no way you and I could be a match. It’s absurd.” It was an asshole move, doubling down after I knew the first remark had hurt her, and I knew it before the words left my lips. But some sadistic part of me wanted to push her away, even as everything inside me screamed to hold her close, to cherish her.
I had to, though, to save her from me. Everyone who was good in my life died, and she wouldn’t be an exception. She was too pure, too soft.
I was damaged, tainted. And nothing about my life was soft or good, ever.
She took a step away from the bed, then another, and, without a word, ran from the room. I watched her go, wanting to call after her as remorse twisted in my chest, but I didn’t. All I’d said was the truth; my wolf was confused, and she was way too young for me. Too sweet for me. It was for the best that she left. It was in her best interest that she stayed the hell away from me so her wolf didn’t get tangled up, like mine. There was no way she wore my marks.
A pretty, young thing like Olivia? She had a mate out there somewhere. A good, upstanding, respectable one. Fuck, maybe Samuel. He was the straitlaced type.
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