Page 49 of Feral

“It’s stopped,” I promised.

“Just like that?” she asked, with almost wonder.

“Just like that,” I repeated. Cocking my head, I studied her. “Do you want a mate?”

Her eyes lit up with pleasure. “Oh yes. Very much so.” That didn’t bode well. “But not you,” she added. “With all due respect, Alpha—”

“Rob, please. If a couple of elders think they can sequester us until our wolves have decided we’re to be mates, then you should at least call me by my name.”

She studied me for a minute, bit her lip. “Can I tell you the truth?”

I sighed. “Please.” My mind immediately went to Natalie. To Willow. To her lies. Truth seemed to be a good thing right about now.

“I know who my mate is… and it’s not you.”

I almost laughed—relief my only response. “You’ve found your mate?”

I was fourteen years older, and I’d finally thought I’d found mine. Too bad she wasn’t worthy.

“Yes. He’s in the Wind Rivers pack. We met in January at the winter games. I told my father, but Callum’s not an alpha. He’s an artist. A glass blower and makes the most beautiful pieces.” Her hand went to a glass pendant attached to a chain about her neck.

I didn’t like the idea of a father forcing his daughter into an unhappy mating, even if it was because he thought it was best for her. “I can speak to your father.”

She quickly shook her head, her long hair sliding across her shoulders. “No, that’s all right. He knows how I feel but says I’m too young to know my own mind.”

“And I’m too old to find my own mate,” I added.

“You should be able to choose.”

“I thought I had,” I admitted before I caught myself.

She grinned then. “Ooooh. Tell me about her.”

I didn’t say anything.

“You’re a nice guy, Rob. I think we could be friends, right? Tell me about her. I told you about Callum.”

I set my elbows on the steering wheel and looked out the windshield, unseeing. “My wolf found our mate, but she’s human.”

I left out the part that she’d fooled me, that she was a liar. That wasn’t part of this. It was about the wolf’s connection to another.

“Human,” she replied, surprised.

I blew out my breath. “Yeah, you can see why that’s a problem. If your dad wants you matched to an alpha, you can see that my pack wants me to be matched to another wolf.”

“You don’t want me then,” she said, without the least bit of upset in her voice.

I shook my head. “And you don’t want me.”

“You know what we should do?” she asked. “We go out there and tell everyone we found our mates.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s going to go over like a lead balloon.”

“So? Don’t you want to be happy?”

Happiness.

Happiness was out of fucking reach for me. Fate made sure of that when she paired me with a lying human. “I’m alpha,” I said more sternly than I meant to. “My needs and happiness come second to my pack.”