My mate didn’t want me.
Well, what she didn’t know is that I would fight for her. No matter what it took, I wasn’t giving up—not yet.
The little diner in the middle of town was quaint. It was covered in halloween decorations—despite it still being almost a month away—but I supposed that was part of the charm. It felt like the entire town was here, crowded into booths and chatting at tables.
It also seemed like everyone was looking at us.
But maybe they were all just staring at the beauty across the table from me, who didn’t seem to realize just how gorgeous she was.
Her short copper hair had dried into loose waves, and she’d pulled on a pair of dark jeans with those boots she seemed to wear, along with a cream colored turtleneck. Her earrings were a pair of shooting stars. I’d stared at her collection in her room—she had dozens of pairs, all different dangly earrings, that she seemed to rotate her way through. I wasn’t sure I’d seen her repeat a pair yet.
What did I look like, sitting across from her? Luckily, the jeans and gray henley she’d found for me fit, and the coat, while on the larger side, wasn’t too shabby. They didn’t smell quite right, but I was trying to ignore that fact, knowing my shifter senses were sharper than the average humans. She hadn’t even attempted to find a pair of shoes, not wanting to guess my size, so we’d stopped at the secondhand store before heading into thediner. I wiggled my toes in the pair of work boots I’d found, thankful they were decently broken in.
“What attacked you?” Eryne asked once again, after we’d ordered our food.
At least this time, we could have this conversation while fully clothed.
It had been hard to pay attention earlier. Waking up next to my mate, my body reacted, and it had been hard to control it. Even though I’d hated when she’d left, it had been the right call.
It was too soon to touch her.
She barely even knew what I was.
“I don’t know,” I said, even though I had my suspicions. I wanted to protect her—the worst thing that could happen was her getting in the middle of it and getting hurt. Plus, if I had to leave her soon, I didn’t want to leave my mate unprotected. I’d been sent here for a reason, and I still had to finish my mission.
She raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know?”
I shook my head. “I told you, my memories of the night of the attack are all jumbled. It was unexpected.” I remembered her, her scent, her soothing voice. But the actual incident was nothing more than disjointed flashes of information.
“But…” her voice dropped to a whisper. “Those wereteethmarks, weren’t they?”
My wounds ached at the thought of the being ripping into my skin. I’d seen things she couldn’t even imagine. I changed the subject, not wanting to talk about that feeling of cold, of emptiness. “You mentioned demons before, right? If you don’t know about shifters, how do you know about demons?”
I’d met a few demons in my time, and they were smart. Cunning. Capable of deceit on scales humans couldn’t even comprehend.
Eryne bit her lower lip. “My boss—Willow, the one who gave me the healing potions for you—she fell in love with a demonlast year. His name is Damien. He’s not abaddemon though. He’s a good guy. Loves Willow. They’re expecting their first baby together.”
My eyes widened. “They are?” That was… something.
“They’re soul mates,” she offered, tapping her fingers on the table. “It’s hard to argue with fate, don’t you think?”
If only you knew.
“That still doesn’t answer my question about how you didn’t know shifters existed.”
Eryne pinched the spot between her eyebrow. “It’s like, you know, growing up, how your parents tell you tales about all the things that go bump in the night to scare you into being a good kid? Because they want you to be scared of the monsters under your bed so you don’t act out?”
“Sure.”
“We had stories. Legends. But they were just that. Until Damien and his brother showed up, this town has been a sanctuary for witches for the hundreds of years. The only people who can come here are witches, for our own safety. The wards were supposed to be impenetrable.” Eryne frowned at me. “How didyouget through, anyway?”
I shrugged. “Must be weakening.” Though that was only part of my theory.
She furrowed her brow, but continued on. “Our elders taught us that these other beings—demons, vampires,werewolves—were ghost stories. Things to be feared, sure, but not something any of us ever expected to come face to face with. I guess we just took it at face value since it seemed so far fetched. None of us had ever seen any of those things, so of course it wasn’t true. And yet…” She gestured towards me.
“And yet it is,” I concluded. “I’m not a werewolf, though. Just a shifter.”
My little healer scrunched up her nose. “What’s the difference, exactly?”
