Page 30 of Remington’s Mate

He spooned sautéed mushrooms onto his steak. “That will actually be my job. Because of the hacking thing. I really hope I can see his face when he finds out all his fucking blood money is gone.”

Jaeda said, “I’ll drink to that.” They clinked glasses.

Jaeda enjoyed the meal more than she’d expected—at first. As it went on, though, Remy got quieter, and he kept watching her with a look on his face Jaeda couldn’t quite figure out.

Finally, she said, “What?”

Remy looked like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “What? Did I do something? And here I thought I was passing for civilized.”

“Why do you keep staring at me like that?”

“Oh.” He dropped his eyes. He even looked a little embarrassed, which she’d never believed was possible. “Sorry. I was just wondering…” He broke off.

“Are you going to make me get out my knife and pry it out of you?”

He leaned his forearms on the table. “I was just wondering why a woman like you would want to go full-on human. You’re clearly a shifter at heart.”

That was not what she’d been expecting. At all. “What makes you say that?”

“Come on,” he said, trailing the last of his French fries in a pool of ketchup. “You’re badass, bloodthirsty—in a good way—and you love hunting. I can tell by the way you jumped on this mission. So why do you want to live in bland corporate humanland?” He met her eyes and said quietly, “Did they really treat you that differently, in your pack?”

Jaeda debated telling him it was none of his business, but suddenly she didn’t want to. She’d never really had anyone to talk to about this. Her family and friends had tried so hard not to make her feel left out, that she hated making them feel guilty by talking about how she did anyway.

“They tried not to,” she said. “But the other kids would all Change and go running in the woods, and I couldn’t go. I couldn’t keep up. When we were with the adults, someone would give me a ride, but…”

“But it wasn’t the same.”

She shook her head. “I felt like a freak. Everyone had to be careful around me when we played, because I got hurt too easily. And I couldn’t—I couldn’t really understand their animal nature. It was like everyone else had a secret, and I wasn’t in on it.”

Remy made ketchup designs on the plate. “Don’t take this the wrong way, because there’s nothing wrong with being human,” he said. “But did you ever think about… well, about getting Turned?”

The minute he asked it, Remy wished he hadn’t. Jaeda pulled in on herself, like she was trying to make herself smaller, and her face flushed. “That’s personal,” she said. “Why don’t you just go through my underwear drawer again, while you’re at it?”

Someone who hadn’t been born a shifter could sometimes be Turned into one, if they were bitten by another shifter, under the right circumstances.

Usually it was only mates who did that, with the consent of the human partner. In the shifter world, Turning someone without their consent was punishable by death—whether or not the person survived. A lot of times they didn’t.

But it was a very personal thing. Every shifter’s relationship with their animal was private, and deciding whether to go through the pain and trauma of being turned wasn’t something most people would want to talk about.

Normally Remy didn’t care that much about manners, or about offending people. But he’d never planned on humiliating Jaeda, and it upset him to see her suddenly look like she was trying to disappear.

Jaeda was amazing. She should never be made smaller, or less than she was.

“Hey.” He reached out his hand and brushed his fingers over the back of hers. “I’m sorry.”

She looked up, startled.

“Yes, I do apologize to people,” he said. “Now and then.”

She looked into his eyes. Damn, a guy could get lost in those eyes.

“It’s okay,” she said finally. “My parents and I did talk about it as a possibility—someday—but the healers didn’t think it was a good idea, in my situation.”

“Oh.” He probably shouldn’t ask what she meant by ‘situation’. Because, personal.

She watched him for a minute, then amusement crept into her eyes. “You’re dying to ask me what my situation is, aren’t you.”

“Yes. But I don’t want to make you mad again, because you might stab me. I was thinking you probably don’t have a shifter metabolism, though, so maybe I should just ply you with whiskey until all your embarrassing secrets spill out.”