Page 43 of Found Objects

“Yes, you do. Obviously, he wanted you to know he saw you. And we both know he thought you were exquisite.”

Her humph of annoyance wasn’t fooling me.

“If he wasn’t captivated by your beauty, you would have never heard him.”

“So you say,” she replied, not believing a word.

“Fine, I’ll see you whenever you get back.”

She got up like she was boneless, the movement so sensual and graceful that I couldn’t help but smile.

“What?”

“You are a wondrous creature.”

“I keep telling you that.”

I nodded.

“You know, I myself would make an exceptional mate for your wolf if he loved women,” she told me as she turned at the back door. “I’d kill anyone who dared touch him.”

“You’re too fickle. He needs someone steady. Nothing holds your interest for long, we both know that. Cole lost both his parents, and now he’s everything to his little brother.”

“Which is another of the many reasons he lists for himself why he fears taking over the pack,” she said. “Because that burden then falls on his brother as his newly minted beta.”

“That’s true. I didn’t think of that.”

“I heard him tell you that there is no beta now.”

“Abel himself had to have been Anson’s beta, Cole’s father, which allowed him to step up into power when his brother died.”

“Yes.”

“I wonder why there isn’t one now?”

“It sounds like there were only the two brothers,” she said. “As you know, normally the alpha would have either his brother or sister at his side as his second. But now, Justin can’t be his beta because he’s his heir, and he can’t make Cole his beta, because then when he died, the pack would simply be returned to the original lineage.”

I shrugged. “It’s none of my business. I doubt Cole and I will even be friends.”

“But you want to be,” she whispered huskily. “You crave dominance, and that man is dying to make you submit. He’s absolutely vibrating with it.”

“Go swim,” I groused at her.

“It’s interesting that, as fearsome a creature as you are, that your desire to belong to another in all ways lives deep in your soul.”

“Oh I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.”

Ondine was chuckling when she opened the back door that led down toward the ravine that ran behind the house.

“What’s so funny?”

“Earlier, you didn’t correct me when I called him your wolf.”

As usual, she didn’t have the decency to wait so I could yell at her, but I could still hear her laughing for several more minutes as she took her time sauntering away from the house. Sometimes having preternatural hearing was not a blessing.

I was restless, and every time I was certain I had Cole Swann completely out of my head, he popped right back in. I knew better than to give unsolicited advice, even when following it was in someone’s best interest. Because honestly, the problem wasn’t him falling for me, it was me falling for him. I was endless, he was not. What was the point of love for a creature like me? I had mourned the loss of every human friend I’d ever had, and each one had gutted me. But I’d also watched when they lost those they loved, seen them grieving with all their hearts and minds and bodies, and their pain was visceral and overwhelming. I wasn’t brave enough to love like that.

As the hours dragged by after Cole left, I worked hard to distract myself from thinking about the gorgeous man I could have taken to bed. I did that first by trying to read, then by readying the inventory sheets for the yearly horror of counting napkin packs and rolls of paper towels, and when nothing worked, I finally decided that I would open up my laptop and deal with something I truly dreaded: payroll.