Mates: Prequel (Claws Clause 0)

Maddox wanted to grab her. He held himself back, careful to stay in control. If she got scared, it would fucking kill him and his wolf. “I’m sorry about that, but it’s true.”

She shook her head, long dark hair cascading down her back. “What’s true?”

“You’re so much better than me,” Maddox said honestly. “Not because you’re human and I’m a shifter. Nothing ridiculous like that. But because you’re you, you’re Evangeline, and I couldn’t have gotten any luckier than to get to know you. We’re in this together, you and me. And, okay, maybe I didn’t do the best job pretending to be a human. I just hated the fear scent—”

“Fear scent?”

Whoops. Not what he meant to say. “Forget it.”

A tiny wrinkle formed in Evangeline’s brow. “Are you talking about that day in the park? Because, except for how you caught me off guard, I don’t think I’ve ever been afraid of you.”

“Wait—you knew?” Maddox spent weeks pretending to be human because he was afraid his true identity would send her bolting and, all along… “You knew that was me?”

“I guessed,” Evangeline admitted. “You seemed so familiar the first time we met after that, but it took me a minute to put two and two together. You gotta admit, you’re a memorable guy, Maddox. I thought it might’ve been you.”

“So you knew I was a shifter all along?”

“Not until your eyes just prove it. I mean, I guessed, but I didn’t know for sure. Now I do.”

Maddox was waiting for the other shoe to drop. When it didn’t, he prodded her. “And?”

“And what?”

His heart thumped frantically against his ribcage. It took every ounce of strength he had to keep his voice calm as he said, “Does it change anything? You know, between us?”

“Is it supposed to?”

“I don’t know.”

“Be serious, Mad. You being a shifter doesn’t change a thing for me. Look, I had a witch for a friend when I was growing up. I work with a Dayborn vamp. Kyle’s got the cubicle next to mine. So my boyfriend is a shifter--”

“A wolf,” he found himself supplying.

“—a wolf shifter,” Evangeline amended. “That doesn’t change how I feel about you.”

The relief slamming into Maddox nearly had him dropping to his knees. It didn’t matter. She didn’t care. He spent all that time pretending to be something he wasn’t and all for nothing, because Evangeline accepted him for what he was.

At that thought, Maddox gulped. Good feeling? Gone.

Just because Evangeline didn’t care that he was a Para, that didn’t mean anything when his paranormal status wasn’t the only thing he’d been keeping from her.

And it had everything to do with how casually she called him her boyfriend.

Boyfriend. Not mate.

Because she didn’t know.

“You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say thing. But, well, there’s something else you gotta know, now that you know the truth.”

Her bright green eyes dimmed suddenly. The humor fled, leaving only wariness in its wake, almost as if she’d been expecting him to say something like that.

“And what’s that?” she asked.

“What’s what?”

“The truth. What’s the truth?” She bit her bottom lip. “There’s a reason you hid being a shifter, isn’t there?”

Of course there was. When she seemed so pleased to call him out on it, he thought she understood.