“I really wanted to talk to you,” he tells me quietly. “Leaving sucked, but I did. I went back home, got the ball rolling on the whole ‘courting’ thing. Told myself I’d get the chance to talk to you soon.”
Except it didn’t go that way. “So what happened?”
He sighs. “Your guess is as good as mine. As far as I know, we went by the book. My dad prepared these formal letters—one for your Alpha and one for your family—to officially start the courting process. I wasn’t allowed to write you yet, but I did get to offer you a gift.”
“A gift? But you didn’t even know me.”
“Yeah, that didn’t make it easy,” he huffs, shaking his head. “At first, I thought maybe an iPod—everybody likes those—or maybe a dragon toy or something. I kept thinking about you and realized I’d seen you around before in the city. Once I realized that, I knew what to get. A basket.”
“You got a basket for me?” I’m baffled. A basket. A basket to carry things? Like a purse? Why in the world would he think I need a purse?
“For your bike,” he adds.
“Oh my god,” I murmur.
“The witches here sell about a million different tricks that let you keep your clothes and held items when shifting,” he explains. “It’s convenient. But it’s even easier to get a basket for a bike, and you didn’t have one, so... I thought it would be an easy way to make riding as practical as shifting. I don’t know. It seemed like a brilliant idea at the time. Maybe it’s not.”
“It’s perfect,” I whisper. I lost my old basket when we moved and this… It would have been the exact perfect gift to receive as an introduction to my intended mate. A gift that showed he understood me or that he wanted to, something that encouraged me to keep riding my bike instead of questioning it.
It’s the best present ever. The best present I never received.
The almost wistful look on Bane’s face vanishes, replaced with something hard. “I received the basket back burned. This nasty mess of melted plastic. I was told you weren’t interested and that you didn’t want to start the courting process. Nobody knew why you rejected me, but the basket sent the message clearly—no, no way in hell.”
“How did you know I received it?” I ask.
“Why wouldn’t you? It was hard to tell with the burnt remains, but I detected your scent.” Getting or faking my scent wouldn’t be too difficult, especially with the fire muddling everything.
“Outright rejecting me without a word, it was bullshit,” he says next. “My pack is tough and yet we still respect the legitimacy of true mates choosing each other, so I couldn’t understand why you weren’t willing to even consider me. I didn’t know if there was someone else or what, so I tried to talk to you.”
“Oh my god,” I breathe. I can see where this is heading, and it’s not good.
“But whenever you saw me coming, whenever you even smelled me, you ran in the other direction. Just bolted without a word. Eventually, I got the message. You were sure about your decision. You wanted nothing to do with me.”
When Bane gave up on proper protocol and sought answers for my supposed rejection, I ran away from him because I thought he destroyed my bike just to be hateful.
I had no idea I was running from my soulmate.
Every time I ran, it confirmed what Bane had been told, that his true mate wanted nothing to do with him. But it had all been a lie, one designed to work perfectly.
“Oh my god,” I say again, horrified. The evil ex who broke his heart and ruined him for all others… it’sme.“Oh my god.”
Bane shoots me an exasperated look. “Will you quit saying that?”
“You… you destroyed my bike,” I say, dazed. No, that’s not right. “Ithoughtyou destroyed my bike and burned it. The fire covered your tracks really well, but not perfectly. I was able to pick up your scent. I thought, if this guy doesn’t even know me and he’s ready to wreck my bike, what else will he do if given a chance? That’s why I ran. I never received any letter, never heard any message from your pack. I never knew. I thought you were just some asshole who had a problem with a wolf riding a bike, and I decided it was safest to stay far away from you.”
Bane’s eyes widen. “Oh my god.”
Yeah. My thoughts exactly.
“You had no idea,” he says quietly. He sounds lost and small. I didn’t always like it when he acted cocky and arrogant, but this is even worse. “When, how, uh… When did you find out?”
“When you were comforting Wynn. I started suspecting when the potion spilled on you, but that’s when I knew for sure.”
“Wait, is that why you asked me to teach you how to fight? You were inventing reasons for us to spend time together. And that’s why you agreed to hooking up.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “I hoped it would lead to you Recognizing me. When that didn’t happen, I told you we were mates. And you rejected me because, because you thought I’d already done the same to you?”
Bane sighs. “Given the timing, I had to be suspicious about your motives. We went from random, brief encounters in the city to you suddenly being everywhere. I’m twenty-two, soon to be twenty-three, and about to fight for power. Now you want to talk to me, go to movies, hook up, and all that? Why now? Couldn’t think of another reason.”
