“Because of what she is?”
“No.” Hugh leaned back against the old stone walls of the pub with a sigh, tension draining out of his shoulders at last. “Because of what I am.”
Ash’s eyebrows drew down, very slightly. “I do not follow.”
Hugh gestured at his own forehead. “You know my…handicap?”
Hugh had been forced to tell Ash the real reason for his migraines, around the time that Griff had met his mate. The Fire Commander had needed to know, since Hugh’s issues with the unchaste had started to affect his ability to work as closely with the team.
Ash blinked, which for him was a rare display of extreme surprise. “Your sensitivities extend even to your mate? Her touch would cause you pain?”
Hugh’s mouth twisted. “It’s worse than that. Let’s just say that there’s more than one reason why there aren’t many of my kind.”
Unicorns had been hunted nearly to extinction during medieval times. As far as most shifters knew, they were extinct. But even before they’d been targeted for their horns, they’d never been numerous.
A unicorn could mate…but only at a terrible cost.
It would be worth it, his unicorn said softly, in the depths of his soul.
Hugh shook his head free of the ridiculous thought. He absently rubbed his left bicep, tracing the lines of ink hidden under his sleeve.
“I can’t have a mate, Ash,” he said. “And that’s why I don’t want the rest of the team to know about her. The damn idiots would never let it go. I wouldn’t be able to explain without revealing what I am.”
Ash was silent for a moment. “Even if you are unable to…there are other ways of showing love.”
“You think I haven’t thought of that?” Hugh snapped. “Could you be around your true mate, every day, unable to claim her?”
Ash’s gaze flicked sideways, to the closed door of the pub. “It is preferable to never seeing her at all.”
“No, it’s not,” Hugh said. “Better to cut her off cleanly, rather than torment us both with something we can never have.”
“I thought that too, once,” Ash said, very quietly. “But you will find that it is not so easily done.”
Hugh looked at him, raising an eyebrow. “You sound like you’re speaking from experience.”
The hint of human warmth in Ash’s face fled, his expression hardening back into its usual impassive lines. “I was merely referring to John and Griff. They too attempted to deny their mates. You know how successful they were.”
“I’m not them. I’m used to dealing with constant pain.” Hugh straightened, setting his shoulders. “And I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my mate. Even from me.”
Chapter 5
“I’m not going.” Hope’s bottom lip stuck out like a toddler about to throw a tantrum.
Ivy dumped an armload of clothes into the duffel bag lying open on the bed. “Yes you are.”
“We can’t run away again!” Hope swiveled her wheelchair, blocking Ivy’s path as she headed for the dresser again. “Not now, when things are finally looking up! We’ve got a nice apartment, you’ve got a job, I’m doing well at school, I’ve got friends—“
“Yeah, well, you should have thought of all that before you decided to snuggle up to a shifter crime boss, shouldn’t you?” Ivy said. “Move out of the way.”
“I didn’t know that’s what Gaze was!” Hope didn’t budge. “As far as I knew, he was a nice guy. I looked him up on Facebook! He has a charity helping out homeless shifter kids!”
Ivy snorted. “No, he has a tax-deductible scam that supplies him with brainwashed foot soldiers for his little mafia. Obviously. Why can’t you ever think?”
“Oh, yes, because that’s clearly the reasoning process of a well-balanced and healthy mind,” Hope snapped back. “Excuse me for not wanting to live my entire life like a paranoid sociopath.”
“You’re only alive because I look out for you!” Ivy kicked Hope’s wheelchair out of the way with one booted foot, regardless of her sister’s squawk of outrage. “And if we want to stay alive, we have to clear out. Right now. Tonight.”
Hope’s battered wheelchair jammed as she tried to reverse out of the corner. It hadn’t been in great shape even before it had been dropped down an elevator. Now one of the axles was bent, and kept sticking unpredictably.