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Probably because he’d been watching me dress and undress for an hour, but whatever. I’d take it.
He refused to let me look at prices as I tried things on, and proceeded to buy me way too many new tank tops and pairs of leggings.
While he checked out, I walked a lap around the store.
We both knew I wasn’t ready to hear that damn total.
He met me at the exit, stealing my hand and lifting it to his lips so he could kiss the back of it.
After that, the bastard forced me into an underwear store, and a shoe store too. He didn’t have as much fun watching me try on shoes as he did bras and panties, but he didn’t complain one damn time.
When we finally drove away fromthe shoe store, I was completely drained.
“Want to stop for food?” Axel asked me.
I grimaced. “Pasta would be good.”
His hand was on my thigh, since I was in the middle seat again, and he squeezed lightly. The bastard was in the best mood I’d ever seen him in, and I was pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that he had been providing me with clothes, food, shoes, and anything else he could come up with all day. “I have a favor to ask.”
My grimace deepened. “You know I owe you anything you want. Including a blowjob, although that would probably be a bad call right now.”
He laughed. “You don’thaveto agree, Mo. And you don’t owe me anything. Taking care of your mate is a basic need for a werewolf. Today made me feel a hell of a lot better about pretty much everything.”
“Then what’s the favor?”
“I’d like you to officially meet my pack. The guys have been asking me when and if I’m coming back, and I need to tell them in person that I’m moving back into town. I’ve got to figure out a way to do that without making them think I’m abandoning them.”
“I thought they hate women?”
He shook his head. “They’re just jaded. Kai was the peacemaker in our group—the omega—and kind of kept all of us from losing our shit. He met his mate first, and she was manipulative in pretty much every way there is, until she left him with a newborn baby less than a year after they met. She had cancer. It’s a long, shitty story. Finn grew up in a pack across the country, and moved here to join us after his mate rejected him. The rejection should’ve killed him, but didn’t. Nico was raised by his grandparents, after his mom refused to stay in Moon Ridge. Enzo’s mom despises what she is, and hates him for being a werewolf.”
My eyebrows lifted. “Ryder’s a part of your pack too, though. Right?”
“Yeah. He’s been with Char for a handful of years, so we don’t see him often.”
I nodded. “So what’syourreason for being jaded, then?”
He was silent for a long moment.
Long enough that I knew hewasjaded, but also knew that he didn’t really want to talk about it.
That hurt a little, since he had seen how bad things had gotten for me and Iris back in Mist Valley.
“Never mind. We can stop and talk to your pack if you want, but I don’t want to make any of them feel uncomfortable or make them hate me.”
“You won’t.” His voice was firm. “They’ll be on their best behavior.”
Somehow, I doubted that.
I didn’t scoot away from Axel when he pulled into the drive-through of a chain restaurant I hadn’t been to before… at least not physically.
But mentally, I’d taken a big ole’ scoot.
Because if he wanted me to share my life story, but didn’t want to talk about his, we sure as hell weren’t on the same page about what it meant to live like real mates.
I watchedthe trees fly by as we drove down a bumpy dirt road. We’d been on the dirt for at least twenty minutes, and Axel had rolled the windows down a little bit earlier. Honestly, the wind felt nice against my face and in my hair.
He kept looking over at me, like he was waiting for me to tell him to turn around or something. Even if I’d been dying for him to do that, I wouldn’t have said it aloud.
