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His resolve to wait was slipping.

“Fee, I swear I’m going to fuck you. I’m going to seal this thing between us once and for all. Forever. But I need you to be strong when I do. I can’t … I don’t want to hurt you.”

She nodded, her eyes glassy with lust. “Soon, then.”

He got up and found Fee’s towel. She held his gaze as she rinsed off and then he helped her from the tub.

“You’re trouble,” he told her, pressing a kiss to her head. “Now, back to bed.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Phoebe was tired of being in bed. So, the next morning she got up early (on her own, thank you very much) and shuffled out to the kitchen. Her mother already had the kettle on.

“Fifi! You’re up.” Runa beamed. “Feeling better?”

“Much.” Fee took her favorite mug from the cabinet and poured herself a cup of tea.

“I’m so glad. Hungry?”

“Starving.”

Runa sliced some banana bread and brought it to the table. Fee felt amazing just being upright.

“So how long are you staying?” she asked between bites.

“As long as you need me, but it seems your wolf has things in hand now.”

Fee couldn’t help the heat rising to her cheeks at the mention of Theo. Runa gave her a knowing smile.

“He does. But you’re welcome to stay as long as you like.”

Runa patted her cheek. “That’s sweet of you, Fifi, but Gert’s driving me nuts already and I’m meeting people at a little grove in the Berkshires next week.”

Fee smiled. Her mother was always off to somewhere new. “That sounds nice.”

“It will be, I think. Always so beautiful there in the winter.” Her mother’s expression turned from dreamy to serious as they sipped their tea. “Fee, I really hope it wasn’t my attitude toward Theo that kept you apart. I never meant to… I only thought it would be better if you⁠—”

“I know. It’s okay.”

Runa nodded. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Did you love him?” Fee asked, suddenly curious. “My father.”

A smile crossed her mother’s lovely face. “Of course I did. He was beautiful and strong. And so … big.”

“Okay, okay.” Phoebe waved her hands to stop her mother from waxing poetic about her father’s … bigness. “You weren’t his … I mean, did he have a Mate?”

“I don’t really know. It definitely wasn’t me if he did, but he was more human than anything else, so I don’t think so. We had one wonderful summer together and that was it.” Runa’s smile widened. “But he gave me you, so how could I not love him?”

Phoebe smiled back. “And you never saw him again?”

“He was headed west or some such nonsense. So, no, I never saw him again.”

Fee nodded, swallowing the unfamiliar emotions crowding her throat.

Her mother patted her cheek again. “We weren’t like you and Theo,” her mother said, as though reading Fee’s concerns. “You two are something else entirely.”

Something else entirely. Well, that was certainly true.