It didn’t count as hunting. Not that I was complaining. I didn’t think Gordo would appreciate dead animals at the shop.
There was a note in an envelope.
It said Shut up. This totally counts as hunting.
I sighed again.
“Ox,” Gordo said.
I said, “So. Mates are a thing, huh?”
And he said, “Ox.”
“YOU’RE JUST a child!” he shouted at me later after the others had gone home. It’d been building all day.
I said, “I’m twenty-three years old, Gordo. I haven’t been a child in a very long time.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Do you even know what this means? What you’ve agreed to? This is for life. When the wolf attaches, it is for life.”
“I know.” Thomas had told me. I might have had a minor meltdown, but that was yesterday. Today was different.
“And you still agreed? Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“Funny,” I said. “I thought this was my life. Not yours.”
He started to pace in front of me. “How the fuck am I supposed to protect you if you keep doing these things to yourself?”
“I can protect myself. I don’t need you or anyone else to do that for me.”
“Bullshit. You know I need—” He cut himself off with a growl.
“You need me. I know.”
“That’s not what I was going to say.” He slammed his palm against the desk.
“Gordo.”
“Fuck off, Ox.”
“He’s going to be the Alpha one day.”
“I don’t care.”
I pushed on anyway. “He’s going to need a witch.”
He reeled like I’d struck him. “Don’t. Don’t you dare.”
“What the hell happened to you?” I demanded. “Why do you
hate them so much?”
He laughed bitterly. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It does if you’re always going to be like this. Look, I know you’re worried about me. That’s what you do. But you have to trust me. I already have enough doubts as it is. I can’t have them from you too. I need you, man. To have my back.”
He pounced on those words, of course. “Doubts? Then why are you even doing this?”
I said, “Not about him. About me. What if I’m not good enough for him? What if I can’t be what he’s going to need?”