Page 35
“Great.” The word came out bright and hollow. “Inside is great. I prefer inside. No full moon to bother anyone. Not that it would bother you. Obviously. Why would it?”
“Niles.”
“I mean it’s just a moon. Big rock in the sky. Very pretty. Very round. Nothing special about it at all, unless you happen to be—” He stopped himself, jaw tightening. “You know what? Never mind. You came here to talk. So talk.”
I set the water glass on the counter. My hand was steady. My heart was a fucked-up mess. “I came here to tell you something.”
“Something important?”
“Yeah.”
“About the bite?” His fingers drummed even faster.
The question landed like a punch. He wasn’t smiling now. His arms had uncrossed, and his hands were braced against the counter behind him, knuckles white against the laminate. His green eyes held mine with something akin to fear wrapped in defiance.
“You know,” I said.
“I know you’re a werewolf.” The words tumbled out fast, almost tripping over each other. “I know that bite wasn’t just some heat-of-the-moment kink thing. I know you marked me without asking, which is—” He pushed off the counter and started pacing. “That’s a whole thing. That’s a conversation we should’ve had before you sank your teeth into my shoulder like I was a piece of steak.”
“Niles—”
“No, let me finish.” He spun to face me, finger pointed at my chest. “You spent three days teaching me how to fix toilets. Three days of phone calls and basement repairs and making me think you were just some ridiculously attractive mechanic with a savior complex. You made me French toast. You fed me French toast in bed, and then you let me leave without saying a single goddamn word about the fact that you’d bonded me to you for life.”
“Life?”
“Isn’t that what the bite means? Mates? Forever? Calvin explained it, but he was vague on the details, which I’m assuming is because he doesn’t know all of them or because he didn’t want to be the one to tell me I’m stuck with a man who can’t be bothered to ask before he bites.”
Calvin. Of course Calvin had told him. The kid couldn’t keep a secret from Niles if his life depended on it. But I couldn’t be mad because Calvin wouldn’t have had to tell Niles if I’d opened my fucking mouth before he’d fallen asleep.
“I was going to tell you,” I said.
“When? After the wedding? At the baby shower for our future werewolf children?” He threw his hands up. “Do werewolves even have baby showers? Is that a thing? God, I don’t know anything about your species, and you just— You bit me, Deadeye. You bit me, and you didn’t even ask.”
His voice cracked on the last word. The anger was still there, but underneath it was something else. Hurt. Real, raw hurt that made me feel like complete shit.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Sorry doesn’t—” He pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes. “Why aren’t you saying anything? I’m yelling at you. I’m being dramatic. This is the part where you defend yourself. Explain. Tell me I’m wrong.”
“You’re not wrong.”
“That’s not helpful.”
“You’re not wrong,” I repeated, “and I’m not going to argue with you when you’re right to be angry.”
His hands dropped from his face. He stared at me like I’d said something in a language he didn’t speak. His shoulders had dropped slightly. His breathing had slowed.
“I don’t want you to be reasonable right now,” he said. “I want to be mad.”
“Be mad.”
“Stop agreeing with me.”
“Okay.”
“You’re impossible.” He turned away, pacing toward the window. The moonlight caught his profile, silvering the edges of his hair. “You’re impossible, and you’re a werewolf, and you bit me without asking, and I liked it. That’s the worst part. I liked it, and I don’t even know what it means.”
I crossed the room, unable to just stand there while my mate fell apart. My hand closed around his wrist, and he didn’t pull away.
