Page 42 of Tempting Fate

Chapter Eighteen

Patch

I shift back only once I’m sure Em is far, far away. I make sure I’m not in the middle of the street when I do it, too, because the last thing I want to do is get hauled in for public indecency.

That pull I felt when I first saw Em is even stronger now. Even the fact that he was scared does nothing to dampen my mood. He saw my wolf. For a moment, he recognised me, and he’s human, which I’d have said before tonight would make that an impossible feat.

I breathe in deeply. His scent is gone now, carried away by the wind, but I fancy I can still catch a hint of it. I drag my T-shirt over my head and realise I’m grinning.

My mate saw my wolf.

Flynn is still awake when I burst back into the flat. He’s sprawled out over the sofa and he lifts his head, blinking at me blearily. “Thought you were never coming back.”

“You don’t have to wait up. It was just a run.”

“What if something happened?” Flynn yawns and mutes the TV. “Good for someone to keep an eye out, right?”

I nod. I don’t know what about the movement gives me away, but Flynn sits up a little straighter.

“What happened?” he asks.

“What makes you think something happened?”

“Because you look like the fucking cat that got the cream. Spill. I wanna go to bed.”

“Go to bed, then.”

“Patch.”

“I saw Em.”

“What, tonight? Now?” Flynn nearly falls off the sofa as he attempts to get up, flailing around a little until he’s standing. “When you were shifted, or—”

“Yes.”

“Fuck.” Only when I see the horror on his face does the reality of the situation dawn on me. “Have they told him, then? Does he know?”

“Uh, no.”

“Patch—” Flynn lowers his voice to an irritated hiss. “This is bad.”

“He’s my mate.”

“Yeah, but he… What did he even do when he saw a fucking wolf in the middle of London?”

I flinch. Flynn narrows his eyes. “Ran off.”

“Fuck.”

“It’s not… It’s not that bad. He won’t tell anyone.” And if he does, it’ll likely be Jamie, who knows anyway. I think.

“What if he does? What if he’s ringing someone about it right now?”

Cate. His friend. Em could tell her, I suppose. But then he’ll probably have to do that anyway, should everything work out between us.

Another thought occurs to me, one much more horrifying. What if Em takes the whole thing as well as Nick did? Even now, Nick doesn’t spend much time with anyone who isn’t human, Dax being perhaps the only exception. What if I tell Em and he’s still scared?

“You have to talk to him tomorrow,” Flynn says. “I mean it. Dress it up however you want, but you need to find out who he’s spoken to.”