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THREE
Lizzy’s wolffollowed me out of the house. I grabbed her keys and phone off the porch with one hand, and tucked her clothes beneath my armpit with my other.
I unlocked her car and ducked down to put Evan in. It took me a minute to get the little guy buckled into his car seat, my hands still a bit clumsy after everything that had happened. But I figured it out.
When he was secured inside, and still snoozing in the seat, I shut the door and opened up the driver’s side.
Lizzy jumped in and over to the passenger seat, getting comfortable while I sat down in the driver’s. I had to adjust the seat a lot—she was short, I realized—and then adjust the mirrors too. Her car was a Camry, from either 2002 or 2003, and the odometer told me it already had 190,000 miles under its belt.
Still, it had started up without a problem.
I pulled away from the townhouses, heading toward the human neighborhood without glancing at my phone. I knew the way there, I just didn’t know where Char’s—and Lizzy’s—house was.
Quiet pop music played from the radio, and I knew that had to be the station Lizzy left it on.
I couldn’t help but glance at her wolf as I stopped at the light.
My mate.
I’d expected to have at least a few days or weeks trapped in my wolf form to come around to the idea and develop that same attachment that came naturally to my wolf. Despite the wolf’s instant knowledge that they belonged with their mate, it usually took just a little longer for the humans.
Of course, some men were more romantic than others. I’d never been one of those, though I had always hoped to find a genuine connection with my mate.
A kid hadn’t exactly played into that hope. Not right away, at least. It was usually hard for werewolves to have kids, so none of us really expected that to be part of our lives. Kids were a blessing, but not one we really dreamed about.
I glanced at Evan in the rearview mirror as the light turned green.
He was really damn adorable. Pale and chubby, with this crazy white-blond hair poking up in pretty much every direction, and massive blue eyes.
Given my naturally tan skin and dark hair and eyes, I already knew everyone I met would question my role as his dad—assuming I managed to win my mate over.
I’d definitely get weird looks, especially in town. But that didn’t matter; I would get used to it.
Whether Lizzy was willing to get used to it too, was the question.
My gaze slid over to the wolf.
She was relaxed, her eyes lingering on me but flicking over to her toddler every now and then.
She was just as fierce as any other mama wolf. Hell, maybe fiercer if she’d been doing it alone for two entire years.
“He’s cute,” I told her, wanting to feel some kind of connection to the human within the wolf. I hadn’t been expecting anything that had just occurred, but it was still my life—and she was still my mate. “You did good.”
She licked my arm.
I felt like I needed to know Lizzy’s story, before I could really determine how I felt about the situation. Yeah, I was damn glad to have found my mate. And the chance of her rejecting me was probably low, since she’d picked me herself.
But why had her wolf rejected her first mate?
If her wolf wanted me, her wolf was an alpha, no questions asked. It wasn’t possible for her to be anything else. But I’d never even heard of an alpha female rejecting her mate before. They were typically loving, and would usually provide for everyone else no matter what the personal cost was.
So what had her mate done that was so bad that a selfless wolf rejected him?
Obviously he hadn’t lost himself to his wolf yet, if he’d broken into her home and attacked her. I didn’t know her, yet some protective instinct welled up inside me at the thought of that.
Given her last experience, how would she feel about having a new mate who knew nothing about toddlers?
I realized I now had a hell of a lot more empathy for the women in my pack who had to deal with suddenly becoming a werewolf’s mate. Being trapped in wolf form made it easier for the guys—trying to cope with the shock of it while in human form was shitty.
