Page 204 of Pucking Feral: Part Two

Exactly.

I exhale through my nose and my fingers drift to the thin scar on my temple before I can stop them. The one she gave me. The raised line beneath my fingertips is familiar now, mapped by touch a hundred times in the dark while I tried to make sense of why I was so happy it left such a prominent scar.

Every other scar on my body was put there by someone who wanted to destroy me. This one was put there by…

My mate.

Fuck.

I turn back to the fridge to pretend to look for something else so I don't have to look at Wraith's signs anymore, but he's already gone.

Perhaps that's what I'll do on my date with Ivy, if she's expecting it from everyone else.

Perhaps I'll show her the truth about me.

Chapter 43

Ivy

Thane's driving me into the woods.

Not in a murdery way. More in a… well, okay, the road is a single narrow lane through old-growth pines that tunnel over the car in absolute darkness, and there are no streetlights, and the only hint of a phone signal I have right now is a little satellite icon instead of bars.

So… maybe a little murdery.

But I trust Thane. It's kind of exciting, actually.

"How much further?" I ask.

"Almost there."

"You've said that twice."

"And I'll say it again." His mouth twitches. "Almost there."

The trees thin and the road opens up into a clearing so perfectly round it looks like someone stamped it out of the forest floor. The grass is pressed flat by tire tracks that spiral out from a central gravel lot, leading to cars parked in loose rows in front of a massive white screen mounted at the far edge of the clearing between two poles.

A drive-in.

An actual, old-school drive-in theater in a forest clearing in the middle of nowhere, late at night.

I crane toward the windshield, scanning the fairy lights strung along the edges of the lot, just enough glow to see without affecting the screen. Above us, every single star in the night sky is out in full force. Not a cloud to be seen.

"Thane," I breathe.

"Too much?"

"Are you kidding me?"

He pulls into a spot near the back row, angled slightly so the screen fills the windshield. I catch silhouettes of the others in their cars. Couples, mostly. It's impossible to see much in the cars.

Nobody gives a shit about us.

Nobody even looks.

We're just another car in a forest full of strangers.

"How did you even find this place?" I ask, still staring.