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Eve huffed and then, to his surprise, chuckled. “Actually, this is pretty normal for me. I’m afraid no one in town quite forgave me when I refused to sell the property and move into town when my husband died.”
Husband… ah, her mate. He now recalled her mentioning a male but had not thought anything more about it when no one came and no scent of a male upon their den or on her. But Eve had been mated before and she too watched her mate die. It must have been some time ago, but Skal knew it was a pain that continued hurting.
Wrapping one arm around her from behind, he leaned his cheek into hers. “I recognize your loss and feel sorrow with you for it.”
Her small hand patted his arm and she let out a pent in breath. “You know something, I think that is the nicest thing anyone has said since he died. It wasn’t a great love match or anything, but I knew that I was very lucky to have him—the whole town knew and were quick to remind me of the fact at every opportunity,” she said drily. “He would make me so mad, and he was often pretty terrible to me, which I didn’t even see at the time. But it’s been hard to be alone without him,” she added in quiet voice that made his chest tighten.
It was. Even though he never seemed able to please his first mate and had felt little but duty toward her in the end, he had still cared and her death, and the death of his triad, had left him alone in the world. He had felt lost without them. Not just lost. It had felt like he had had a hole in his heart that ceaselessly tormented him… until Eve.
“I know loneliness,” he said quietly. “I have been alone since my family died. I never wanted another. I didn’t dare to wish for it.”
Not until you.
The words were left unsaid. He choked on them in shock because it was true. As much as his instinct had won out and mated him to her without his active awareness and participation in it, having Eve near him had begun to make him wish for it again.
She turned in his arms, her brown eyes filling with moisture, alarming him. What was the moisture? Was something wrong?
“Oh Skal. I’m so sorry,” she sighed, and her arms wrapped around him as she pressed her small body against his.
He froze in surprise but then melted into her. This was what it was supposed to be like between mates. He was certain of it. In that moment he would do anything for her—include ripping the head off the fussy male huffing impatiently at them.
His chest rattling with a quiet growl, he straightened, his arms tightening protectively around his mate. The male, sadly, was not as easy to intimidate as some of the others. He scowled back at Skal and cleared his throat loudly, startling Eve so that she jerked back and spun around with an apologetic smile.
“Oh! I’m so sorry.”
Skal’s scowl deepened. As if his mate had anything to apologize for. She did nothing wrong. But it seemed to work because the male relaxed a little and nodded.
“If you are ready, miss?”
“We are. It will be just the two of us.”
“Glad to hear of it,” the male replied drolly and Skal bit back his amusement in spite of himself. He imagined the human was quite relieved to know that there were not two other Ragoru due to arrive.
Without further comment, the male took them to a table some distance from the others and Skal gingerly seated himself. He did not fit very comfortably but it was worth it to share a meal with his mate. He perched on the chair as carefully as possible and stared at Eve, utterly enthralled with her. Her face pinkened under her scrutiny but he was starting to understand its correlation between her desire and other emotions, the subtle scent of which he was slowly beginning to identify. He was happy to let her order so that he could enjoy the moment. He could not decipher human symbols anyway and trusted that Eve would know what he enjoyed well enough to select for him. Hopefully the food was also worth eating. Even if it was not, he would pretend it was the best of meals for her.
“Tell me about this Victor,” he rumbled as the male left the table with her instructions. She glanced at him in surprise, and he grimaced at how jealous that sounded. “I wish to simply know more about him,” he explained, “since this town seems to expect things of you because of him.”
“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense,” she agreed. “It was kind of a whirlwind romance, if you know what I mean.”
He looked at her blankly. “I do not know. Among Ragoru the female chooses. The alpha males are drawn to her scent passing through their territory and present themselves in hope of claiming a mate for their den. Upon mating, the bond is made, and the triad attends to the needs of their females and rogs.”
“That is definitely different from how humans do things,” she chuckled.
Curious, he leaned forward. “How do humans select their mate?”
She shrugged but her eyes gleamed with unmistakable interest that made his heart pound and his cocks press urgently against his sheath. “Well, usually it is done by spending time together and sometimes small gestures. But mostly it is just being together and deciding if they are a match.”
“And this is what you did with Victor? And he was very good to you and proved that he would be a good mate.”
“N—no, not quite. But he seemed very polite and considerate, especially when I was still floundering on my own trying to run my little farm after my parents died. Everyone sort of pushed me into it. They told me how lucky I was and how I would be silly to not accept his offer. And I was lonely with no other family. It was a difficult time and it felt like he was all I really had since I didn’t have any friends in town,” she explained.
Her gaze shifted slightly to the right, staring behind him as a strange look—something of horror and shock—crossed her face. She blinked rapidly and he turned, peering curiously behind him. Not seeing anything to be concerned about, he faced his mate again as she took a large sip of water from one of the cups that were set out for them. She gave him a shaky smile but still looked a little too pale for his liking. “Sorry, I thought I saw something. Me and my overactive imagination,” she chuckled. “But I do love Halloween.”
He nodded, biting back his opinion as she continued to tell him little things about her time she was mated to male. Skal did not think that this Victor was so great of a mate—a wretched and useless male, in his opinion—but he kept it to himself/ He was glad when the conversation wound down and she was content enough with his brief story of his previous mated life that he could shift the conversation in a more pleasant direction.
“Tell me about Halloween,” he instructed as their plates were set before them. The aroma from the thick cuts of meat his mate ordered for him with the side of bits of vegetables made his mouth water.
As he hoped, her face lit up and she launched into the most ridiculous and yet fascinating tales of this human holiday that kept their discussion lively and amusing throughout their delicious meal. As well as it went, however, his mind kept returning to the way she had looked for a moment. What had she seen?
