Page 32 of Hungry Like the Wolf

CHAPTER 13

By the time Robbie stepped out onto the porch, JJ was already down to his socks and boxers. Robbie waited until JJ draped them over the porch railing with his jeans and sweatshirt before dropping his own towel. JJ took off down the path leading away from the cabin, and Robbie followed, his feet feeling as if they weight about eighty pounds each. But he knew from yesterday that this would help.

It didn’t take long either. The morning was cloudy and crisp. Had he not been burning up, he might have even said it was probably cold. They ran to the lake and then around to the far side before JJ pulled up to stop. Both Robbie and JJ panted lightly. JJ leaned against a large boulder on the shore of the lake. Robbie leaned next to him.

“So,” JJ said, rolling his shoulders until they audibly crackled.

“So,” Robbie answered.

“Your mate was pretty shaken up about you this morning.”

“She’s not my mate.” Robbie’s stomach swooped, nausea rolling in like a wave. It felt wrong to say that, even if it was correct.

JJ clicked his tongue chidingly. “I know it’s just us and the birds right here, but you need to be careful about saying that. She’s your mate, remember?”

“Yeah. It’s just… new. Her being my mate.”

The word “mate” rolled off the tongue. He heard how it sounded different in JJ’s accent than his own. “Mate” versus “mahyte,” the a long and drawn out like a kiss.

They were quiet for a time, listening to the birds. The lake water lapped at the shore, the surface ruffling in the breeze.

“Won’t they know? That she’s not?—”

JJ raised an eyebrow sky high. “That she’s not what?”

“You know.”

JJ looked out across the lake. He had a roughness about him that reminded Robbie of Hank. But a protectiveness, too. Something that also reminded him of Hank.

“How much do you know about mates?” JJ asked.

“I’ve known people who were mated. It seemed like a ‘’til death a long time from now do us part’ sort of thing.”

JJ sighed.

“Sometimes it is. That’s the hope, anyway. If it’s a good one. But there’s mating, and then there’s mating. Anyone can pick a mate. You hope you picked the right one. You hope they’re kind to you, that they help, that they don’t go out of the way to make your life harder. You hope they’re stable and take care of themselves, that they want to take care of you. You hope they’re good and generous and caring and every other thing a person might be in a perfect world.”

Robbie could hear the “but” as loud as his own heartbeat in his ears.

“But it doesn’t always work out that way.”

Robbie waited patiently.

“Sometimes you choose wrong. And you get burned. That’s how almost everybody ended up here. Not all of them, mind you, but a lot.”

“Did you get burned?”

JJ looked at his feet and crossed his arms over his chest. Robbie felt a momentary urge to giggle at the fact that they were having such a serious conversation buck naked. But he pushed it down. He didn’t really want to laugh.

“No, not like that anyway. But I wanted to take care of people who had.”

Robbie wanted to ask more but kept his mouth shut.

“But then there’s the kind of mates everyone dreams about,” JJ went on, turning to look at Robbie now. “The kind that exists on a whole different level. Every single thing about them is meant just for you. You’re like those puzzle blocks that slot together perfectly. You shore up each other’s weak spots and shine light on the strong spots. You are perfect for one another on a cellular level.”

“So it’s fate? Fated mates?”

“My grandma used to call them that. But I don’t like the term because it makes it seem inevitable. Like you don’t have a choice when, really, you have every choice in the world. Nothing bad will happen to you if you don’t choose them. Hell, you may never even meet them.”