I knew a small amount about the basics, but I was far from an expert.
My head was still spinning with all the new werewolf information, but I felt like I was at least starting to wrap my mind around everything.
Wyatt and I were stuck together for the time being.
That much, I’d processed.
And he was far less enthusiastic about having a soulmate than I would’ve expected.
I’d never been in a serious relationship, so I was more uncertain than unenthusiastic. My personality tended to scare men away. They wanted a nice, cheerful woman. And though I was bothnice and upbeat overall, I was also intense and driven. Both of those qualities worked against me in the romance field.
Wyatt wasn’t going to have a choice, though. Not according to Abby and Finn. His wolf had already bitten me, which made his part of the connection permanent from what I understood.
And if my wolf rejected him, they said he was going to die.
So for better or worse, unless I wanted to be responsible for killing the sexy mechanic, we needed to figure out a way to be together.
I watched Wyatt work. His movements were smooth, and there was no hesitation as he used a jack to lift the car a few feet off the ground.
Finally, I followed the path he’d blazed across the garage. He didn’t look up or turn away from his work when I approached, so I stepped around him and took a seat on a closed toolbox. The metal was cold against the backs of my bare thighs.
The muscles on Wyatt’s shoulders flexed as he grabbed an oil pan.
“It sounds like there’s no way out of this,” I said.
“Nope.”
A moment of silence passed.
He either wasn’t a chatty guy or just didn’t want to chat with me. Neither option would’ve surprised me.
Since he wasn’t enthusiastic about the conversation, I might as well start with what was potentially going to be the most uncomfortable part.
“Abby said you were rejected. I take it that means you had a soulmate already,” I said.
“You don’t beat around the bush, do you?” he asked without turning around.
“Not really.”
He grabbed a creeper—the weird name for the wheeled board a mechanic used to get under the vehicle—and his legs flexed as he rolled under the car. “Yeah, I had a mate.”
“What’s the story?”
He didn’t reply right away.
I had no problem waiting. Watching him move made the waiting pretty interesting.
Finally, he came out from under the vehicle. Popping the hood, he started working there and said, “Corinne grew up human in the town I was raised in. There aren’t many human women in werewolf towns. Werewolves are always born male.”
My forehead creased, and I tucked away that bit of information. When I started researching werewolf biology, maybe I could figure out why that was the case.
“We were the same age, and she was basically a part of my childhood pack. Corinne, Aidan, and I were always together. There were no romantic feelings. Aidan and I were waiting for our mates, and Corinne hoped she’d end up paired off with a werewolf of her own. Being mates was never on our radar until it happened.”
My eyebrows lifted. “How old were you?”
“Barely eighteen. We’d just graduated a few weeks earlier. Met up at the diner for shakes after a long day of work, and my wolf decided she was his. He bit her there and then. We were delusional enough that it felt like a fucking fairytale for a couple hours. She shifted back at my apartment, and we were excited.”
“Until you weren’t.”
