Page 47 of UNAwere

Why am I doing this? I whisper.

It’s normal, is all he says.

I swallow thickly. I-is this why I need training? So I can learn to control myself?

He doesn’t answer. He just nods at the car. C’mon. We can try again tomorrow.

By the time I make it back to the car, he’s already shed. He’s changing on the driver’s side, having ripped his clothes, and I see his muscled back flex as he shrugs on a black T-shirt.

I shift my gaze away and go through the Turning process on the ground by the passenger door. Grunting, I claw out of it and then slowly get to my knees, enough to open the door and fish through my bags in the back seat to find something to wear.

The first thing I find is a summer dress, and I slip it on. Despite it being cold, I don’t have enough energy to find appropriate clothing. I climb into the passenger seat and rest my forehead against the cool glass of the window.

After a moment, Briggs gets in. I see him glance at me, his gaze travelling over my dress. It’s yellow with white daisies, and it probably shows a bit too much cleavage, but I’m too tired to care.

He clears his throat and says nothing, then takes us back out onto the highway.

The motel we stop at has a diner attached to it, and that’s where we eat dinner.

Neither of us seems to be in the mood to chat, and even though I’m so hungry it feels like my stomach is going to claw up my throat, grab a knife and fork, and start eating for me, I pick at my Caesar salad.

Briggs watches me over the table, chewing on his steak with a scowl.

‘I think it would benefit you to have some theory lessons,’ he murmurs.

I glance up at him, surprised to hear him talking. We crossed the border just after Greenville, and even though I found the way Primrose stops humans from entering their territory with barbed-wire fences and infrared scans fascinating, I wasn’t in the mood to ask questions. We then spent three or so hours driving through Primrose in silence, the sound of the air-conditioning roaring through the vents the only thing to fill my ears.

I’m overstimulated, exhausted. There’s a part of me that still wants to fight him, but I’m afraid of what might happen if I do. Of the things I might feel.

The space between my legs pulses at the memory of his taste, and I quickly pick up my glass of iced tea, using the sweetness to drown out the thoughts.

Bad thoughts, I tell myself. Stupid, bad, dumb, no-good thoughts.

‘I already know enough,’ I say to Briggs when I put down my glass. I realise he’s been waiting for me to answer him, his mouth paused mid-chew.

He swallows and shakes his head. ‘I don’t think that’s true.’

‘Do I really need to?’

‘Primrose holds Were customs to a high standard.’

I stab my fork at a piece of grilled chicken and put it in my mouth. ‘I know,’ I say around it. ‘But I know enough. Surely Warner isn’t going to care that I might not know how to go through a bonding ceremony, and he’ll be totally keen to teach me all about what body part goes where and what appendage to suck at what time.’

Briggs’s nostrils flare. ‘I won’t teach you about that.’

I raise my brows. ‘Oh. Okay. But why not?’

‘Because it’s not my place.’ He glowers down at his plate.

I reach over and steal a fry from it, but he doesn’t seem to notice.

‘The reason your Turnings are painful or uncomfortable is because you hold shame over your true nature. Instead of succumbing to your instincts, you block them out. And in doing so, your wolf self doesn’t want to cooperate.’

‘Is that why I’m so angry?’

‘No,’ he breathes.

‘Then why am I? I’m not usually like this. You can ask Nolan – I’m quite mild-tempered. The perfect person to play Monopoly with, some would say.’